4th most-quoted character in Bad Day at Black Rock (1955): in 4 of its 34 quotes
Most scenes with: Macreedy (3), Doc T.R. Velie Jr. (2)
Scenes with Pete
4 scenes
C Coley
I think Macreedy's a nothin', a nobody...So there's nothin' to worry about...What can he find out? That Komoko...Suppose he finds out.
A nobody like Macreedy can raise a pretty big stink. The point is - who'd miss a nobody like Macreedy if he just, uh, say, disappeared? Who, Coley?...
Pete Why don't we wait?...I mean, maybe he won't find anything. Maybe he'll just go away.
Not Macreedy. I know those maimed guys. Their minds get twisted. They put on hair-shirts and act like martyrs. All of 'em are do-gooders, freaks, troublemakers.
Pete Let's wait and see. There's no danger yet.
No danger, he says. This guy's like a carrier of small pox. Since he's arrived, this town has a fever, an infection, and it's spreading.
Pete You're in such a hurry, you should've never got off here.
I'm inclined to agree with you.
Pete My memories are so pleasant as it is...
It's gonna take an awful lot of whiskey to wash out your guts. Go on, go on! Swill it! What is there left for you to do? You're as dead as Komoko and you don't know it....
Pete You don't have to remind me. I've never forgotten.
Oh, isn't that noble of you. You haven't forgotten. And you're ashamed. That's really noble of you. I suppose four years from now, you'll be sittin' around here tellin' people you haven't forgotten me either. That's real progress. In the meantime, I'll be as dead as a - WHY DON'T YOU TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED? [To Doc] What happened?
Why did you come here, Mr. Macreedy?
Did Komoko have any other family besides his son Joe?
Son? Nobody around here ever knew he had a son.
Yes, he had a son. He's dead too. He's buried in Italy...Why, this Komoko boy died trying to save my life. They gave him a medal. I came here to give it to his old man. I figured the least I could do was give him one day out of my life.
Smith owned Adobe Flat. He leased it to Komoko. He figured he had cheated him because you gotta have water to raise anything. There never was any water on Adobe Flat. Komoko dug a well. He must have gone down sixty feet.
Pete He got plenty of water. That made Smith pretty sore. He didn't like Japs anyway. The day after Pearl Harbor, Smith went to Sand City.
Yeah, he got turned down, trying to enlist.
Pete Well, when he got back, he was pretty sore. Around ten o'clock, we all started drinking.
Pete Yeah. Smith, Coley, Sam, Hector, and me - we were all drunk. Patriotic drunk. We wanted to go out to scare the Jap a little and have a little fun. Well, when we got there, he heard us comin' and he locked the door. And then Smith started a fire. And the Jap - he came running out. His clothes were all burning. And then Smith shot him. I didn't even know he had a gun.
Then you got scared and buried him, and kept your mouths shut, hmm?
Pete Yeah.
Well, go ahead and have your drink now. You're gonna need it.
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