Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)

Walter Brennan: Doc Velie

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Quotes 

• Doc T.R. Velie Jr. : Why did you come here, Mr. Macreedy?

  John J. Macreedy : Did Komoko have any other family besides his son Joe?

  Doc T.R. Velie Jr. : Son? Nobody around here ever knew he had a son.

  John J. Macreedy : Yes, he had a son. He's dead too. He's buried in Italy... Why, this Komoko boy died trying to save my life. They gave him a medal. I came here to give it to his old man. I figured the least I could do was give him one day out of my life.

• Sheriff Tim Horn : Let Smith find himself a new boy. I can't take it another day. Four years ago, if I'd of done my job, if I'd of checked up and found out what happened. But I didn't! It was just like Smith figured... I didn't even try to find out. Don't you understand? You know, when you wear this badge, you're the Law. And when somebody does something against the Law, then you're supposed to do something about it. Me--I did nothin'. That's what's eatin' me. What kind of prescription you got for that?

  Doc Verlie : I don't know. I haven't found one for myself. But there's one thing, Tim: don't quit.

  Sheriff Tim Horn : Why not?

  Doc Verlie : Because maybe this feller Macreedy's got the prescription.

• Doc T.R. Velie Jr. : First, I sell 'em a piece of land. Do you think they farm it? They do not. They dig for gold. They rip off the topsoil of ten winding hills, then sprint in here all fog-heaved with excitement, lugging nuggets - big, bright, and shiny. Is it gold? It is not. Do they quit? They do not. Then they decide to farm, farm in a country so dry that you have to prime a man before he can spit. Before you can say "Fat Sam" they're stalled, stranded, and starving. They become weevil-brained and buttsprung. So I bury 'em. But why bore you with my triumphs?

• Doc T.R. Velie Jr. : Four years ago something terrible happened here. We did nothing about it, nothing. The whole town fell into a sort of settled melancholy and all the people in it closed their eyes, and held their tongues, and... failed the test with a whimper. And now something terrible's going to happen again--and in a way we're lucky, because we've been given a second chance.

• Doc T.R. Velie Jr. : Smith owned Adobe Flat. He leased it to Komoko. He figured he had cheated him because you gotta have water to raise anything. There never was any water on Adobe Flat. Komoko dug a well. He must have gone down sixty feet

  Pete Wirth : He got plenty of water. That made Smith pretty sore. He didn't like Japs anyway. The day after Pearl Harbor, Smith went to Sand City.

  John J. Macreedy : Yeah, he got turned down, trying to enlist.

  Pete Wirth : Well, when he got back, he was pretty sore. Around ten o'clock, we all started drinking.

  John J. Macreedy : Ten in the morning.

  Pete Wirth : Yeah. Smith, Coley, Sam, Hector, and me - we were all drunk. Patriotic drunk. We wanted to go out to scare the Jap a little and have a little fun. Well, when we got there, he heard us comin' and he locked the door. And then Smith started a fire. And the Jap - he came running out. His clothes were all burning. And then Smith shot him. I didn't even know he had a gun.

  John J. Macreedy : Then you got scared and buried him, and kept your mouths shut, hmm?

  Pete Wirth : Yeah.

  John J. Macreedy : Well, go ahead and have your drink now. You're gonna need it.

• John J. Macreedy : I got a problem of my own.

  Doc T.R. Velie Jr. : You sure have, they're going to kill you with no hard feelings.

  John J. Macreedy : And you're going to sit there and let 'em do it.

  Doc T.R. Velie Jr. : Don't get waspish with me, mister.

  John J. Macreedy : Oh, I'm sorry, I, uh...

  Doc T.R. Velie Jr. : Yeah, well, I feel for you, but I'm consumed with apathy. Why should I mix in?

  Doc T.R. Velie Jr. : To save a life.

  John J. Macreedy : I got enough trouble saving my own.

• Sam, Cafe Proprietor : Maybe he's a cop or somethin'.

  Doc T.R. Velie Jr. : Ever see a cop with a stiff arm?

  Sam, Cafe Proprietor : Maybe his arm's all right. Maybe he's just hangin' onto something tight in his pocket.

  Doc T.R. Velie Jr. : Like what? A pistol? A stick of TNT so he can blow up the whole mangy, miserable town?

• Doc T.R. Velie Jr. : Look, I try to live right. I drink my milk every day. But mostly, I try to mind my own business - which is something I'd advise you to do.

  John J. Macreedy : A little late for that.

  Doc T.R. Velie Jr. : Oh, no. You can still get out of town. But, you better get out like a whisper.

• John J. Macreedy : [to the town mortician]  Mind not looking at me like that?

  Doc T.R. Velie Jr. : Like what?

  John J. Macreedy : Like a potential customer.

  Doc T.R. Velie Jr. : Huh. Everyone is. I get 'em comin' and goin'.

• Doc T.R. Velie Jr. : I was just wondering what all you people are worrying about... not that I have the slightest idea.

  Reno Smith : You wonder too much and you talk too much. It's a bad parlay, Doc.

  Doc T.R. Velie Jr. : I hold no truck with silence. I've got nothing to hide.

  Hector David : What are you trying to say?

  Doc T.R. Velie Jr. : Nothing, man. It's just that you worry about the stranger only if you look at him from a certain aspect.

  Reno Smith : How do you look at him, Doc?

  Doc T.R. Velie Jr. : From the innocence of a fresh-laid egg.

• Doc T.R. Velie Jr. : [about the medal]  Maybe we need it. It would give us something to build on. This town's wrecked, just as though it was bombed out. Maybe it can come back.

  John J. Macreedy : Some towns do and some towns don't. It depends on the people.

  Doc T.R. Velie Jr. : That medal would help.

• Doc T.R. Velie Jr. : [on Macreedy]  He's no salesman, that's for sure... unless he's peddlin' dynamite!

• Pete Wirth : You'd be smart to get out, too, Doc.

  Doc T.R. Velie Jr. : There's too many smart guys around here. I'm glad I'm a dummy!

  Pete Wirth : You're a troublesome dummy. You're liable to end up on your own slab.

• Doc T.R. Velie Jr. : I thought you were going to Los Angeles, that hot-bed of pomp and vanity.

• Doc T.R. Velie Jr. : It's all right, Tim. We're not licked yet.

  Sheriff Tim Horn : Ain't we? I am.

• Doc T.R. Velie Jr. : That's the situation, in a nut.