Phantom Lady (1944)

Franchot Tone: John 'Jack' Marlow

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Quotes 

• Inspector Burgess : We used to talk about the criminal type. Criminal type my eye. It's not how a man looks, it's how his mind works that makes him a killer.

  Jack Marlow : Oh, come on, Inspector. You mean that all great murderers have been... insane?

  Inspector Burgess : You bet your sweet life. You think the Borgias were normal? Dr. Crippen... there was a saint and devil rolled into one. Landru the Bluebeard. Jack the Ripper. Our own gangsters... Legs Diamond, Baby Face Nelson, Dillinger. Paranoiacs all of them. Well, someday we'll have sense enough to train the mind as we train the body... from birth. Then they won't need men like me, and that'll be all right, too. What sort of job is this, anyway? Hunting down a madman.

• Cliff : [nervously]  What are you thinking about?

  Jack Marlow : [looking at his hands]  Oh, how interesting a pair of hands can be. They can trick melody out of a piano keyboard. They can mold beauty out of a piece of common clay. They can bring life back to a dying child. Yeah, a pair of hands can do inconceivable good. Yet the same pair of hands can do terrible evil. They can destroy, whip, torture, even kill. Wish I didn't have to use my hands to hurt another human being.

• Inspector Burgess : No, no, the fact remains that none of you could have committed these murders.

  Jack Marlow : Why not?

  Inspector Burgess : You're all too normal.

  Jack Marlow : Oh. The murderer must be normal enough. He's just clever, that's all.

  Inspector Burgess : Yes, all of them are; diabolically clever.

  Jack Marlow : Who?

  Inspector Burgess : Paranoiacs.

  Jack Marlow : That's simply your opinion. A psychiatrist might disagree.

  Inspector Burgess : No, I've met paranoiacs before. They all have incredible egos. Abnormal cunning. A contempt for life.

  Jack Marlow : You make him sound unbeatable.

• Jack Marlow : [looking around at Cliff's shabby apartment]  What a place. I can feel the rats in the wall.