King Solomon's Mines (1950)

Stewart Granger: Allan Quatermain

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Quotes 

• Allan Quatermain : Mrs. Curtis, the average life of a man in my profession is approximately eight years. Now, I've been at it for fifteen, so you see, I've been living on borrowed time. My wife died here six years ago. Sooner or later, an animal, or an unfriendly native, or a tropical disease will get me. I have a son in England. There'll be very little money for him if anything should happen to me in the ORDINARY course of events, but the money you're offering would provide very nicely for the boy until he's old enough to take care of himself.

• Allan Quatermain : I think I ought to warn you - you've come on a hopeless errand.

  Elizabeth Curtis : My brother told me your reasons. There was one argument he neglected to use.

  Allan Quatermain : Oh, what was that?

  Elizabeth Curtis : Money.

  Allan Quatermain : It's a very good argument.

  Elizabeth Curtis : I'm willing to pay anything - beyond reason, of course.

  Allan Quatermain : Why are you so determined to go on with this? I can understand your planning it before you knew its dangers, but now... your brother must have told you.

  Elizabeth Curtis : Are you sure you're not exaggerating the dangers? With proper equipment and your services, we should be able to manage. I'm not afraid.

  Allan Quatermain : Your courage does you no credit, Mrs. Curtis. It's the result of ignorance.

  Elizabeth Curtis : What is your usual fee for a safari, Mr. Quatermain?

  Allan Quatermain : Oh, two hundred pounds and all expenses. I wouldn't undertake this one for five hundred.

  Elizabeth Curtis : Would you for five thousand?

• Allan Quatermain : There are no souls in the jungle. Very little justice and no ethics. And in the end, you begin to accept it all. You watch things hunting and being hunted. Reproducing, killing and dying. It's all endless and pointless. Except, in the end, one small pattern emerges from it all. The only certainty. One is born, one lives for a time, and one dies. That's all.

• Allan Quatermain : Stupid waste, this safari. All of it! Half our supplies gone after that all-night stampede. Wasted! Waste of time, supplies, and lives.

  Elizabeth Curtis : [Glares at him, too sleepy to argue] 

  Allan Quatermain : [Sarcastic]  Well, I hope the lady enjoyed it!

  Elizabeth Curtis : [Ignores him] 

• Elizabeth Curtis : What are you doing?

  Allan Quatermain : [unbuttoning Elizabeth's jacket and blouse]  Mrs. Curtis, out here, perspiration's got to be given time to evaporate, or you won't last two hours and you're sealed up like a tin of pears. Khiva, get that box! This may be the costume for shooting pheasant in Sussex, but it won't do here. Now, go behind those bushes and change.

  [patting Elizabeth's side] 

  Allan Quatermain : Take off those corsets!

  Elizabeth Curtis : Impertinent, wretched man. To think I would just - terrible. Unbearable behavior! Really!

• Elizabeth Curtis : Lovely, isn't it? It has a sort of majesty. A feeling of forever.

  Allan Quatermain : Forever's quite correct.

  John Goode : Looks completely peaceful.

  Elizabeth Curtis : It isn't.

  Allan Quatermain : It's been tearing its own thread for a million years. In this one small area here, there are a thousand creatures: living, reproducing, killing, being killed, eating, being eaten. There's not a square inch that doesn't have war if you look for it.

• Allan Quatermain : There isn't a creature in the forest that isn't hunted by something else. Except the elephant. They're all afraid of him. He's king.

  John Goode : The elephant, not the lion?

  Allan Quatermain : No, no. Not the lion. Not in Africa. He's not brave enough or clever enough. Elephant's the king.

  John Goode : And man?

  Allan Quatermain : He's just meat like everything else.

• Allan Quatermain : This is where the fun begins.

• Allan Quatermain : It's occurred to me that since your husband's body was never found, you can't inherit his money until you prove that he's dead. That could be the reason for this visit.

