The Scarlet Pimpernel
1934
Percy Blakeney: They seek him here, they seek him there, / Those Frenchies seek him everywhere. / Is he in heaven? Or is he in hell? / That damned elusive Pimpernel!
Percy Blakeney: (before reciting his poem to Winterbottom) Slap me, I'm bubbling over with good humor this morning. Would you believe me, I've just written a masterpiece. Col Winterbottom: Who, sir? You, sir? Percy Blakeney: Me, sir Col Winterbottom: No, sir. Percy Blakeney: Yes, sir. All about this mysterious Pimpernel fellow. How it came to me Heaven only knows, because it was the busiest moment of the day. Damn me, I was tying my cravat.
Citizen Chauvelin: (after reciting his poem to Chauvelin) Delightful. Percy Blakeney: What? Citizen Chauvelin: Especially that line, "Those Frenchies seek him everywhere." Percy Blakeney: Yes, I like that, too, because you see, I hear that they do and that gives the line a sort of something... sort of gives it... uh... uh... something. Uh... u-uh... if I make myself clear. Citizen Chauvelin: Clear as crystal.
Percy Blakeney: Open up your sleeves, man. Let your ruffles take the air. Let them flow. Let them ripple.
Col Winterbottom: Are you being offensive, sir? Percy Blakeney: Who, sir? Me, sir? No, sir.
Percy Blakeney: Magnificent fight this afternoon, my dear. Gad! That Mendoza's got quick ears. In the 10th round, when Jackson had him down, I shouted, "Get up, Mendoza!" And damn me, he did and sink me, he won!
Prince of Wales: (of Sir Percy) Spineless, brainless and useless...
Lady Marguerite Blakeney: Can't you rise above trivialities for once? Percy Blakeney: Can't rise above anything longer than three syllables, my dear - never could.
Armand St. Just: (of Marguerite's betrayal of St-Cyr) And that is why you ceased to love her? What a tragedy. Percy Blakeney: Ceased? The tragedy is that I shall love her until the day I die.
Percy Blakeney: (to Marguerite) It's a dangerous game, falling in love with a phantom. For all you know, he's a married man deeply in love with his wife...
Elderly citizen of Boulogne: We shall have to teach perfidious Albion a lesson! Percy Blakeney: (to fellow-members of League disguised as French soldiers) It won't take *us* long to cross the Channel, eh boys?