Arabesque (1966)

Gregory Peck: Prof. David Pollock

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Quotes 

• David Pollock : Follow that car!

  Taxi Driver : All my life I have waited for somebody to say that!

• David Pollock : There's nothing like a little kidnapping now and then to keep the circulation going.

• Major Sylvester Pennington Sloane : May I have a word with you please Professor Pollock?

  David Pollock : Well... if it's about that small outstanding bill at the bookstore there is a simple explanation: Poverty.

  Major Sylvester Pennington Sloane : No, it's nothing like that.

  David Pollock : Oh, in that case, how do you do?

• David Pollock : I'll meet you in Knightsbridge at the Kelly Hotel. I'm registered there under the name of O'Malley.

  Yasmin Azir : [confused]  'O'Malley'?

  David Pollock : Yeah, there's a discount if you're Irish.

• Yasmin Azir : [At the races, both dressed up posh]  Well, if it isn't Mr. Dillingham.

  David Pollock : By Jove, it's actually Lady Hetherington-Cartwright.

  Yasmin Azir : Don't overdo it.

  David Pollock : I didn't know you could.

• Yasmin Azir : Are you burning it?

  David Pollock : That's how you detect invisible ink. Weren't you ever in the Boy Scouts?

  Yasmin Azir : I flunked - the physical.

  David Pollock : Should have tried my troop, we'd have waived it.

• David Pollock : Very well sir, where would you like me to be murdered this time?

• Yasmin Azir : You've got to listen to me!

  David Pollock : Boy, every time I try to listen to you someone either hits me over the head or tries to vaccinate me.

• Beshraavi : [Offering Pollock a small platter of dried dates]  Take a date, Mr. Pollock, as a gesture of friendship. I'm a very Arabian Arab, I'm afraid.

  David Pollock : [Takes a date, then offers one to the falcon]  Friends?

  Beshraavi : Flesh, Mr. Pollock. Hassan eats only flesh.

  David Pollock : I thought he looked at it wistfully.

  Beshraavi : It must have been your fingers.

• David Pollock : Let us through! That man's about to be killed!

  Policeman : I hardly think so, sir. This is England!

• David Pollock : Those stairs must lead somewhere.

  Yasmin Azir : Are you sure?

  David Pollock : If they don't, watch out for the last one!

• Webster : That cipher, *where is it*?

  David Pollock : Ask me later alligator.

  Webster : *Where is it*?

  David Pollock : I left it at Beshraavi's. After all, it belongs to him.

  Yussef Kasim : Wrong again teach. He snatched it. Belongs to this cat right here. Now where is it?

  David Pollock : Miss Azir, after all we've been through together couldn't you find it in your heart to put in a small word on my behalf?

  Yasmin Azir : He told me he had it in his pocket.

  David Pollock : [shaking head]  Tattle tale.

• David Pollock : If I could find my head, I'd go get it examined.

• David Pollock : I couldn't let you die without hearing the end of your story!

• David Pollock : [Giving instructions to the driver of a large truck which is blocking the road]  All right, mate. Lots of room, lots of room. That's it. Keep on going. Lots of leeway back there.

  David Pollock : Bring her on back, mate. Okay, fine. Plenty of leeway. Plenty of leeway. Lots of room. Right on back. Good.

  [Rear end of truck smashes through a brick wall] 

• Yasmin Azir : Yussef is not my boyfriend. I loathe him.

  David Pollock : Of course you do. You just do what he tells you because he's holding your family hostage back in the old country.

  Yasmin Azir : How did you know that?

  David Pollock : Oh, come on. I've seen that movie.

  Yasmin Azir : General Ali Ben Ali, the man he works for, threatened to kill my mother and sisters unless I cooperated with him.

  David Pollock : And Beshraavi, who's he got, your Uncle Max from Newark?

  Yasmin Azir : What do you mean?

  David Pollock : Forget it. If you want to live with Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, that's your business.

• David Pollock : Mrs. Ragheeb, I know this is a terrible time to trouble you, but I've got to know what that inscription means. I thought, perhaps, among your husband's notes... But he must have told you something. He must have mentioned where he got it, who gave it to him. We have to know.

  Ragheeb's Wife : "We"? Who's "we"?

  David Pollock : A girl. Her family's in great danger. Her mother and sisters, General Ali will kill them.

  Ragheeb's Wife : Is the girl named Yasmin Azir?

  David Pollock : Yes.

  Ragheeb's Wife : And she told you that her mother and her sisters are in danger?

  David Pollock : Yes.