  Elizabeth Curtis : One of the reasons my husband went looking for that diamond mine was a possibly foolish hope of finding a fortune of his own. You see, I hold all the wealth there is in the family.

  Allan Quatermain : Well, then, I still don't understand.

  Elizabeth Curtis : What? That I'd be willing to risk my life for my husband?

  Allan Quatermain : That you're proposing to throw it away. That's not normal. It has a smell of sickness about it.

  Elizabeth Curtis : I happen to love my husband. Perhaps, that's an emotion that you are incapable of understanding.

  Allan Quatermain : Perhaps.

  Elizabeth Curtis : Perhaps, you've never known a woman truly in love.

  Allan Quatermain : Perhaps, but I have known people who make elaborate sacrifices for reasons they themselves don't quite understand. Sometimes, it's to expiate a feeling of guilt. Sometimes, it's...

  Elizabeth Curtis : If I were you, I'd examine my OWN motives, Mr. Quatermain. A man who doesn't care whether he lives or dies is not exactly a wholesome specimen. I'm risking my life for a man I love. You're doing it for money.

  Allan Quatermain : Mrs...

  Elizabeth Curtis : No, no, no, not your son. There are things you can do for him other than toss your life away. What's YOUR sickness, Mr. Quatermain? Nothing to live for?

• Allan Quatermain : This sort of thing is constantly being peddled to greenhorns from Timbuktu to Johannesburg.

  John Goode : You may be right. Henry said he bought the original of the map to King Solomon's Mines from an Arab trader who claimed it was 400 years old.

• Allan Quatermain : Any woman who wants to traipse through the jungle must have something the matter with her.

• Allan Quatermain : A woman? A woman on safari? No, thank you!

• Allan Quatermain : This safari is not child's play, Mr. Goode, especially with a - well, shall we say an overwrought woman.

• John Goode : That was a close call.

  Allan Quatermain : No, not really. They're not dangerous unless hungry.

  Elizabeth Curtis : Well, how do you know when they're hungry?

  Allan Quatermain : Well, if they eat you, they're hungry.

• Allan Quatermain : That's either a speech of welcome or an announcement of our imminent death.

• Allan Quatermain : The only way out of this is... suffocation.

• Allan Quatermain : [looking at a map]  The Kaluana country lies there. You'd have difficulty getting even that far. Then where would you go? Thousands and thousands of square miles where no white man has been and even the natives are afraid to go in.

• Allan Quatermain : I can't give you any information other than he asked me to go with him, and I declined. He was tracking down some queer legend.

• Allan Quatermain : King Solomon's Mines! The Flying Dutchman! Captain Kidd's treasure!

• Elizabeth Curtis : She's enchanting. She's a charmer.

  Allan Quatermain : She knows it. And she makes use of it.

• John Goode : I'm wondering what made you change your mind? I didn't know Elizabeth could be all that persuasive.

  Allan Quatermain : There's something very persuasive about 5000 pounds.

• Allan Quatermain : I'm a hunter, not an explorer.

• John Goode : How long will it take us to get there?

  Allan Quatermain : Weeks. Months, perhaps. I don't know. I've never taken a woman on safari with me before.

  Elizabeth Curtis : Have I been a handicap?

  Allan Quatermain : Why, no, Mrs. Curtis, but the fun hasn't started yet.

  Elizabeth Curtis : When it does, I'm sure we'll *all* enjoy it.

• Elizabeth Curtis : What's that?

  Allan Quatermain : Yeey saba? Oh, that's a game the natives play. It doesn't make sense. It's quite pointless. A chases B, B chases C, C chases A. Then they turn around and go the other way and make a big fuss about trying to get things away from each other. Bits of nothing. Twigs and leaves. It's quite senseless. Except that the fellow who is here has satisfied his desire to be over there, everybody's had fun running after something, everybody's grabbed a handful of stuff that they wanted because everybody else wanted them. And, well, it's endless. It's quite pointless. It's a silly game, yeey saba.

• Allan Quatermain : It's all right now, it's all over. It seems we're going to live.