Funeral in Berlin (1966)

Oscar Homolka: Col. Stok

Photos 

Quotes 

• Colonel Stok : I like you, English.

  Colonel Stok : You're not as stupid as you look.

• Colonel Stok : I wish to defect, but there are conditions.

  Harry Palmer : What do you want?

  Colonel Stok : I want colonel's pay for life.

  Harry Palmer : Don't we all.

  Colonel Stok : A house in the country.

  Harry Palmer : Oh, how many bedrooms?

  Colonel Stok : Bedrooms do not matter. But I must have a big garden. I am a peasant at heart, and I want to grow roses in my old age.

  Harry Palmer : In England, roses are out - weeds are in. Is that all?

  Colonel Stok : That is all. I want comfort and security.

  Harry Palmer : You've got all that in Russia now.

  Colonel Stok : Aah, in Russia there is no place for an old Bolshevik. In my job I have made too many enemies.

  Harry Palmer : Well, what about your family?

  Colonel Stok : My wife died in a German air raid in 1941; my only son hasn't written to me in three years. What would you do in my position?

  Harry Palmer : I'd stop telling lies, for a start. You have no son, and your wife is in Kiev with your daughter Katya. I know everything about you, Colonel Stok... from the size of your refrigerator to the cubic capacity of your mistress.

• Colonel Stok : Do you play chess?

  Harry Palmer : Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating.

• Colonel Stok : If there is a mistake, the KRAPOs will be shooting at me.

  Harry Palmer : That'll be nice: you'll find out what it's like to be an East German.

  Colonel Stok : You are insolent! Do you think this job, this loathsome Wall, is all I've done for Communism? Does Smolensk mean anything to you, or Stalingrad?

  [chuckles] 

  Colonel Stok : I look at your stupid face and I think you mean what you say. I like you, you're good at your job. You need only one thing.

  Harry Palmer : What's that?

  Colonel Stok : A reason for doing it.

  Harry Palmer : I get paid.

  Colonel Stok : £30 a week? Is it worth it - to be a tool of the generals? A tool for making trouble? Trouble makes arms, arms make money...

  Harry Palmer : When you get to England, we'll give you a soapbox. You sure you want to defect tomorrow?

  Colonel Stok : I told you, I'm still a good Communist. When a man leaves his wife, he remembers his wedding night. Communism was the love of my youth, and I've been faithful... until now. I was with Antonov-Ovseyenko at the storming of the Winter Palace in 1917. Do you know what that means in Russia?

  Harry Palmer : Yes, I think so. It means you're an expendable hero.

• [On his proposed defection] 

  Colonel Stok : And for you it is a propaganda victory - my name is worth a headline.

  Harry Palmer : We get plenty of Russians. It's a pity you're not Chinese.

• Colonel Stok : What's the matter, you in trouble? Ross won't shoot you for failing once - it's not democratic!

• Colonel Stok : [offering Palmer a cup of tea]  As usual, there is no milk today.

  Harry Palmer : And so Russian tea was invented.

• Colonel Stok : [after Harry has seen through some deliberate lies that Stok was testing him with]  I like you, English. You're not as stupid as you look. I wanted to see how well you were trained.

  Harry Palmer : "Train hard, fight easy."

  Colonel Stok : Ahh, you quote Marshall Suvorov! Bravo!

• Colonel Stok : If you won't help me, I'll go to the Americans.

  Harry Palmer : [showing indifference]  Why don't you go to the Americans? They have more money.

  Colonel Stok : Ah! Who wants to live in America? They are just Russians in pressed trousers. Revolutionaries gone decadent.

  Harry Palmer : All right. I'll make my report to London. I'll tell them that you talk well - and lie badly.