Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)

John Ericson: Pete Wirth

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Quotes 

• Pete Wirth : My memories are so pleasant as it is...

  John J. Macreedy : 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 Wirth : You don't have to remind me. I've never forgotten.

  John J. Macreedy : 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 sitting around here telling 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?

• Doc T.R. Velie Jr. : 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 Wirth : 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.

  John J. Macreedy : Yeah, he got turned down, trying to enlist.

  Pete Wirth : Well, when he got back, he was pretty sore. Around ten o'clock, we all started drinking.

  John J. Macreedy : Ten in the morning.

  Pete Wirth : 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.

  John J. Macreedy : Then you got scared and buried him, and kept your mouths shut, hmm?

  Pete Wirth : Yeah.

  John J. Macreedy : Well, go ahead and have your drink now. You're gonna need it.

• Coley Trimble : 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.

  Reno Smith : 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 Wirth : Why don't we wait?... I mean, maybe he won't find anything. Maybe he'll just go away.

  Reno Smith : 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 Wirth : Let's wait and see. There's no danger yet.

  Reno Smith : 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 Wirth : You're in such a hurry, you should have never got off here.

• Pete Wirth : You're mighty quick to kill - he's not an animal!

  Reno Smith : Well, listen to little spitfire. You miserable little toad! I'm saving your neck.

• Pete Wirth : You'd be smart to get out, too, Doc.

  Doc T.R. Velie Jr. : There's too many smart guys around here. I'm glad I'm a dummy!

  Pete Wirth : You're a troublesome dummy. You're liable to end up on your own slab.