Conflict (1945)

Sydney Greenstreet: Dr. Mark Hamilton

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Quotes 

• Dr. Mark Hamilton : [on unsolved murder and perfect crime]  Laws of chance are overwhelmingly against it, so are the laws of human nature. You see a murderer's whole safety depends upon a complication of lies. If he had no motive, no access, if his alibi is perfect, even if he feels no remorse, think of the strain he endures in knowing one error would be his undoing. That if he is forgetful enough to conflict one of his statements, his act of innocence is unconvincing in any details, if he so much as talks in his sleep.

• Dr. Mark Hamilton : Never having been married myself, I've always had a warm spot in my heart for those who have achieved it.

  Evelyn Turner : Achieved it?

  Dr. Mark Hamilton : Certainly, as a psychologist I can assure you a happy marriage is indeed a rare achievement.

  Kathryn Mason : Isn't that rather cynical?

  Dr. Mark Hamilton : Well, perhaps it is, but, you see, marriage is a very tricky business. People have impulses, compulsions, drives that to say towards escape, escape from loneliness. They seek their escape in the companionship of someone else and lo just when they think they've achieved it, they find they put on their own handcuffs.

• Dr. Mark Hamilton : You see sometimes a thought can be like a malignant disease that starts to eat away the willpower. When that happens, it's my business to remove the thought before it can cause destruction.

  Richard Mason : That's a very pretty theory, Doctor, but I don't quite see how you can take a thought out of a man's head. It seems to me if it's there, it's there and there's nothing can be done about it.

• Prof. Norman Holsworth : You see, Doctor Hamilton belongs to the Freudian school of psychology, he believes that love rather than money is the root of all evil.

  Evelyn Turner : Why it's nothing of the kind. Beg your pardon, Doctor Hamilton, but love doesn't always cause unhappiness and trouble. It's been one of man's inspirations for centuries. Why it's been the basis of some of the greatest stories ever written. Look at Romeo and Juliet, Anthony and Cleopatra, Abelard and Eloise.

  Richard Mason : Yes but look what happened to them.

  Evelyn Turner : Oh Dick that's not fair. You know what I mean, it doesn't matter what happens to people as long as they have something to live for.

  Dr. Mark Hamilton : But they didn't live for it, they died for it.

• Richard Mason : Doctor, you've had a lot of experience with mental cases assuming I am a mental case. Ever run across anything like this before?

  Dr. Mark Hamilton : Only once, years ago when I was a student in Vienna.

  Richard Mason : What was it?

  Dr. Mark Hamilton : Man who murdered his wife.

• Dr. Mark Hamilton : I knew everything there was to know, but I didn't know enough to get married.

• Dr. Mark Hamilton : [fishing]  Any luck?

  Richard Mason : [holds up his fish]  Well if you call this luck.

  Dr. Mark Hamilton : [laughs]  I could use that for bait.

  Evelyn Turner : I caught one bigger than that but I didn't like the way he looked at me so I threw him back.

• Richard Mason : Doctor, I don't believe in ghosts and I don't believe in the supernatural. I don't believe that people live on in life after they left it. But I saw Kathyrn today or someone who looked like her.

  Dr. Mark Hamilton : Where?

  Richard Mason : Downtown. She passed me on the street, I followed her but couldn't catch her on account of this leg. She disappeared into an empty house.

  Dr. Mark Hamilton : How do you know it wasn't Kathryn?

  Richard Mason : Oh but it couldn't be.

  Dr. Mark Hamilton : Why couldn't it be?

  Richard Mason : Well if it was, why didn't she stop when I called her? Why didn't she speak to me?

• Dr. Mark Hamilton : At the university, I spend little time in teaching classes. A great deal in giving advice to individuals - distracted husbands, unhappy wives. Sometimes, I almost lose my belief in the existence of a happy marriage. Then I think of yours.

  Kathryn Mason : We've been very fortunate.

  Dr. Mark Hamilton : More than anyone expected five years ago, my dear. Oh ho, I guess it's quite safe now to tell you that I wouldn't have bet an old umbrella on your marriage lasting as much as a year. It's really a great tribute to you to have proved me so utterly wrong.