Housemaster (1938)

Otto Kruger: Charles Donkin

Photos 

Quotes 

• Barbara Fane : Oh, I'd forgotten all about you. This is Button, Charles, a ridiculous name, Bimbo's twin.

  Charles Donkin : Good heavens! I hadn't realized Bimbo cold be duplicated.

• Charles Donkin : Eh, time for prayers. Put out your cigar, you're coming with me.

  Sir Berkeley Nightingale : Why?

  Charles Donkin : Oh, it brightens up the boys to see an odd face occasionally.

  Sir Berkeley Nightingale : What do you mean, odd, hmmm?

• Charles Donkin : You are set in authority over 500 of the oddest, shyest, most observant, most critical and least articulate creatures that God ever made. And you treat them as if they were the occupants of a particularly insensitive oyster bed. You've trampled on their most cherished traditions.

  The Rev. Ovington : It is sometimes necessary to trample on traditions.

  Charles Donkin : But not with hobnailed boots.

• Barbara Fane : But, Paris is demoralizing them.

  Charles Donkin : Nonsense. They're demoralizing Paris.

• Victor Beamish : [Spotting Donkin's lit fireplace]  A bit hot for a fire in May, isn't it?

  Charles Donkin : Not in my opinion.

• Frank Hastings : [Noticing the fireplace]  My goodness, a fire in May. Do you mind if I open one of these windows? You can't breathe the same air as you did yesterday, you know?

  Charles Donkin : Frank, for 20 years you've been trying to open my windows. I sometimes wonder who taught you that trick. A fondness for drafts is a purely feminine ploy. And we're both bachelors. We always will be.

• Barbara Fane : What's through there?

  Charles Donkin : Boys, usually

  Barbara Fane : Well, can't she go and play with them?

  Charles Donkin : Play? My dear Barbara, this is a monastic establishment. No female foot ever crosses that threshold.

• Victor Beamish : You know, really, our new headmaster, and his innovations, is getting rather boring. I always think that you ought of been headmaster, Donkin. You are at least comparatively human.

  Charles Donkin : Oh, thank you. We needn't discuss the head mastership. The post is filled by a very brilliant man.

  Victor Beamish : Can you tell me one thing about him that is brilliant?

  Charles Donkin : Certainly. He's a magnificent organizer, a genuine scholar and a born leader That's three things to start with.

  Victor Beamish : And he hasn't got the beginning of an idea of what goes on in a boy's head.

  Charles Donkin : Oh, my dear fellow, how many of us have?

  Victor Beamish : You have.

  Charles Donkin : Well, anyway, he's the head and we've got to back him up.

• The Rev. Ovington : I have decided to put the town permanently out of bounds.

  Charles Donkin : Bur, Mr. Ovington, access to the town has been free and open since time immemorial. The boys won't like their privileges being tampered with.

  The Rev. Ovington : That is the perfectly natural reaction of all boys toward anything that is good for them.

• Barbara Fane : Just before we left, Aubrey said the most extraordinary thing.

  Charles Donkin : What'd he say?

  Barbara Fane : If my darling Angela had had any sense, those children would have been Charles Donkin's, not mine.

  Charles Donkin : What infernal chic. If Angela had married me, our children wouldn't have borne any resemblance to those little horrors.

  Barbara Fane : Oh, I think you're the most cruel, heartless man I know.

  Charles Donkin : I'm not cruel and I'm not heartless.

  Barbara Fane : Yes, you are.

  Charles Donkin : I'm not.

• Button Faringdon : How is Bimbo?

  Charles Donkin : Mmm, uh, as well as can be expected under the circumstances. You see, I flogged him this morning.

  Button Faringdon : Oh, I say, that was daft. Did he yell much?

  Charles Donkin : No, no. Man of iron. Not a sound.

  Button Faringdon : Did you draw blood?

• Charles Donkin : Now, in the future use a little sense. If the headmaster sees fit to put the plantation out of bounds, why go there? And if you must go there, don't try and get caught.

• Charles Donkin : No, I cannot play golf with you, nor any other foolish thing.

  Frank Hastings : Nobody asked you to.

• Charles Donkin : And may I ask why Barbara communicates with me through you? I've known her as long as you have?

  Frank Hastings : Not quite. I introduced you to Barbara and to Angela at a ball.

  Charles Donkin : Imagine you and me at a ball. Well, you anyhow.

• Barbara Fane : A fire in May. You can't breathe the same air as you did yesterday, you know?

  Charles Donkin : I seem to have heard that somewhere before.

• Charles Donkin : Why do we have to have half-term reports anyway... Doesn't the end of term report cast sufficient gloom on the British breakfast table?

• Barbara Fane : [Holding Rosemary]  My wise Angela.

  Charles Donkin : Rosemary, darling.

  Barbara Fane : [Shaking his head]  Angela.

• Charles Donkin : Charles, Philip and I want to go to Vienna and be married. Do you mind?

  Barbara Fane : Yes, I do. Gert married and then go to Vienna.