She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)

John Wayne: Capt. Nathan Cutting Brittles

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Captain Nathan Brittles : Never apologize. It's a sign of weakness.

• Top Sergeant Quincannon : [on their upcoming retirement]  The army will never be the same when we retire, sir.

  Captain Nathan Brittles : The army is always the same. The sun and the moon change, but the army knows no seasons.

• Sgt. Tyree : [after the fight at Sudrow's Well]  Sir, would you take a look at Trooper Smith?

  Pvt. John Smith aka Rome Clay : [mortally wounded]  Don't bother about me, Captain. Trust you'll forgive my presumption... I'd like to commend the boy here... for the way he handled this action. In the best tradition of the cavalry, sir.

  Sgt. Tyree : [to Pvt. Smith]  I take that very kindly, sir.

  Pvt. John Smith aka Rome Clay : Captain Tyree! Captain Tyree!

  Captain Nathan Brittles : Speak to him.

  Sgt. Tyree : Thank you.

  [comes to attention] 

  Sgt. Tyree : Yes, Sir. Sir! Sir!

  Captain Nathan Brittles : [realizes that Smith has died]  I'm afraid he can't hear you, Captain.

• Abby Allshard : How did "Marching Through Georgia" take the idea of "Old Iron Pants" riding with him?

  Major Mac Allshard, Commanding Officer Fort Starke : Under protest, my dear.

  Captain Nathan Brittles : Under WRITTEN protest, Abby, of course. It's always my pleasure to escort "Old Iron Pants." Well, as long as you're going along with us, I guess we'll have...

  [notices how she's dressed] 

  Captain Nathan Brittles : Abby, that is the dad-blastedest outfit I ever did see. Quincannon's old britches.

• [Brittles knows Quincannon has been drinking on duty] 

  Captain Nathan Brittles : You've got a breath on you like a hot mince pie!

  Top Sergeant Quincannon : Ah, Captain darlin', as you well know I took "the pledge" after Chapultepec.

  Captain Nathan Brittles : And Bull Run, and Gettysburg, and Shiloh. And St. Patrick's Day. And the Fourth of July! Beats me where you hide the stuff.

• Captain Nathan Brittles : [while burying the dead]  I also commend to your keeping, Sir, the soul of Rome Clay, late Brigadier General, Confederate States Army. Known to his comrades here, Sir, as Trooper John Smith, United States Cavalry... a gallant soldier and a Christian gentleman.

• Abby Allshard : [Capt. Brittles is retiring after tonight]  Where will you go, Nathan?

  Captain Nathan Brittles : Oh, West, I guess, Abby... California... new settlements.

  Captain Nathan Brittles : [to Olivia]  "Old soldiers...", Miss Dandridge... hah! Someday you'll learn how they hate to give up. Captain of the troop one day: every man's face turned towards you; lieutenants jump when I growl! Now, tomorrow, I'll be glad if a blacksmith asks me to shoe a horse.

  [he leaves] 

• Chief Pony That Walks : Hey, Nathan! Nathan! I am a Christian! Hallelujah! Old friend, me. Long time. Long time.

  Captain Nathan Brittles : I come in peace, Pony That Walks.

  Chief Pony That Walks : Talk a salt, Nathan. Take salt. Smoke pipe. Good. Good.

  Captain Nathan Brittles : Pony That Walks, my heart is sad at what I see. Your young men painted for war. Their scalp knives red. The medicine drums talking. It is a bad thing!

  Chief Pony That Walks : A bad thing, Nathan. Many will die. My young men, your young men. No good. No good.

  Captain Nathan Brittles : We must stop this war.

  Chief Pony That Walks : Too late, Nathan. Young men do not listen to me. They listen to Big Medicine. Yellow Hair Custer dead. Buffalo come back. Red sun. Too late, Nathan! You will come with me. Hunt buffalo together. Smoke many pipes. We are too old for war.

  Captain Nathan Brittles : Yes, we are too old for war. But old men should stop wars.

  Chief Pony That Walks : Too late, too late! Many squaws will sing the Death Songs. Many lodges will be empty. You come with me, we hunt buffalo, get drunk together! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

  Captain Nathan Brittles : No, friend, I must go. I go far away.

  Chief Pony That Walks : Then, Nathan, my brother, go in peace.

• Narrator : So Nathan Brittles, ex-captain of cavalry U.S.A., started westward for the new settlements in California: westward toward the setting sun, which is the end of the trail for all old men. But the army hadn't finished with Nathan Brittles and it sent a galloper after him. THAT was Sgt. Tyree's department.

  Sgt. Tyree : Yo-oh! Capt. Brittles!

  [catches up to him] 

  Sgt. Tyree : Captain, sir.

  Captain Nathan Brittles : Huh?

  Sgt. Tyree : For you, sir. From the Yankee War Department.

  [hands him the dispatch] 

  Captain Nathan Brittles : I knew it. Dad blast it... I knew it!

  [reading the dispatch] 

  Captain Nathan Brittles : What? Sergeant... my appointment: chief of scouts! With a rank of Lt. Colonel. And will you look at those endorsements: Phil Sheridan, William Tecumseh Sherman and Ulysses Simpson Grant, President of The United States of America! There's three aces for you, boy!

  Sgt. Tyree : Yeah, but I kinda wish you'da been a-holdin' a full hand.

