Memorable quotes for
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939) More at IMDbPro »

Sherlock Holmes: You've a magnificent brain, Moriarty. I admire it. I admire it so much I'd like to present it pickled in alcohol to the London Medical Society.
Professor Moriarty: That would make an interesting exhibit. Holmes, you've only now barely missed sending me to the gallows. You're the one man in England clever enough to defeat me. The situation has become impossible.
Sherlock Holmes: Have you any suggestions?
Professor Moriarty: I'm going to break you Holmes. I'm going to bring off right under your nose the most incredible crime of the century, and you'll never suspect it until it's too late. That will be the end of you Mr. Sherlock Holmes. And when I've beaten and ruined you then I can retire in peace. I'd like to retire; crime no longer amuses me. I'd like to devote my remaining years to abstract science.
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Sherlock Holmes: Elementary, my dear Watson.
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[last lines]
Sherlock Holmes: Very effective, my dear Watson!
Doctor John H. Watson: Elementary, my dear Holmes, elementary.
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Sherlock Holmes: I've decided to accept your case, Miss Brandon. I shall help you all I can.
Ann Brandon: Oh, Thank you.
Jerrold Hunter: We don't want your interference, Mr. Holmes.
Sherlock Holmes: I interfere whenever and wherever I like, Mr. Hunter.
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Sherlock Holmes: The nose of the police dog, although long and efficient, points in only one direction at a time.
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Sherlock Holmes: Whatever Watson has found out, you'll know inevitably. I have unbounded confidence in his lack of discretion.
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Dawes: You wanted to see me, sir?
Professor Moriarty: I'm away for a few weeks, Dawes, and I come back to find my anthurium magenta, my incomparable anthurium magenta, withered, ruined...
Dawes: I can't understand it, sir; I took good care of all the plants.
Professor Moriarty: Did you water them?
Dawes: Every day, sir - just as you told me, sir.
Professor Moriarty: Then how does it happen that I find a spider's web spun across the spout of the watering can?
Dawes: That can happen overnight, sir.
Professor Moriarty: Overnight, huh? Then you didn't water them today?
Dawes: There's been so much to do, sir, preparing for your coming back.
Professor Moriarty: Nothing is as important as the care of my flowers. Through your neglect, this flower has died. You've murdered a flower!
Dawes: Why, I'm sorry, sir.
Professor Moriarty: To think that for merely murdering a man I was incarcerated for six whole weeks in a filthy prison cell.
Dawes: A pity, sir!
Professor Moriarty: A travesty on justice!
Dawes: Quite so, sir.
Professor Moriarty: And for this crime, Dawes, you should be flogged, broken on the wheel, drawn and quartered...
Dawes: Yes, sir. Will that be all, sir?
Professor Moriarty: ...and boiled in oil!
Dawes: Thank you, sir.
Professor Moriarty: Go away.
Dawes: Yes, sir.
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Inquisitive Stranger: [Watson is lying in the street in order to reconstruct a murder - a stranger stops and stares] I say, has something happened?
Doctor John H. Watson: Definitely. Would you mind stepping back a few paces?
Inquisitive Stranger: Not at all.
Doctor John H. Watson: Thank you.
Inquisitive Stranger: Perhaps I could find a doctor?
Doctor John H. Watson: I'm a doctor. What's the matter with you?
Inquisitive Stranger: I'm all right. I was thinking of you.
Doctor John H. Watson: Why?
Inquisitive Stranger: But aren't you ill?
Doctor John H. Watson: Certainly not. I'm dead.
Inquisitive Stranger: Well. I'm afraid I must be getting off.
[He leaves, hurriedly]
Doctor John H. Watson: Don't let me detain you. Stupid fellow.
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