The Manchurian Candidate quotes

View Quote His brain has not only been washed, as they say, it's been dry-cleaned.

View Quote Rosie: [To Ben] ...You were a pretty solid type yourself, according to Washington - with whom they had apparently checked. So I figured if they were willing to go to all the trouble to get a comment on you out of George Washington, why - you must be somebody very important indeed. And I must say it was rather sweet of the General with you only a Major. I didn't even know you knew him. If they were the tiniest bit puzzled about you, they could have asked me. Oh yes, indeed, my darling Ben. They could have asked me and I would have told them. [They kiss]

View Quote Secretary of Defense: Since no great naval power menaces the free world today, the Navy's overwhelming preponderance of surface ships seems to be superfluous, hence the cuts in budget.

View Quote Senator Thomas Jordan: [To Raymond] I once found it necessary to sue your mother for defamation of character and slander... One of your mother's more endearing traits is her tendency to refer to anyone who disagrees with her about anything as a Communist.

View Quote Chairlady: You will notice that I have told them they may smoke. I've allowed my people to have a little fun in the selection of bizarre tobacco substitutes... Are you enjoying your cigarette, Ed?
Ed Movole: Yes ma'am.
Dr. Yen Lo: Yak dung!... hope tastes good - like a cigarette should!

View Quote Col. Milt: [Gesturing towards a pile of books] You read them all?
Ben: Yeah, they also make great insulation against an enemy attack! But the, uh, truth of the matter is that I'm just interested, you know, in, uh, Principles of Modern Banking and, History of Piracy. [Picking up books] Paintings of Orozco. Modern French Theater. The... Jurisprudential Factor of Mafia Administration. Diseases of Horses and novels of Joyce Cary and... Ethnic Choices of the Arabs. Things like that.

View Quote Dr. Yen Lo: Attractive plant you have here.
Zilkov: Thank you, doctor. It's actually a rest home for wealthy alcoholics. We were able to purchase it three years ago. Except for this floor and the floor above it, which is sealed off for security purposes, the rest functions quite normally. In fact it's one of the few Soviet operations in America that actually showed a profit at the end of the last fiscal year.
Dr. Yen Lo: Profit? Fiscal year? Tsk! Tsk! Tsk! Beware, my dear Zilkov, fires of capitalism are highly infectious. Soon you'll be lending money out at interest. [Chuckles] You must try, Comrade Zilkov, to cultivate a sense of humor. There's nothing like a good laugh now and then to lighten the burdens of the day. [To Raymond] Tell me, Raymond, do you remember murdering Mavole and Lembeck?

View Quote Jocie: Darling.
[Pause]
Raymond: What?
Jocie: Nothing, Just... Darling.

View Quote Mrs. Whittaker: Tell me Raymond, have you ever killed anyone?
Raymond: No, ma'am.
Mrs. Whittaker: Not even in combat?
Raymond: In combat? Yes, ma'am, I think so.
Yen Lo: Of course you have, Raymond. Raymond has been a crack shot since childhood -
Mrs. Whittaker: A marvelous outlet for his aggressions.

View Quote Rosie: Maryland's a beautiful state.
Ben: [Looking away] This is Delaware.
Rosie: I know. I was one of the original Chinese workmen who laid the track on this stretch. But nonetheless, Maryland is a beautiful state. So is Ohio, for that matter. [Lights her own cigarette.]
Ben: I guess so. Columbus is a tremendous football town. You in the railroad business?
Rosie: Not anymore. However, if you will permit me to point out, when you ask that question you really should say, 'Are you in the railroad line?' Where's your home?
Ben: I'm in the Army. I'm a major. I've been in the Army most of my life. We move a good deal. I was born in New Hampshire.
Rosie: I went to a girls' camp once on Lake Francis.
Ben: That's pretty far north.
Rosie: Yeah.
Ben: What's your name?
Rosie: Eugenie.
Ben: [Finally looks at her Pardon?
Rosie: No kidding, I really mean it. Crazy French pronunciation and all.
Ben: [Looks away] It's pretty.
Rosie: Well, thank you.
Ben: I guess your friends call you Jenny.
Rosie: Not yet they haven't, for which I am deeply grateful. But you may call me Jenny.
Ben: What do your friends call you?
Rosie: Rosie.
Ben: [Looks at her] Why?
Rosie: My full name is Eugenie Rose. (He looks away) Of the two names, I've always favored Rosie because it smells of brown soap and beer. Eugenie is somehow more fragile.
Ben: Still, when I asked you what your name was, you said it was Eugenie.
Rosie: It's quite possible I was feeling more or less fragile at that instant.
Ben: I could never figure out what that phrase meant: more or less. (He looks at her) You Arabic?
Rosie: No.
Ben: [Reaches to shake her hand] My name is Ben, really Bennett. Named after Arnold Bennett.
Rosie: The writer?
Ben: No, a lieutenant colonel who was my father's commanding officer at the time.
Rosie: What's your last name?
Ben: Marco.
Rosie: Major Marco. Are you Arabic?
Ben: No, no.
Rosie: Let me put it another way. Are you married?
Ben: No. You?
Rosie: No.
Ben: What's your last name?
Rosie: Chaney. I'm a production assistant for a man named Justin, who had two hits last season. I live on 54th Street, a few doors from the modern museum of art, of which I'm a tea-privileges member, no cream. I live at 53 West 54th Street, Apartment 3B. Can you remember that?
Ben: Yes.
Rosie: ELdorado 5-9970. Can you remember that?
Ben: Yes.
Rosie: Are you stationed in New York? Or is stationed the right word?
Ben: I'm not exactly stationed in New York. I was stationed in Washington, but I got sick, and now I'm on leave, and I'm going to spend it in New York.
Rosie: ELdorado 5-9970.
Ben: I'm gonna look up an old friend of mine who's a newspaper man. We were in Korea together.