  Captain Nathan Brittles : Huh? Full hand? Whaddaya mean: full hand?

  Sgt. Tyree : Robert E. Lee, sir.

  Captain Nathan Brittles : Oh. Heh... wouldn't a been bad. Let's go.

• Olivia Dandridge : [after the massacre at Sudrow's Wells]  You don't have to say it, Captain. I know all this is because of me; because I wanted to see the West; because I wasn't - I wasn't "Army" enough to stay the winter.

  Captain Nathan Brittles : You're not quite "Army" yet, miss... or you'd know never to apologize... it's a sign of weakness.

  Olivia Dandridge : Yes, but this was your last patrol and I'm to blame for it.

  Captain Nathan Brittles : Only the man who commands can be blamed. It rests on me... mission failure!

• Captain Nathan Brittles : [Cohill and Pennell are about to fight over Olivia]  Button your shirt, Mister Pennell! Thought better of you. Four years out here and still actin' like a wet-eared "kaydet" on the Hudson. What is this all about, Mr. Cohill?

  Lt. Flint Cohill : Sir, I... I decline to answer... respectfully.

  Captain Nathan Brittles : Mr. Cohill, it is a bitter thing, indeed, to learn that an officer who has had nine years experience in the cavalry - the officer to whom I am surrendering command of this troop in two more days - should have so little grasp of leadership as to allow himself to be chivvied into a go at fisticuffs while 'Taps' still sounds over a brave man's grave! God help this troop when I'm gone.

• Captain Nathan Brittles : [the troop presents him with a solid silver watch for his retirement. He puts on his glasses and reads the engraved sentiment on the back]  "To Capt. Brittles from C Troop. Lest we forget."

• Captain Nathan Brittles : I don't know where you got your brains, Sergeant - God must have given you that pair of eyes. They're Arapahos, alright. Headin' the same way we are. Now why would they be movin' on Sudrow's Wells, Sergeant? Answer me that.

  Sgt. Tyree : My mother didn't raise any sons to be makin' guesses in front of Yankee captains.

• [Nathan has retired and speaks to Maj. Mac Allshard before leaving the fort] 

  Captain Nathan Brittles : Well, on my way. Goodbye, Mac. Say goodbye to Abby.

  Abby Allshard : [she walks up]  And you'll do no such thing, Nathan Brittles. 'Goodbye' is a word we don't use in the cavalry. To our next posting...

  [she hugs him] 

• Captain Nathan Brittles : Sgt. Tyree, I'm ordering you to volunteer again.

• Captain Nathan Brittles : [reading as he writes a letter of protest]  How many *r's* in territory?

  Major Mac Allshard, Commanding Officer Fort Starke : Two.

• [Brittles and Tyree ride into the Indian camp to negotiate] 

  Captain Nathan Brittles : Were you ever scared, "Captain" Tyree?

  Sgt. Tyree : Yes, sir. Up to and includin' now.

• Olivia Dandridge : I'm sorry I made such a fool of myself at the gate this morning.

  Captain Nathan Brittles : You made a fool out of a couple of young lieutenants. That's never against Army regulations.

• Captain Nathan Brittles : [at his wife's grave, referring to Olivia Dandridge]  Nice girl... reminds me of you.

• Captain Nathan Brittles : [noticing the horse]  Sidesaddle, Riley?

  Soldier : Sidesaddle, sir.

• 2nd Lt. Ross Penell : I'm sorry, sir...

  Captain Nathan Brittles : Oh, shut up!

• Captain Nathan Brittles : Give 'em a wide berth. Mr Cohill, past Sudrow's Wells by way of Twin Forks.

  Lt. Flint Cohill : We'll lose half a day, sir.

  2nd Lt. Ross Penell : The ladies will miss their stage, sir

  Captain Nathan Brittles : Would you rather have them miss their scalps, sir?

• Captain Nathan Brittles : Where are you going, Mr. Penell?

  2nd Lt. Ross Penell : Picnic-ing, sir.

  Captain Nathan Brittles : Picnic-ing?

  [to Olivia Dandridge] 

  Captain Nathan Brittles : Picnic-ing, Miss Dandridge? Where, in St Louis?

• [watching from a distance as Apaches torture gunrunners who cheated them] 

  Captain Nathan Brittles : [to Sgt. Tyree]  Join me in a chaw of tobacco?

  Sgt. Tyree : No, sir. I don't chaw and I don't play cards.

  Captain Nathan Brittles : Chawing tobacco is a nasty habit. Been known to turn a man's stomach.

  2nd Lt. Ross Penell : I'll take a chaw if you please, sir.

• Captain Nathan Brittles : Chawin' tobacco is a nasty habit. It's been known to turn a man's stomach.

• Capt. Nathan Cutting Brittles : It's your army, Mr. Cohill.

• Captain Nathan Brittles : If I gave you a written order, Mr. Cohill, would you follow it?

  Lt. Flint Cohill : I don't need a written order from you, sir.

  Captain Nathan Brittles : Just the same, you're going to get it; might come in handy at out court-martial.

• Captain Nathan Brittles : Tomorrow's all I need.

• Captain Nathan Brittles : Get back in that wagon, Quayne!

• Captain Nathan Brittles : Bye, Doc.

  Dr. O'Laughlin : Goodbye, Nathan. And may the road be kind to ya'.