Magnet of Doom (1963)

Jean-Paul Belmondo: Michel Maudet

Photos 

Quotes 

• [first lines] 

  Michel Maudet : My name is Michel Maudet. I guess. Back then, I was a boxer. Or more precisely, trying to become one.

• Dieudonné Ferchaux : I'm a skeptic by nature. I don't believe a word you said. But I don't care. You're hired. Morel handles business for me and is a real shyster. But I don't care. He has an honest face. Faces are important. I like yours. What did you say your name was?

  Michel Maudet : Michel Maudet.

• M. Andrei : Europe is no longer safe. War, revolution, communism. There's Switzerland - but they extradite.

  Michel Maudet : And Venezuela?

  M. Andrei : They don't extradite.

• Dieudonné Ferchaux : They're all the same. When thy have to give back the money you've entrusted to them, it's like ripping out their hearts. Bankers are such hypocrites.

  Michel Maudet : What about you? You were a banker in Paris.

  Dieudonné Ferchaux : So what? I was like them.

• Michel Maudet : [voice over]  We left New York. Ferchaux preferred to drive to avoid airport ID checks. Before heading south, I had something to do. I wanted to see the birthplace of a little American whose poor, Italian-immigrant parents lived in Hoboken. I felt, and I still feel, close, similar to that little American, who has grown up since then. This projection is due to my own Italian origins. But also because he was very ambitious, and I couldn't accept being only what I was. This was the house. The little girl who gazed at Ferchaux and me probably didn't know she was in the room where Frank Sinatra was born on Monroe Street.

• Dieudonné Ferchaux : There are three kinds of men.

  Michel Maudet : Which are?

  Dieudonné Ferchaux : Sheep, leopards and jackals.

• Michel Maudet : Couldn't we have settled in a less rotten country?

  Dieudonné Ferchaux : Not yet. We'll see about that later. I can't leave this country until I've gotten my money from my New York account.

• Dieudonné Ferchaux : Don't talk to me that way. You take advantage of my affection for you.

  Michel Maudet : Your affection consists of chaining me up in a corner.

  Dieudonné Ferchaux : Why say such things?

  Michel Maudet : Because it's the truth and you know it.

• Michel Maudet : [voice over]  That night, I decided to skip out and check out New Orleans and it's streetcar named Desire.

• Lou : Are you really French?

  Michel Maudet : Yes.

  Lou : Incredible! While I was dancing, I looked at you and thought, "What a strange American. He looks at girls like a Frenchman."

• Lou : What will you have to drink?

  B.A.N.C. Waiter : We have wonderful champagne. The best!

  Michel Maudet : French champagne?

  B.A.N.C. Waiter : No, sir. California.

  Michel Maudet : So, two whiskeys.

• Michel Maudet : I fear I'm wasting your time.

  Lou : These days I never waste my time.

• Michel Maudet : [voice over]  I drank many other whiskeys. I was on a solitary tour of a land of darkness.

• Jeff : Haven't been to see the geezer, I suppose?

  Michel Maudet : No. And I'm not going to.

  Jeff : And we think women are cruel!

• Michel Maudet : For the headache, give me a double scotch.

• Dieudonné Ferchaux : Did you find what you were looking for out there?

  Michel Maudet : Perhaps.

  Dieudonné Ferchaux : Now we're used to each other. Our relationship, our fights, are like those of an old couple who are no longer in love but who can't live without each other.

• Dieudonné Ferchaux : Not you!

  Michel Maudet : Why not me, after all? Isn't it the logical ending?

  Dieudonné Ferchaux : Brutus kills Caesar. Not Brutus, but Maudet.

  Michel Maudet : And you, old fool, you still think you're Caesar?