View Quote Sen. Iselin: I mean, the way you keep changing the figures on me all the time. It makes me look like some kind of a nut, like an idiot." She holds up a newspaper and proclaims:
Mrs. Iselin: Well, you're going to look like an even bigger idiot if you don't get in there and do exactly what you're told...Who are they writing about all over this country and what are they saying? Are they saying: "Are there any Communists in the Defense Department?" No, of course not, they're saying: "How many Communists are there in the Defense Department?" So just stop talking like an expert all of a sudden and get out there and say what you're supposed to say.

View Quote General: Congratulations, son. How do you feel?
Raymond: Like Captain Idiot in Astounding Science comics.

View Quote [At Ben's request, Raymond is playing solitaire - with a deck of 52 Queens of Diamonds's]
Ben: All right, let's start unlocking a few doors. Let's begin with the patrol. You didn't save our lives and take out an enemy company or anything like that, did you Raymond, did you?
Raymond: No.
Ben: What happened?
Raymond: The patrol was taken by a Russian Airborne Unit and flown by helicopter across the Manchurian border to a place called Tomwa. We were worked on for three days by a team of specialists from the Pavlov Institute in Moscow. They developed a technique for descent into the unconscious mind, part light-induced, part drug--
Ben: Never mind all that. Not now. Tell me what else happened at Tomwa.
Raymond: We were drilled for three days. We were made to memorize the details of the imaginary action... And I strangled Ed Mavole and shot Bobby Lembeck.
Ben: One red Queen works pretty good. Let's see what we get with two of 'em. Keep playing.
Raymond: Then I killed Mr. Gaines. It was just a test. It didn't matter who I killed. They picked him to see if all the linkages still worked before they turned me over to my American operator. That business about jumping in the lake - it really did happen. It was an accident. Something somebody said in the bar accidentally triggered it.
Ben: Keep playing!
Raymond: Then I killed Senator Jordan and after that...
Ben: You are to forget everything that happened at the Senator's house. Do you understand, Raymond? You'll only remember it when I tell you so. You are to forget about it. Do you understand?
Raymond: Yes sir.
Ben: Now, Raymond. Now the big one. Why, why is all of this being done? What have they built you to do?
Raymond: I don't know. I don't think anybody really knows except Berezovo in Moscow and my American operator here. But whatever it is, it's supposed to happen soon, right at the convention. Maybe, [pause], I don't know. They can make me do anything, Ben, can't they? Anything.
Ben: We'll see, kid, we'll see what they can do and we'll see what we can do. So the red Queen is our baby. Well, take a look at this, kid... and while you're looking, listen. This is me, Marco talking. Fifty-two red Queens and me are telling you - you know what we're telling you? - it's over. The links, the beautifully-conditioned links are smashed. They're smashed as of now because we say so, because we say they ought to be smashed. We're bustin' up the joint, we're tearin' out all the wires, we're bustin' it up so good all the Queen's horses and all the Queen's men will never put ol' Raymond back together again. You don't work anymore. That's an order. Anybody invites you to a game of solitaire - you tell 'em: "Sorry, buster, the ball-game is over!"

View Quote Bartender: [To Raymond] Why don't you go and take yourself a cab and go up to Central Park and go jump in the lake?

View Quote Psychiatrist: Human fish, swimming at the bottom of the great ocean of atmosphere, develop psychic injuries as they collide with one another. Most mortal of all are those gotten from the parent fish.