Fire Down Below (1957)

Robert Mitchum: Felix Bowers

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Quotes 

• Miguel : [on assurance that a smuggling job's been completed]  A friend left this, uh, note for you.

  Felix Bowers : [flipping through the money in the envelope]  Our friend didn't have very much to say, did he?

  Miguel : What do you mean by that?

  Felix Bowers : I mean he wasn't very generous, was he?

  Miguel : There are many expenses; you know that as well as I do. Palms to be greased and people paid to turn the other way. It's getting harder every day.

  Felix Bowers : Well, you tell that friend if he can't be a little more communicative, that this is the last trip.

• Irena : Are you wanted by the police?

  Felix Bowers : Oh, I wouldn't go so far as to say that. Let's put it this way: if I *presented* myself to them, they would not *reject* me.

• Felix Bowers : I sowed my wild oats a long time ago. Been living off the crop ever since. Not very nutritious.

• Miguel : [to Felix]  I'll talk to you. You're a reasonable man: your friend is a barbarian.

  Felix Bowers : Tony, you gonna sit here and hear your friend called a barbarian?

  Tony : Miguel, I forbid you to call this barbarian a barbarian.

  Felix Bowers : [nods]  You're a true friend.

• Tony : If you were so anxious, why didn't you do something about it yourself?

  Felix Bowers : Don't think I wouldn't if I thought it would work, man. The lady just ain't interested. What's she gonna do with a beat up old bum like me? She's blonde, she's pretty, comes from a good family, and she's got a rich husband. She wants only the best. Tall, blue eyed, straight limbed, boys with curly hair and burly teeth.

• Jimmy Jean : That lady sure was icy.

  Felix Bowers : Yeah, but just not icy enough, Jimmy Jean. Not icy enough.

• Tony : Five hundred has a nice, wholesome ring to it. Doesn't it? Five Hundred?

  Felix Bowers : Yeah, seven hundred rings even better. It's too risky. a couple of cases of brandy or cigarettes is one thing; but, an illegal dame!

• Felix Bowers : If they ever catch us, they'll take the boat and lock us up and throw the key away.

  Tony : All right, they won't catch us.

  Felix Bowers : I've got a hunch, I don't feel so lucky.

  Tony : I feel lucky. We'll use my luck.

• Felix Bowers : Let's get out of here, Tony. I don't like the smell of this.

  Miguel : Money doesn't smell!

• Felix Bowers : You understand, Irena, that this is not the Queen Mary. There'll be no steward aboard to bring you your morning tea.

  Irena : I've put up with worse.

  Felix Bowers : You'll be alone on a not very large boat with three men with low, brutish manners.

• Irena : You're stuck with me for a little while and I'm stuck with you. But, we don't have to make it any worse than it already is. Just tell me what you want me to do and I'll do it.

  Felix Bowers : Keep away from Tony, that's all. He's not for the likes of you.

  Irena : Why not?

  Felix Bowers : I've known women like you. You've had a little bad luck and you're beautiful enough to make everybody you touch pay for it.

  Irena : What makes you think he'd be interested?

  Felix Bowers : I saw that gay frolic on the beach today. The sirens should have gone off for Tony right then. Enemy approaching. Take cover.

  Irena : He's a big boy. He can take care of himself.

  Felix Bowers : Nobody can take care of himself; so, stay away from him. Stop probing him with those sad, pitiful, calculating, dark eyes. Keep those sweet poisonous hands off of him. You've got nothing for him.

• Irena : Who's there?

  Felix Bowers : It's me, Felix. That's Latin for happy.

• Felix Bowers : I'm proud. I don't make love to the dead.

• Felix Bowers : [sitting in a barber shop]  Welcome. Hang around. The next number on the program is the Beethoven Ninth.

  Tony : Yeah, I want to talk to you.

  Felix Bowers : Well, I've got a date to go to a cock fight in ten minutes. If you leave your name with the secretary, she might be able to arrange something for later on in the week.

• Felix Bowers : Have a drink.

  Tony : I don't want anything to drink.

  Felix Bowers : You want to listen to a medical fact? In this climate, sobriety kills more people per year than heart trouble, motor accidents or crimes of passion combined.

• Tony : Stop being so gay, I'm serious.

  Felix Bowers : Gay? Me? I'm so sad the little dogs howl in despair when they see me.

• Felix Bowers : I never wanted anything so bad in my whole life, Tony. Maybe it was because we were so much alike. She got her's in Berlin. My whole life has been Berlin.

• Tony : I'm gonna' marry her, Felix.

  Felix Bowers : Of course. She's no good. She'll cheat ya', she'll pull ya' down... Everywhere you go you'll find men who'll look at you and laugh and say, "Hey, look at what our old friend Irena's gotten hold of now." She'll ruin ya'. Once she gets a better offer she'll leave ya'. So, naturally, you're gonna' marry her.

• Irena : What have women done to you?

  Felix Bowers : I don't regard women in the plural. I'm old-fashioned. I regard women one by one.

• Felix Bowers : Nobody can take care of themselves, so stay away from her.