She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)

Ben Johnson: Sgt. Tyree

Photos 

Quotes 

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• Sgt. Tyree : [picking up a Cavalry cap]  Cheyennes, Laddie. The same ones that killed them Yankee soldiers with General Custer.

• [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.

• [When asked if the dead man in the coach was the Army paymaster] 

  Sgt. Tyree : Yeah... Well, it look's like we're not gonna get paid for another three months!

• [Repeated line] 

  Sgt. Tyree : That ain't my department, sir.

• [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.

• Sgt. Tyree : [inspecting a feather lodged inside a military cap]  Cheyennes, Laddie; just like the ones that killed General Custer and all them Yankee soldiers.