The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Raymond Shaw : I've got a job on a newspaper. Research assistant to Mr Holborn Gaines.

Mrs. Iselin : Holborn Gaines? That Communist?

Raymond Shaw : He's not a Communist, Mother. As a matter of fact, he's a Republican.

Mrs. Iselin : [at meal time] I'm sorry, hon'. Would it really make it easier for you if we settled on just one number?

Sen. John Yerkes Iselin : Yeah. Just one, real, simple number that'd be easy for me to remember.

[Mrs. Iselin watches her husband thump a bottle of Heinz Tomato Ketchup onto his plate]

Sen. John Yerkes Iselin : [addressing the Senate] There are exactly 57 card-carrying members of the Communist Party in the Department of Defense at this time!

Mrs. Iselin : Why don't you pass the time by playing a little solitaire?

Mrs. Iselin : It has been decided that you will be dressed as a priest, to help you get away in the pandemonium afterwards. Chunjin will give you a two-piece Soviet Army sniper's rifle that fits nicely into a special bag. There's a spotlight booth that won't be in use. It's up under the roof on the Eighth Avenue side of the Garden. You will have absolutely clear, protected shooting. You are to shoot the presidential nominee through the head. And Johnny will rise gallantly to his feet and lift Ben Arthur's body in his arms, stand in front of the microphones and begin to speak. The speech is short. But it's the most rousing speech I've ever read. It's been worked on, here and in Russia, on and off, for over eight years. I shall force someone to take the body away from him and Johnny will really hit those microphones and those cameras with blood all over him, fighting off anyone who tries to help him, defending America even if it means his own death, rallying a nation of television viewers to hysteria, to sweep us up into the White House with powers that will make martial law seem like anarchy! Now, this is very important. I want the nominee to be dead two minutes after he begins his acceptance speech - depending on his reading time under pressure. You are to hit him right at the point that he finishes the phrase, "Nor would I ask of any fellow American in defense of his freedom that which I would not gladly give myself - my life before my liberty." Is that absolutely clear?

Mrs. Iselin : I know you will never entirely comprehend this, Raymond, but you must believe I did not know it would be you. I served them. I fought for them. I'm on the point of winning for them the greatest foothold they would ever have in this country. And they paid me back by taking your soul away from you. I told them to build me an assassin. I wanted a killer from a world filled with killers and they chose you because they thought it would bind me closer to them.

[Puts her hands on Raymond's face]

Mrs. Iselin : But now, we have come almost to the end. One last step. And then when I take power, they will be pulled down and ground into dirt for what they did to you. And what they did in so contemptuously underestimating me.

[Kisses Raymond on the forehead, then his cheek, then on his lips]

Mrs. Iselin : [to her husband] I keep telling you not to think! You're very, very good at a great many things, but thinking, hon', just simply isn't one of them.

Mrs. Iselin : [cordially, at a party the Iselins are giving] How good of you to come, Tom.

Sen. Thomas Jordan : [matter-of-fact, rather than cordial] I've explained to your husband why I'm here.

Mrs. Iselin : Tom, I know you have strong, personal feelings about Johnny and about me. But, what I would like to find out is, how strong they really are. To put it as simply as possible, If Johnny's name were to be put forward at the convention next week, would you attempt to block him?

Sen. Thomas Jordan : [taken slightly aback] You're joking, of course?

Mrs. Iselin : Mr. Stevenson makes jokes, I do not.

Sen. Thomas Jordan : You're seriously trying for the nomination for Johnny?

Mrs. Iselin : No, we couldn't make it. But he has a good chance for the second spot. Now, I've answered your question, but you haven't answered mine. Will you block us?

Sen. Thomas Jordan : Would I block you? I would spend every cent I own, and all I could borrow, to block you. There are people who think of Johnny as a clown and a buffoon, but I do not. I despise John Iselin and everything that Iselinism has come to stand for. I think, if John Iselin were a paid Soviet agent, he could not do more to harm this country than he's doing now. You have asked me a question. Very well, I shall answer you. If you attempt a deal with the delegates, or cause Johnny's name to be brought forward on the ticket, or if, in my canvass of the delegates tomorrow morning, I find that you are so acting, I will bring impeachment proceedings against your husband on the floor of the United States Senate. And I will hit him, I promise you, with everything in my well-documented book.

Mrs. Iselin : [Mrs. Iselin leaves without a word, the discussion clearly over, for the present]

Mrs. Iselin : Oh, Raymond, what is the matter with you? You look as if your head were going to come to a point in the next thirteen seconds.

Mrs. Iselin : Raymond, I'm your mother. How can you talk to me this way? You know that I want nothing for myself. You know that my whole life has been devoted to helping you...

Raymond Shaw : [Balls his fists and jams them over his ears] Mother...

Mrs. Iselin : And helping Johnny!

Raymond Shaw : Mother...

Mrs. Iselin : My boys!

Raymond Shaw : Mother...

Mrs. Iselin : My two boys!

Raymond Shaw : Mother, stop it.

Mrs. Iselin : That's all I've ever cared about.

Raymond Shaw : Stop it.