:34:00
Mother.
:34:01
You've brought chocolates,
two whole boxfuls.
:34:03
- What a treasure trove.
- I already refused them.
:34:06
- On ascetic grounds.
- You're an absolute flatulent, Emily.
:34:08
Take the things if you want them.
:34:10
I shall have one later
and save the rest for your father.
:34:12
You must be Emily's new lover
since she hasn't bothered to introduce us.
:34:15
You must be her mother.
:34:17
You found the chink in my armor.
What are your religious views?
:34:20
- I'm a practicing coward.
- That's very fervent of you.
:34:23
I should have known
you two would get on.
:34:25
You're as dotty as she is, Charlie.
:34:27
Before the war,
I was an assistant night manager...
:34:30
of a diplomatic hotel in Washington, D.C.
:34:31
What made you say that?
:34:33
Lord, I feel like Alice at the tea party.
:34:35
He's going to tell us
about a religious experience.
:34:38
Yes. It was my job as assistant
night manager to arrange things...
:34:42
for many of the great historical figures
on great historical missions.
:34:46
What exactly did you arrange?
:34:47
Usually I arranged girls,
but individual tastes varied, of course.
:34:50
Of course.
:34:52
It's useful work, anyway,
especially in a war.
:34:55
I was offered all sorts of commissions
in the Army and the Navy.
:34:57
The one I have now. Adm. Jessup
phoned me to join his staff...
:35:01
but I'd always been a little embarrassed
by my job at the hotel...
:35:04
and I wanted to do something redeeming.
:35:07
War is the only chance a man has
to do something redeeming.
:35:11
- That's why war is so attractive.
- War's very handsome, I agree.
:35:14
At any rate, I turned down
Adm. Jessup's offer...
:35:17
and I enlisted in the Marines as a private.
:35:19
I even applied for combat service.
:35:21
My wife, to all appearances
a perfectly sensible woman...
:35:24
encouraged me in this idiotic decision.
:35:27
Seven months later, I found myself
invading the Solomon Islands.
:35:31
There I was splashing away
in the shoals of Guadalcanal.
:35:35
It occurred to me a man could get killed
doing this kind of thing.
:35:39
Fact is, most of the men
splashing along with me...
:35:42
were screaming in agony
and dying like flies.
:35:44
Those were brave men dying there.
:35:47
Peacetime, they'd all been
normal, decent cowards...
:35:49
frightened of their wives,
trembling before their bosses...
:35:52
terrified of the passing of the years.
:35:54
But war had made them gallant.
:35:55
They had been greedy men.
Now they were self-sacrificing.
:35:58
They had been selfish.
Now they were generous.