The Day of the Jackal (1973)

Michael Lonsdale: Lebel

Photos 

Quotes 

• Minister : There is one thing: how did you know whose telephone to tap?

  Lebel : I didn't, so I tapped all of them.

• Lebel : The following conversation was recorded at 6:15 this morning. The number being dialed was identified as Molitor 5901.

  [plays a tape recorder for the council] 

  Denise : Hello.

  Valmy : Yes?

  Denise : Denise.

  Valmy : Valmy here.

  Denise : They know he's a Danish schoolteacher. They're visiting every hotel in Paris.

  [Lebel switches off the recorder] 

  Lebel : The contact was arrested an hour ago. Unfortunately, the information came from this room.

  Minister : Whose voice was that?

  St. Clair : [slowly rises]  I regret to have to inform you, Minister, that it was the voice of a friend of mine... she is staying with me at the moment... excuse me.

  [leaves] 

  Minister : I feel we owe you an apology, Commissioner.

  Lebel : Thank you.

• Caron : You know, sir, what they'll do to you if you don't catch this man in time...

  Lebel : I've been given a job to do, so we'll just have to do it.

  Caron : But no crime has been committed yet, so where are we supposed to start looking for the criminal?

  Lebel : We start by recognizing that, after De Gaulle, we are the two most powerful people in France.

• [Lebel arranges calls from Holland, Belgium, Italy, West Germany, South Africa, the United States and Britain] 

  Caron : Sir, how do you know that the Jackal comes from any of these seven countries?

  Lebel : I don't. But he must be on file somewhere.

• Lebel : The time elapsed from the first to the last shot was 7 seconds. In all, more than 140 shots were fired. 7 bullets pierced the President's car, one coming within an inch of his head, but by a miracle, neither he or anyone else was hurt. Six months later, most of the conspirators had been caught and tried. Their leader, Col. Bastien-Thiry, has been sentenced to death. At the last moment, his lawyer applies one more time for a stay of execution.

  Lawyer : The appeal for clemency has been turned down. There is nothing more that I can do. I am sorry.

  Bastien-Thiry : There is no need.

  Lawyer : For heaven's sake, man, don't you realize that you are going to be shot?

  Bastien-Thiry : You don't understand. No French soldier is going to raise a rifle against me.

• Lebel : [interrogating hotel staff]  But you did say that Madame de Montpelier's bed was slept in by two people?

  Hotel Maid : Yes sir, definitely. You can always tell.

• Colette de Montpelier : Why, I don't know what you're talking about.

  Lebel : Madam, be in no doubt as to the seriousness of your position.

  [Colette stands and moves uneasily to another chair] 

• Lebel : It's obvious that the Jackal has been tipped off all along, and yet he's decided to go ahead, regardless. He's simply challenged the whole lot of us.

  Minister : Are you really suggesting that there's a leak from inside this room?

  Lebel : I can't say. But we think that the Jackal is now in Paris with a new name and a new face, probably masquerading as a Danish schoolteacher.

• Lebel : [running]  Top floor!

• Lebel : Excuse me, but it has just occurred to me that we have forty-eight hours in which to find this Jackal

  [There is a chorus of "What?" and "How do you know?" from the committee members] 

  Lebel : Am I right in assuming that the President has no engagements outside the Elysee Palace today, tomorrow and Saturday ?

  Minister : None.

  Lebel : And what is Sunday, August the twenty-fifth?

  Minister : [Slaps forehead]  Of course! Liberation Day!

  Lebel : That's what he's been waiting for.

  Minister : We must have been blind.

• [On the eve of Liberation Day] 

  Minister : We can't find him. He's vanished, just disappeared off the face of the earth. I don't think we really ever had any idea what kind of a man you've been pursuing for the last two weeks.

  Lebel : What about tomorrow?

  Minister : The President rekindles the Eternal Flame at ten. High Mass is at eleven. There's only one public ceremony in the afternoon, at four o'clock: he will present Liberation medals to veterans of the Resistance.

  Lebel : What about crowd control?

  Minister : Crowds will be kept back from the ceremony further than ever before. Steel barriers go up several hours before each ceremony. Every house inside the barrier ring is searched from top to bottom, including the sewers. The police will be issued with special lapel badges at the last moment, in case he tries to masquerade as a security man. There'll be marksmen inside Notre Dame, even among the congregation. The priests celebrating Mass will be searched for concealed weapons. We'll have firemen and marksmen on every rooftop along the procession route. Dumont has drafted a number of specially tall officers to hedge around the President without him noticing.

• Lebel : I'm beginning to get a feeling about the Jackal...

• [Lebel arrives at the Nice hotel, but finds the Jackal gone] 

  Lebel : Very strange. He was booked in here for two days, then just after eleven he suddenly asks for his bill and leaves...