  Ragheeb's Wife : Yasmin has no such family, Mr Pollock. There is only her father. General Ali would never harm him.

  David Pollock : Why not?

  Ragheeb's Wife : Because General Ali *is* her father.

• Yasmin Azir : This is like a recurring dream I used to have.

  David Pollock : How did it end?

  Yasmin Azir : Don't ask!

• David Pollock : I have a vivid imagination... I must say... I never saw myself unpacking a prime minister!

• David Pollock : ...and dear Miss Azir. You know, for a poor subjugated Arab lady you lead one hell of an emancipated life. Mr. Beshraavi on the one hand and Mr. Yussef Kasim on the other. Do you get Sundays off?

• David Pollock : This isn't your house. This is my house, and you weren't invited, so go away!

  Yasmin Azir : I didn't even know if you were alive, but I came to warn you anyway.

  David Pollock : Warn me about what?

  Yasmin Azir : Nazim's men. They are on their way here to get the cipher back. You've got to get away.

  David Pollock : Now slow down a minute. Aren't you the same Miss Azir who just stood there while your friends tried to kill me?

  Yasmin Azir : Oh David! You don't think I enjoyed that?

  David Pollock : Oh! Well! So long as you didn't enjoy it!

• Yasmin Azir : Webster sold out to Nazim.

  David Pollock : It must be a popular indoor sport these days.

  Yasmin Azir : You're not including me I hope!

  David Pollock : Of course not. We're believing you today.

• Yasmin Azir : [At a construction site - after they've both lied about where they were going]  David, you followed me, didn't you?

  David Pollock : No, I didn't! You went to the embassy, and I came here to my hotel.

• Yasmin Azir : [Meeting Pollock for the first time]  Hello.

  David Pollock : Hello. Hello! Hello-hello-hello.

  Yasmin Azir : What are you doing?

  David Pollock : Oh, well, these English crosswords are devilish, don't you think?

  Yasmin Azir : You're an American?

  David Pollock : Yes sir, indeedy-do, Ma'am.

• Beshraavi : Those slippers are absolutely beautiful, my darling. Are you wearing them for my benefit?

  Yasmin Azir : Of course, Nejim. Mr. Pollock does not have your exotic refinements. He prefers nighties.

  David Pollock : She said it, I didn't.

  Beshraavi : Mr. Pollock, some Bedouins are in the habit of saying to their guests, "All that I possess is yours"... I am not one of them.

• Yasmin Azir : The police think you killed Webster. Have you seen the papers?

  David Pollock : I don't care what they say as long as they spell my name right.

• David Pollock : For generations the Pollocks have devoted themselves to uncovering the past. I think its probably about time that a Pollock involved himself in the future, for a change.

• Yasmin Azir : Why don't you tell them where the cipher is?

  David Pollock : Well, because I don't know where it is.

  Yasmin Azir : You told me you had it.

  David Pollock : You told me lots of things too. Looks like we're just a pair of pathological liars.

• Yasmin Azir : How come my recurring dream never ended this way?

  David Pollock : I don't know? Mine always did. I guess I just travel in better dreams.

• David Pollock : Here we are again, taking a bath together!

• Beshraavi : Mr. Pollock, very good of you to reonsider my proposal.

  David Pollock : I always try my best to cooperate with the very rich Mr. Beshraavi.

• Yasmin Azir : [Addressing a uniformed Queen's Guardsman, under whose foot an important scrap of paper has lodged]  Excuse me, soldier...

  David Pollock : [correcting her]  He's a Guardsman.

  Yasmin Azir : Excuse me, Guardsman. I'm sorry to bother you. I know you're on duty, but... there is something under your foot that belongs to us.

• Beshraavi : You mustn't mind Hassan, Mr. Pollock.

  David Pollock : 'Hassan'?

  Beshraavi : He's a peregrine falcon. I've named him Hassan Jena after our beloved prime minister. They share so many sterling qualities. A sharp eye, a fierce dedication, and *very* sharp claws. Hassan won't harm you, Mr. Pollock, if you don't separate him from his master. He is excessively loyal.

  David Pollock : You keep him well fed, I trust.

  Beshraavi : Of course. Nobody's *that* loyal.

• Yussef Kasim : Skip the college talk, Teach. To the point, Daddy-o. Where is the cipher?

  David Pollock : The cipher?

  Yussef Kasim : Yeah, the cipher. Yeah, we know you've got it. So no point fooling. You're on a ride in the middle of nowhere. The Marines can't come and save you for democracy here!

• David Pollock : As long as you needed someone to sit down and work, I was your man. But the situation has changed somewhat. What you need now is someone with a Ph. D. in rough-house.

