The 39 Steps quotes

View Quote [after kissing a strange woman on a train] I was desperate. I'm terribly sorry. I had to do it. Look here, my name is Hannay. They're after me. I swear I'm innocent. You've got to help me. I've got to keep free for the next few days.

View Quote The idle rich? That's kind of an old-fashioned topic these days, especially for me because I'm not rich and I've never been idle. I've been very busy all my life and I expect to be much busier quite soon....And I know what it is to feel lonely and helpless and to have the whole world against me, and those are things that no man or woman ought to feel. And I ask your candidate and all those who love their fellow men to set themselves resolutely to make this world a happier place to live in, a world where no nation plots against nation. Where no neighbor plots against neighbor, where there is no persecution or hunting down, where everybody gets a square deal and a sporting chance, and where people try to help and not to hinder. A world from which suspicions of cruelty and fear have been forever banished. That is the sort of world I want! Is that the sort of world you want.

View Quote [a flock of sheep block the road as the car screeches to a halt] Hello, what are we stopping for? Oh it's a whole flock of detectives.

View Quote He murdered three wives and got away with it, but his third mother-in-law got the goods on him and tried to have him arrested. Did she succeed? No! He was too quick for her. Took her for a walk to Land's End and shoved her over into the Atlantic Ocean. He's in Mme. Tussaud's all right, and there's no doubt about his department. We must go down and see him sometime. Can't mistake him. Third on the left as you go in. Red whiskers and a hare-lip. And that, lady, is the sad story of my life. A poor orphan boy who never had a chance.

View Quote I've got it! I've got it! Of course, there are no papers missing. All the information's inside Memory's head...Don't you see? The details of the Air Ministry secrets were borrowed, memorized by this little man, and then replaced before anyone could find out. That's why he's here tonight to take Memory out of the country after the show.

View Quote What are the Thirty-Nine Steps? Come on! Answer up! What are the Thirty-Nine Steps?

View Quote [to his wife] As soon as I've picked up - you-know-what, I'll clear out of the country.

View Quote Oh, he's gone to London already, has he?...The girl handed him over to us thinking we were detectives...He's cleared out already...He thought it too dangerous with Hannay on the loose. He's warning the whole Thirty-Nine Steps. Has he got the, uh, you-know? Yes. He's picking up our friend at the London Palladium on the way out.

View Quote Annabella Smith: There's a man in Scotland whom I must visit next if anything is to be done. It's only a matter of days, perhaps hours, before the secret is out of the country. The police will not believe me any more than you did. I tell you, these men act quickly, quickly, quickly.

View Quote Sheriff: And this bullet stuck among the hymns, eh? Well, I'm not surprised, Mr. Hannay. Some of those Calvinist prayers are terrible hard to get through.

View Quote Pamela: [to Hannay] The show just about suits you...Crazy Month.

View Quote Mr. Memory: The Thirty-Nine Steps is an organization of spies, collecting information on behalf of the foreign office of... [sound of a gunshot]

View Quote Smith: Listen, I'm going to tell you something which is not very healthy to know, but now that they have followed me here, you are in it as much as I am. Have you ever heard of the Thirty-Nine Steps?
Hannay: No, what's that - a pub?
Smith: Never mind. But what you are laughing at just now is true. These men will stick at nothing. I am the only person who can stop them. If they are not stopped, it is only a matter of days, perhaps hours, before the secret is out of the country.
Hannay: Well, why don't you phone the police or something?
Smith: 'Cause they wouldn't believe me any more than you did. And if they did, how long do you think it would take to get them going. These men act quickly. You don't know how clever their chief is. He has a dozen names, and he can look like a hundred people, but one thing he cannot disguise - this: part of his little finger is missing - so if ever you should meet a man with no top joint there, be very careful, my friend.

View Quote Hannay: [after asking for a coat and hat] Are you married?
Milkman: Yes, but don't rub it in. What's the idea now?
Hannay: Well, I'm not. I'm a bachelor...A married woman lives on the first floor.
Milkman: Does she?
Hannay: Yes, and I've just been paying her a call and now I want to go home.
Milkman: Well, what's preventing you?
Hannay: One of those men...is her husband. Now do you see?
Milkman: Why didn't you tell me before, old fellow? I was just wanting to be told. Trying to keep me with a lot of tales about murderers and foreigners. [The milkman happily and freely offers his coat and hat]...You're welcome to it. You'd do the same for me one day.

View Quote Salesman: [holding up a bra] Put a pretty girl inside those and she needn't be ashamed of herself anywhere.
Traveller: All right. Bring it back to me when it's filled.