These Thousand Hills (1959)

Stuart Whitman: Tom Ping

Photos 

Quotes 

• Frank Chenault : We're givin' you a chance, Ping. Talk up if you're innocent.

  Tom Ping : Innocent? Well, that depends on who the jury is. I'll tell you a couple of things I ain't guilty of. I ain't prayed on Sunday. Bought cows cheap on Monday. I ain't broke my word. I ain't climbed up high on somebody else's back or thought of myself better than another man. I ain't double-crossed a friend or made a little tin god out of money. Sure, I'm innocent. I'm as innocent as you. Or ain't you boys innocent?

• Albert Gallatin 'Lat' Evans : How do you think all those big ranches got started? Honest?

  Tom Ping : How did they?

  Albert Gallatin 'Lat' Evans : By stealing horses. Yeah, a fella down in Gold Creek once showed me how. All you need is a jackknife or a hot iron, and you just change the brand.

  Tom Ping : There must be a way to get rich without stealing.

  Albert Gallatin 'Lat' Evans : That's what the fella in the poorhouse said.

• Albert Gallatin 'Lat' Evans : How about it, Tom? Just one winter huntin' wolves and we'll have more and quicker money than six months on the trail. You kill a buffalo, then you poison the meat with strychnine. Then you wait till the wolf that feeds on it dies of the cramps.

  Tom Ping : Mm-mm. It's quick money, kid, but it's dirty.

• Albert Gallatin 'Lat' Evans : I heard about a fellow named Granville Stuart - he started with nothing. Now he's got a big spread over in the Flat Willow country. He's got respect, political influence, everything. If he can do it, why can't I?

  Tom Ping : Wolfer to rancher. Plowboy to president, huh?

  Albert Gallatin 'Lat' Evans : Why not?

  Tom Ping : Because I ain't seen a man yet that didn't step up by stepping down on somebody else! I liked you more when you stunk of cow, not wolf.

  Albert Gallatin 'Lat' Evans : The stink will go, but the money's gonna stay!

  Tom Ping : Yeah, well I won't!