  Hassan Jena : I did warn you that it might become dangerous.

  David Pollock : Well, dangerous, sir, not lethal.

• David Pollock : Look, everyone's got problems, including me, so I'd just as soon not get mixed up in yours.

  Yasmin Azir : But you are mixed up in them, whether you like it or not.

• David Pollock : In this cynical old world, you have to believe in something. So, it might as well be you.

• Yasmin Azir : The candy! You are brilliant!

  David Pollock : The result of a clean mind and a healthy body.

• Hassan Jena : Mr. Pollock, what has happened?

  David Pollock : Mr. Jena, there's been some trouble. A man was killed at Ascot today.

  Hassan Jena : Yes, I heard. Have you also heard who it is they think killed him?

  David Pollock : Mrs. Pollock's idiot son, David, that's who. I need your help.

  Hassan Jena : I don't think there's anything I can do for you right now, besides suggesting you stay clear of the police.

• David Pollock : Here, above the monster Ammit sits, who, as you can see is part crocodile, part lion and part hippo, and who waits to devour the heart of the dead man, if it is found wanting, is the glyph for a house and below it is a mouth. These signs have a phonetic value only. They are followed by a drawing of a pair of legs which, in this case, has no phonetic value. However, as an ideogram it does give us a clue to the meaning of the word to go forth

  [sees a student sleeping in class] 

  David Pollock : Sex!

  [student wakes up] 

  David Pollock : I thought there must be some way of attracting your attention, Mr. Fanshaw. I seem to have been talking in your sleep.

• David Pollock : The fact is that there are very few men on this earth that - whom I admire more than you. You're a very great man.

  Hassan Jena : No man is greater than the people he serves, Mr. Pollock. Your respect must be for them.

• David Pollock : I don't met many people who are dressed like that, either.

  Yasmin Azir : Do you like it? Would you do me up please? Can you - manage?

  David Pollock : I always tremble when I'm happy. I take it that you're a house guest here?

  Yasmin Azir : Why do you take that?

  David Pollock : Well, one usually doesn't arrive for high tea dressed in a nightie.

  Yasmin Azir : One also isn't a house guest in one's own house.

• David Pollock : Now, then, Miss Azir, I wonder if you'd tell me what this is all about.

  Yasmin Azir : Call me Yasmin, at least while you're in my bathroom.

• Yasmin Azir : The message is much to important for anyone he doesn't want to know about it.

  David Pollock : What about you? Lock, stock and barrel?

  [Yasmin nods her head yes] 

  David Pollock : This is ridiculous. We're in England! A civilized country. Right in the middle of London. Over there's Regents Park. There's the zoo. Over in Buckingham Palace the Queen is probably playing Scrabble. He can't own anyone here.

  Yasmin Azir : Everyone has his price.

• David Pollock : No hanky-panky, Mr. Beshraavi.

• David Pollock : You're not with the authorities and you're not with Beshraavi. And you can't be with Prime Minister Jena. Who are you with?

  Webster : Her.

  David Pollock : Swell.

• David Pollock : Somehow I get the idea you've seen too much television.

• David Pollock : Miss Azir, come down here and I'll scrub your back.

• Yasmin Azir : Professor, what did you do with the cipher?

  David Pollock : Cipher, cipher, who's got the cipher? Number nine's got the cipher.

  Webster : Nine? What's that mean?

  David Pollock : That's for me to know and you to guess.

• Yasmin Azir : Then, you believe me?

  David Pollock : In this wicked, cynical old world, you have to believe in something. So, it might as well be you.

• Yasmin Azir : You are brilliant!

  David Pollock : The result of a clean mind and a healthy body.

• Yasmin Azir : Oh, no! He's found it.

  David Pollock : Sink. Sank. Sunk.

• Yasmin Azir : It's not safe for you to be out on the streets! What if the police stop us?

  David Pollock : The way you drive, why should they stop us?

  Yasmin Azir : Alright, David, I'll look for a Phone Box.

  David Pollock : I'll look! That way, maybe we can keep from hitting it.

• David Pollock : What is there about you that makes you so hard to believe?

  Yasmin Azir : Perhaps its because I'm such a terrible liar; but, never with you, of course.

• Yasmin Azir : What do you see?

  David Pollock : Gander. Goosey-Goosey.

• David Pollock : Our life expectancy may be nil; but, I'd like you to know that this has been a very real, warm, human experience.

• David Pollock : Do I have your solemn pledge that you'll never spy again?

  Yasmin Azir : Only on you.

  David Pollock : Oh, swell.