Trader Horn (1931)

Harry Carey: Aloysius 'Trader' Horn

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Quotes 

• Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Aye, you needn't think there isn't beauty to be found in Africa - beauty and terror. Terror can be a sort of beauty too. If two fellas stand up to it together. - - Sometimes, of course, it's better for two fellas to run away together.

  [laughs] 

• Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : They have a telegraph, though - drums. There's a sound that'll crawl up your spine and down to your gizzard. Maybe you'll hear it one of these days.

  Peru : And maybe when I do, I will be very frightened, eh?

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Maybe.

  Peru : Anyway, I'd like to hear those drums. I think maybe it is fun to be frightened.

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : No, laddie. It's no fun.

• Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Aye, that's Africa for you. When you're not eating somebody you're trying to keep somebody else from eating you.

• Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Don't strain your gizzard, lad. She's a middling hefty lass.

• Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Now, what would I be doin' away from Africa? Why when you two people are a humdrum married couple, I'll still be tradin' rivers where no white man ever dared to come before. And I'll still be beholden to the wonders of the jungle and never grow old before a man's eyes, like a woman does. No, lad, I couldn't live away from them things.

• Peru : Look, Horn!

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Aye, I remember. Its a rare thing bein' a lad and seeing strange sights for the first time. Painted aborigines. Queer shapes of death and cannibals.

  Peru : There are cannibals?

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Aye! A God-fearin' race they are. Except, as you say, in a matter of diet.

• [first lines] 

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Say, did I ever tell you, Peru, I was the first white man to ever set eyes on this river?

  Peru : Yes, several times.

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : I was about your age then, 18 years old or - or maybe 17.

  Peru : Pardon me, I am 23!

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Well, I was speakin' not so much of years, lad, as of common sense.

  [laughs] 

• Peru : Tell me, why'd you ever come the first time up this river?

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Oh, for one thing or another: ivory, hides, rubber - adventure! Same as you.

• Peru : My father always used to tell me, Trader Horn knows everything about Africa.

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Everything? No, lad. More than a warthog, maybe; but, not near so much as an elephant. Of course, no white man knows more of Africa than I.

• Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Your father was my friend. So, maybe he was over partial to me.

  Peru : You have loved my father. Didn't you?

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Laddie, your father was the finest gentleman I ever knew. I was a young lad then. Funny too, him knowin' no more of the Lord's English than a Zulu.

• Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Now, I'll show you how we honest traders get a house full of ivory, for a fistful of salt.

  Peru : For salt?

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Aye, the natives would swap their mothers for it.

• Peru : Who are they?

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Maasai. The fiercest fighters in Africa and all they eat is milk and fresh blood. The young ones have to kill a man or a lion, singlehanded.

• Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : When the Maasai and Kikuyu's get together, the devil's in it!

• Peru : Further up the river?

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Yes.

  Peru : I thought you weren't looking for adventure?

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : When I set out to trade a river, I trade it!

• Peru : Horn, what is this JuJu?

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : A magical act. God knows how it started or where it comes from. But, as long as those drums call, every black devil in the bush will be a homicidal maniac. If your skin happens to be white...

• Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Rencharo ain't much to look at; but, you'll find him half bulldog, half watchful mother.

• Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : She isn't afraid of anything. She's the bravest woman in all Africa. Why, she takes her bibles places I wouldn't take my rum.

• Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : There has to be a first time for everything, ma'am. I lived in Africa 10 years before I was mauled by a leopard and 20 years before a gorilla ever laid a hand on me.

• Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Black beast - the walls of Jericho!

• Peru : Why can't we all go?

  Edith Trent : That's kind. That's very generous of you. But, I can't allow it.

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Allow it, ma'am?

  Edith Trent : No. You see, men with guns would startle them into violence; but, a woman alone, might get through.

• Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : I'm not fool enough to believe that anything's impossible in Africa.

• Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : No white man ever saw them before you did!

• Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Now, you're disappointed to have a myth exploded. But, truth has a charm of its own.

• Peru : Is it usual to see so many animals so close together?

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Aye, lad. Beast are like people. They congregate where living is the best and easy. Sometimes, of course, if they're crowded, like humans, they herd together.

• Peru : Do animals talk together?

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : No, lad. But, they pass word along, from one to another. Just the same as men do. Only, they don't gossip!

• Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : You know, the lion is short on brains - like a lot of imposing people.

• Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Well, lad, that's Africa for you. One dead man, two dead beasts, and no one the better for it.

• Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Do you realize we haven't seen any game now for an hour, lad?

  Peru : Does that mean something?

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Everything in nature means something, lad. The question is: what it means?

• Peru : Horn, white! - - She is beautiful.

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Aye and as great a savage as any of the black ones.

• Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Oh, what's a man without his weapons? No strength to knock a buck over. No claws to hold him with. No teeth to tear out his throat.

• Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : He was the finest gun-boy in all Africa.

• Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Well, lad, weren't we the pair of fools.

• Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : We must get her up a little more respectable looking.

  [to one of his black lackeys] 

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Hey, one of you monkeys, bring a blanket.

• Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : We can't put off the beginning of her education. You bring her, lad. You can take care of her, fine.

  Peru : Me?

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : She didn't learn that kissing from the Pygmies, did she?

  Peru : But, Horn, I can explain about that.

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : You can't explain the way of a man with a maid - especially a young man.