The 39 Steps quotes

View Quote Hannay: Mr. Memory, what was the secret formula you were taking out of the country?
Mr. Memory: Will it be all right me telling you, sir? It was a big job to learn it, the biggest job I ever tackled, and I don't want to throw it all away.
Hannay: It will be quite all right.
Mr. Memory: The first feature of the new engine is its greatly increased ratio of compression represented by ...
...
Mr. Memory: This device renders the engine completely silent. Am I right, sir?
Hannay: Quite right, old chap.
Mr. Memory: Thank you, sir. Thank you. I'm glad it's off my mind. Glad.

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: I feel such a fool, not having believed you.
Hannay: Oh, that's all right. Well, we ought to get a move on. What room are those two men in?
Pamela: No room, they went as soon as they telephoned.
Hannay: They what?
Pamela: Didn't I tell you?
Hannay: You let them go after hearing what they said? You, you button-headed little idiot!
Pamela: Don't talk to me like that!
Hannay: Four or five precious hours wasted. Why didn't you wake me up at once? Even you might have realized that what they said was important.

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 Hannay: Now what's the next item on the program?
Pamela: [gesturing toward the handcuffs] Get these things off.
Hannay: Right. How are we going to set about it? Anything in that bag of yours that would help? A pair of scissors or hairpin, or something?
Pamela: A nail file. Well, do you think that'd help?
Hannay: It'll take about ten years, but we can try it. Now let's make ourselves as comfortable as possible. What about that skirt of yours? It's still pretty damp, you know. I don't want to be tied to a pneumonia case on top of everything else. Take it off. I don't mind.
Pamela: I'll leave it on, thank you...My shoes and stockings are soaked so I think I'll take them off.
Hannay: That's the first sensible thing I've heard you say.

View Quote Hannay: Now, will you kindly place yourself on the operating table? [She reacts insulted and shocked.] All right, all right, nobody's gonna hurt you. This is Armistice Day. Let's get some rest while we can.
Pamela: I'm not going to lie on this bed.
Hannay: As long as you're chained to me, you'll lie wherever I lie. We're the Siamese twins.
Pamela: Oh, don't gloat!
Hannay: Gloat? Do you think I'm looking forward to waking up in the morning and seeing your face beside me, unwashed and shiny? What a sight you'll be.

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 Professor: Now, Mr. Hannay - I suppose it's safe to call you by your real name now. What about our mutual friend, Annabella?
Hannay: She's been murdered.
Professor: Murdered? Oh, the Portland Mansions affair. What our friends outside are looking for you for.
Hannay: I didn't do it.
Professor: Of course you didn't. But why come all this way to Scotland to tell me about it?
Hannay: I believe she was coming to see you about some Air Ministry secret. She was killed by a foreign agent who is interested too.
Professor: Did she tell you what the foreign agent looked like?
Hannay: There wasn't time. Oh, there was one thing. Part of his little finger was missing.
Professor: Which one?
Hannay: This one, I think. [He holds up his hand.]
Professor: [holding up his hand] Sure it wasn't...this one?

View Quote Hannay: There are twenty million women in this island and I've got to be chained to you. Now look here, miss. Once more, I'm telling you the truth...I'm telling it to you now for a third time. There's a dangerous conspiracy against this island. We're the only people who can stop it - what you've seen happen right under your very nose.
Pamela: The gallant knight to the rescue.
Hannay: All right. Then, I'm just a plain common murderer who stabbed an innocent, defenseless woman in the back not four days ago. How do you come out over that? I don't know how innocent you may be, but you're a woman and you're defenseless, and you're alone on a desolate moor in the dark manacled to a murderer who would stop at nothing to get you off his hands. And if that's the situation you prefer, have it, my lovely, and welcome.
Pamela: I'm not afraid of...[She sneezes]
Hannay: For all you know, I may murder a woman a week. So listen to one bit of advice. From now on, do every single thing I can easily do, and do it quick.
Pamela: You big bully!
Hannay: I like your pluck!

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 Hannay: Well, I've never been to Glasgow. I've been to Edinburgh and Montreal and London. I'll tell you all about London at supper.
Margaret: John wouldn't approve of that, I doubt.
Hannay: Why not?
Margaret: He says it's best not to think of such places and all the wickedness that goes on there.
Hannay: Well, why not listen now, before he comes back? What did you want to know?
Margaret: Well, is it true that all the ladies paint their toenails?
Hannay: Some of them.
Margaret: Do London ladies look beautiful?
Hannay: They do. But they wouldn't if you were beside them. [John enters the house]
Margaret: You ought not to say that.
John: What ought you not to say?
Hannay: I was just saying to your wife that I prefer living in town than the country.
John: God made the country. Is the supper ready, woman?

View Quote Pamela: What made you wake so soon? Dreams?
Hannay: What do you mean, dreams?
Pamela: I've always been told murderers have terrible dreams.
Hannay: Oh, but only at first. Got over that a long time ago. When I first did a crime, I was quite squeamish about it. I was a most sensitive child.
Pamela: You surprise me.
Hannay: I used to wake up in the middle of the night screaming, thinking the police were after me. But one gets hardened.
Pamela: How did you start?
Hannay: Oh, quite a small way like most of us. Pilfering pennies from other childrens' lockers at school. Then a little pocket-picking and a spot of car-pinching, and smash-and-grab and sordid, plain burglary. Killed my first man when I was nineteen. [He yawns] In years to come, you'll be able to take your grandchildren to Mme. Tussaud's and point me out.
Pamela: Which section?
Hannay: Oh, it's early to say. I'm still young. But I'll be there, all right, in one department or another. Yes, you'll point me out and say: 'Chicks, if I were to tell you how matey I once was with that gentleman...'

View Quote Hannay: Couldn't you realize I was speaking the truth in that railway carriage? You must have seen I was genuine. Well, whether you believe me or not, will you put a telephone call through to the High Commissioner in London and tell him that...an enormously important secret is being taken out of this country by a foreign agent? I can't do anything myself because of this fool of a detective. Has that penetrated?
Pamela: Right to the funny bone. Now tell me another one.
Hannay: Haven't you any sense at all? Put that call through, I beg you or refer them to me. Will you do this?
Pamela: No. Good night.

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

View Quote Detective: [To Pamela, after handcuffing her to Hannay] As long as you stay, he stays. [The detectives leave the car.]
Hannay: [To Pamela] Yes, as long as I go, you go. Come on.