The Deputy (TV Series)

Badge for a Day (1959)

Henry Fonda: Chief Marshal Simon Fry

Photos 

Quotes 

• [first lines] 

  [scenes of Ace Gentry's gang shooting up a town and robbing a train are shown] 

  Marshal Simon Fry : [narrating]  That was the Arizona Territory in 1880 and I was it's chief marshal. It had been weeks since that Ace Gentry gang had held up that train before we got a line on them. Then a telegram had come to my office in Prescott - two men hauling supplies to wherever it was the gang was holed up. I could have cut them off anywhere along the line, but I chose Silver City.

• Marshal Simon Fry : You're under arrest.

  Blight : What for?

  [Blight spits into the dry streambed] 

  Marshal Simon Fry : You're under arrest for polutin' the stream.

  Blight : There ain't no water in there!

  Marshal Simon Fry : The law don't say anything about water.

• Herk Lamson : What excuse shall I put in the book for holding them?

  Marshal Simon Fry : Protective custody. They'll need it if Ace finds out they talked.

• Marshal Simon Fry : Now, Miss Fran, I ain't poison.

  Fran McCord : You are around here.

• Marshal Simon Fry : [to Clay]  When a man's as good with a gun as you are, he's only got two choices in life. He either makes his living breaking the law or enforcing it.

• Clay McCord : I got no interest in the Ace Gentry gang.

  [several shots ricochet nearby] 

  Marshal Simon Fry : You have now.

• Marshal Simon Fry : What's all the shootin' for?

  Ballard : It makes the right impression on strangers.

• Marshal Simon Fry : I'm goin' after eight killers and all you're worried about is will you get your stinkin' groceries back?

  Clay McCord : Well, if you don't come back, Simon, I'll forget about payment. It'll be worth it.

• Marshal Simon Fry : [to Clay]  You know, sometimes you're as big a liar as I am.

• Marshal Simon Fry : We've been in tighter spots.

  Clay McCord : When?

• [Fry and mcCord are trapped in an abandoned mine by Ace Gentry's outlaw gang] 

  Marshal Simon Fry : It's just like old times, isn't it, Clay?

  Clay McCord : Too much like old times.

• [Simon shoots a mud-covered, knife-wielding combatant in the hand] 

  Clay McCord : Well, you gun-crazy foo! You didn't even know which one of us you was shootin' at!

  Marshal Simon Fry : I figured a busted hand was worth more than takin' the gamble you had the knife - and I was right.

  Clay McCord : But that would have been my gun hand!

  Marshal Simon Fry : What do you care? You're all the time sayin' you aren't goin' to use it no more anyway.

• Clay McCord : Simon, it ain't just the gettin' killed I don't like - it's the killin', too. You never could understand that, could you?

  Marshal Simon Fry : Nope - not when it's killin' varmints like them.

• Marshal Simon Fry : I've got another wagonload of supplies like this impounded up in Herk's office. I'll get somebody over in Prescott to send it to you for a reward.

  Clay McCord : If you just stay in your office up in Prescott, that'll be reward enough for me.

• [last lines] 

  Clay McCord : Well, here's your badge, Marshal. Consider me unsworn.

  Marshal Simon Fry : Aw, why don't you keep it. You never know when you might be using it again.

  Marshal Simon Fry : [narrating]  Clay kept it. We both knew he'd be using it again.