The Americanization of Emily (1964)

Julie Andrews: Emily Barham

Photos 

Quotes 

• Emily Barham : I believe in honor, service, courage, and fair play, and cricket, and all the other symbols of British character. Which have only civilized half the world!

  Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison : You British plundered half the world for your own profit, let's not pass it off as the age of enlightenment.

• Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison : I don't trust people who make bitter reflections about war, Mrs. Barham. It's always the general with the bloodiest records who are the first to shout what a hell it is. It's always the war widows who lead the Memorial Day parades.

  Emily Barham : That was unkind, Charlie, and very rude.

  Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison : We shall never end wars, Mrs. Barham, by blaming it on the ministers and generals, or warmongering imperialists, or all the other banal bogeys. It's the rest of us who build statues to those generals and name boulevards after those ministers. The rest of us who make heroes of our dead and shrines of our battlefields. We wear our widow's weeds like nuns, Mrs. Barham, and perpetuate war by exalting its sacrifices.

• Emily Barham : You brought me some chocolates.

  Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison : Two boxes of Hershey's.

  Emily Barham : Well, that's very American of you, Charlie. You just had to bring along some small token of opulence. Well, I don't want them. You Yanks can't even show affection without buying something.

  Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison : Well don't get into a state over it. I thought you liked chocolates.

  Emily Barham : I do, but my country's at war and we're doing without chocolates for a while. And I don't want oranges or eggs or soap flakes, either. Don't show me how profitable it will be to fall in love with you, Charlie. Don't Americanize me.

• Emily Barham : You lack principles, Charlie. Isn't there anything you would die for?

  Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison : Sure. I'd die for you, if it ever came to that.

  Emily Barham : I really believe you would.

  [kiss] 

  Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison : There's lots of things I'd die for, Emily; my home, my family, my country. But that's love, not principle.

• Mrs. Barham : ...They're going to put up a monument on his grave.

  Emily Barham : What on earth for? All he did was die. Dear me, we shall be celebrating cancer and automobile smash-ups next.

  Lt. Cmdr. 'Bus' Cummings : [fervently]  He didn't just die, Emily. He sacrificed his life.

  Mrs. Barham : That was very pagan of him.

  Lt. Cmdr. 'Bus' Cummings : He was the first American to die on Omaha Beach.

  Emily Barham : Was there a contest?

• Emily Barham : Well, where have you been? We expected you back a week ago yesterday.

  Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison : Oh, I'm sorry. I had to go to France for a few days. It's out of season this time of year.

  Emily Barham : No one worth knowing was there, I'm sure.

  Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison : A very rough element going to France these days.

• Emily Barham : Then why do it?

  Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison : Because it's the right thing to do.

  Emily Barham : I can't believe it. Is this the Charlie Madison who once said "God save us from all the people who do the right thing, it's the rest of us who get our backs broken"?

• Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison : [while horizontal with Emily]  I'm not your type, you know.

  Emily Barham : Like hell, you're not!

  Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison : I only thought you fancied heroes. I'm yellow, honey, clear through.

  Emily Barham : That's your most attractive quality. Oh,I've had it with heroes! Every man I've loved has died in this war. You'll never get caught in the shooting - that's one thing I;m sure of. You can't imagine how attractive that makes you to me.

• [last lines] 

  Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison : And what do you get out of it?

  Emily Barham : I'll settle for a Hershey bar.

  [kiss] 

  Petty Officer Enright : Hey Bus, there's - there's a million of 'em there. There's correspondents all over the place. Hi Charlie.

  Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison : All right, fink, how do you want me to play it? Modest and self-effacing?

• Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison : You're forever falling for men on their last nights on furlough. That's about the limit of your commitments, one night, a day, a month. You prefer lovers to husbands, hotels to homes. You'd rather grieve than live.

  Emily Barham : You're not only cowardly and selfish; you're remarkably cruel as well.

• Emily Barham : Sheila, do you think I'm a prig?

  Sheila : Oh lord, yes, love. You've been shattering us all with your virtue ever since you joined this motor pool.

  Emily Barham : I've been that awful?

  Sheila : Bloody virgin goddess herself.

  Emily Barham : The fact is I'm anything but. I'm grotesquely sentimental. I fall in love at the drop of a hat. That's why I gave up hospital driving.

• Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison : Emily, I want the world to know what a fraud war is.

  Emily Barham : But war isn't a fraud, Charlie, it's very real. At least that's what you always tried to tell me, isn't it? That we shall never get rid of war by pretending it's unreal? It's the virtue of war that's the fraud, not war itself. It's the valor and the self-sacrifice and the goodness of war that needs the exposing. And here you are being brave and self-sacrificing, positively clanking with moral fervor, perpetuating the very things you detest merely to do "the right thing". Honestly, Charlie, your conversion to morality is really quite funny. All this time I've been terrified of becoming Americanized, and you, you silly ass, have turned into a bloody Englishman.

• Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison : Easy, tiger, that's a tailored shirt.

  Emily Barham : Oh, shut up and let me kiss you.

• Emily Barham : I don't want any more doomed men.

• Mrs. Barham : Emily, I must warn you. Charlie's picture is in all the papers and they're going to put up a monument on his grave.

  Emily Barham : What on earth for? All he did was die. Dear me, we shall be celebrating cancer and automobile smash-ups next.

• Emily Barham : [speaking of the war]  It's just one big Shriner convention for you Yanks.

• Emily Barham : You Americans are really enjoying this war, aren't you?

  Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison : Ma'am?

  Emily Barham : Most English families haven't seen that many oranges or eggs in years. But it's just one big Shriners Convention to you Yanks, isn't it?

  Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison : Well, that's swell, miss...

  Emily Barham : Barham!

  Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison : On to the hotel, Miss Barham. It's nearly lunch.

• Emily Barham : I'd just lost my husband at Tobruk. And I was overwhelmed with bitterness for all dying men.

• Emily Barham : But it all ends in someone's bed, doesn't it? I mean, that's the point, isn't it?

  Sheila : Well, look who's talking, after that lurid confession that you've just made.

  Emily Barham : Sorry. I am a prig at that.

• Emily Barham : I don't want to feel tender towards anyone. Especially soldiers. I've lost a husband, a father and a brother in the war. When my husband died, I almost went insane. I take these things badly. I fall in love too easily, and I shatter too easily. I don't want any more doomed men.

  Sheila : Oh, do come tonight, hon. These men aren't doomed. They'll never see any of the shooting, that's for sure. We'll have a few laughs.

• Emily Barham : All right. I despise cowardice. I detest selfish people and I loathe ruthlessness. Since you are cowardly, selfish and ruthless, I cannot help but despise, detest and loathe you. And that is not the way a woman should feel about the man she's going to marry.