Mannix (TV Series)

A Word Called Courage (1975)

Joseph Sirola: Harry

Quotes 

• [first lines] 

  Joe Mannix : Mr. Lassiter, it's Joe Mannix.

  [no response] 

  Joe Mannix : Are you there, Mr. Lassiter?

  Harry : [laughing]  Present and accounted for, Lieutenant.

  [walks up to Joe] 

  Harry : Take a good look. It's been a long time.

  Joe Mannix : Elliott. Harry Elliott?

  Harry : *Sergeant* Harry Elliott to you, Lieutenant.

  Joe Mannix : Korea's a war nobody remembers, Harry.

  Harry : I remember.

  Joe Mannix : Why the, uh, Lassiter pitch on the phone? Why set up a date in the dark?

  Harry : Would you have shown up if I said it was Harry *Elliott* calling?

  Joe Mannix : No.

  [turns to leave] 

  Harry : MANNIX! You remember what a booby trap looks like, don't you? I mean, Korea isn't *that* long ago.

  Joe Mannix : What's the gag, Harry?

  Harry : No gag. This dock is wired. Don't you remember? The little old demolition man-- me. I turn the switch, boom!

  Joe Mannix : Okay, Harry. I'm listening. What do you want?

  Harry : All right. I did a lot of years in Leavenworth because of you, Mannix.

  Joe Mannix : I didn't court-martial you, Harry, the Army did.

  Harry : On your testimony.

  Joe Mannix : Passing intelligence to the enemy in a P.O.W. camp is a military crime.

  Harry : What intelligence? You mean that phony information you fed me... deliberately?

  Joe Mannix : You knew the rules, Harry-- name, rank, serial number. You don't talk.

  Harry : Everybody talks.

  Joe Mannix : Wrong.

  Harry : I said *everybody* talks. When you can't sleep, and the interrogation goes on... and on, day after day. You talk.

  Joe Mannix : No, Harry. There's a word called courage.

  Harry : And you think I was born without guts, right, Lieutenant? That's how you had me pegged. That's why you, uh... set me up.

  Joe Mannix : What the hell are you talking about?

  Harry : You know what I'm talking about. It was a plant. You sent m out on that mission because you knew I'd be captured. You wanted the North Koreans to squeeze that information out of me. The phony position, the hardware where it was supposed to be. All of it counterfeit, Mannix. You filled me up with it, and then you sent me out, 'cause you figured I was the guy in the outfit who was sure to crack.

  Joe Mannix : Who fed you that line?

  Harry : A broad. In a bar.

  Joe Mannix : Who was she?

  Harry : General McCutcheon's private secretary. Marjorie Ellis. How about that, Mannix? Small world, huh? Marjorie Ellis. A board in a bar. And she's got all the secrets in the general's files.

  Joe Mannix : Marjorie Ellis told you I set you up?

  Harry : That's right.

  Joe Mannix : She lied, Harry, believe me. Check it out.

  Harry : Check what out? With who? The general's dead. A lot of us are dead. Not you, not me. We're alive. Maybe.

  Joe Mannix : [checks his watch]  Well, I'm losing sleep, Harry.

  Harry : You pay attention! My fingers are getting very itchy, Mannix. I've been thinking about you for a long time, Mannix. Ever since I got out on the street. I said to myself, "I wonder how long the Lieutenant would last if somebody worked on him the way the gooks worked on me? I wonder how good a soldier he would be?" So I'm gonna send you out on a mission, Lieutenant, like you sent me. With some information the enemy wants.

  Joe Mannix : What sort of information?

  Harry : Name, that's all. Just a name. You're to keep this name from people... in a certain business who want the name I'm going to give you. That name is Rusty. Got it? Rusty. Now you give it to them, and you survive. But if you do... somebody buys a bullet. Life for a life. Now, that's the choice I had. Now it's yours. Don't forget. The name is Rusty.