Manuel Fidello Quotes in Captains Courageous (1937)

Harvey: I bet I know a lot of things you don't know. I know that's not French you're singing.

Manuel Fidello: That's right. About ten million people know it Portuguese.

Harvey: I bet you can't speak French.

Manuel Fidello: Right now, I sorry I speak *English*.

Manuel Fidello: 15 years I've been fisherman, first time I catch fish like you.

[blows conch shell, and heads towards boat ringing bell]

Manuel Fidello: HEY, Aboard the vessel!

Captain Disko Troop: Hey!

Manuel Fidello: I bring you new kind of fish.

Captain Disko Troop: What'chu get?

Manuel Fidello: I got new kind of fish. He got no tail. He got pants on his dorsal fin. I think maybe he about 10 year old.

[pulls up next to schooner and start hauling up boy]

Dan Troop: Aw, its a kid ain't it?

Manuel Fidello: Oh, Long Jack, what are you worry about? He admit the whole thing, like regular grown fella. He say he sorry. Everything all right now.

'Long Jack': Nothing's all right till I beat his ears off! Get outta my way.

Manuel Fidello: You touch that kid, I tear you apart, see! Manuel talking, I tear you apart, see! So don't get me mad, Long Jack. I get all crazy and sick inside.

Captain Disko Troop: Inquiring if Harvey is earning his keep: Manuel?

Manuel Fidello: It's okay, he do some work.

Harvey: I did not. - That was work.

Manuel Fidello: You clean something off deck, no?

Harvey: You made me do something.

Manuel Fidello: That was work.

Manuel Fidello: My father was the best fisherman on the whole Madeira islands! And that's everyplace.

Harvey: Well, that's not so much.

Manuel Fidello: How you mean not so much?

Harvey: Well, I mean he didn't do much for you. I mean, he didn't leave you anything.

Manuel Fidello: He didn't leave - ? He-he leave me this hurdy-gurdy that his grandfather leave him! He teach me how to fish, how to sail boat! He give me arms and hands and feet, feeling good outside and he teach me how to feel good inside! My father do all this and he have 17 other kids beside - what else a father do?

Manuel Fidello: Wake up, Little Fish. Hey, wake up, wake up! Somebody think you dead, they have celebrations.

Manuel Fidello: I gonna get nifty suit. You know, purple colored. Oh, very nifty suit, with shoes to match and big pearl buttons. Oh, and then I get new tie with big yellow flowers. Oh, then I walk up and down Duckett Street, and I say "Hey, girls, girls. Hey, look, look. Manuel is in town."

Harvey: Girls?

Manuel Fidello: Oh sure, beautiful girls. I get maybe five, six girls in Gloucester. I tell each one I like her best. You gotta tell big lies to girls to make them happy.

Manuel Fidello: [Imitating the fog horn of a passing Ocean Liner] O-o-o-o-o! O-o-o-o-o! You try run Manuel down, huh? You big killer whale smokestack. You try swallow Manuel - like he little smelt, huh? O-o-o-o-o! O-o-o-o-o! That's all you ever gonna say. O-o O-o-o!

Manuel Fidello: Look, Long Jack. He's got such few fish, they die of loneliness, I think!

'Long Jack': You did better maybe?

Manuel Fidello: Aww, wait you see what I get. I get fish with hair on him!

Manuel Fidello: Aw, there my new kind of fish. How you feel, little fish?

Manuel Fidello: Hey! I do more work as you do with your best girl six brothers!

Manuel Fidello: [SInging] Yea-ho, little fish, don't cry, don't cry. Yea-ho, little fish, don't cry, don't cry. Once Doc makes a biscuit and throw them away, next day no more fish come around boat to play. Yea-ho, little fish, don't cry, don't cry. Yea-ho, little fish, don't cry, don't cry. Said cabbage to fish cake who lay on one dish, I beautiful cabbage you only poor fish. Yea-ho, little fish, don't cry, don't cry. Yea-ho, little fish, don't cry, don't cry...

Harvey: All cleared up, hasn't it? The weather - its nice now.

Manuel Fidello: It was till you come up.

Harvey: Well, they sent me up.

Manuel Fidello: [Sarcastically] No. No, I bet they ask you stay.

Manuel Fidello: I guess you don't know nothing, huh? Sailor's angel he fly around up there all time. You watch here, look out for 25 men below. He watch, up there, he look out for you. You go asleep, maybe. He tap you on shoulder with his wing and he say, "Hey, Manuel, wake up, I ashamed for you." He very nice fella. Everybody know that.

Harvey: Why do you keep singing for?

Manuel Fidello: Because I like to sing.

Harvey: I never heard that song before.

Manuel Fidello: Me neither. I just make 'em up.

Harvey: You can't write songs.

Manuel Fidello: I don't write 'em. I just find 'em in my mouth.

Harvey: A song can't be any good like that! When you just make it up.

Manuel Fidello: Say, that's best kind songs. When you feel good inside, like-like trade winds, she just come out.

[singing]

Manuel Fidello: O my beautiful lady...

Harvey: People learn songs. Songs aren't just inside of people like that.

Manuel Fidello: Say, sometimes a song so big and sweet inside, I-I I just can't get 'em out. And then I look up at stars and maybe cry, it feels so good. Don't you never feel like this? No, I guess you don't.

Manuel Fidello: My father, when he alive, he made better songs than me!

Harvey: What kind of songs did he sing?

Manuel Fidello: Songs about the sun and the sea. Songs about the clouds. Big songs - about the wind and the storms. And little songs too - about the tip on my mother's nose. Oh, my father, he feel beautiful inside.

Manuel Fidello: He beat us into Gloucester this trip, too, I think.

Captain Disko Troop: Oh, you think so, do ya? Well, now listen to me, I'm gonna tell you something. I ain't so dumb! Fussin' around like that will make him think the fishin' is good here. Then, in the mornin', when the fog banks roll in, we'll sneak out and leave him sittin' here. Baitin' big and catchin' small, while we're out findin' fish! We'll have a full hole and be tied up in Gloucester by the first of August and he'll still be out here, flounderin' around, tryin' to catch fish or I'll look more like a halibut than he did.

Manuel Fidello: [singing] There's a place in my heart for the one I love best, And I still have her picture tattooed on my chest. Yea-ho, little fish, don't cry, don't cry. Yea-ho, little fish, don't cry, don't cry...

Manuel Fidello: Go away with your foolish questions which don't have no brain!

Manuel Fidello: [singing] Bingo, Bingo, came to woo her, brought a lot of presents to her, O what a terrible man, O what a terrible man...

Manuel Fidello: You fish for sperm whale maybe?

Harvey: He-he.

Manuel Fidello: Don't laugh. Beside, you laugh no good. He-he-he-he. Like seagull.

Harvey: I guess I want to do something.

Manuel Fidello: Yes, but you want to do just what you want to do! I tell you what you do, you go below in galley and help Doc. You carry slops. You sweat in galley like Dan did, before you talk about being fisherman. Go on, now, go on.

Manuel Fidello: You think Manuel soft with that kid, huh? You think cause I catch him I let him still be Jonah, huh?

'Long Jack': It might go faster if our Jonah-catcher would throw away his hand-line and bend on a troll for once.

Manuel Fidello: You no think I catch as much as fish as you, huh, Jack?

'Long Jack': I ain't sayin' that.

Manuel Fidello: Maybe you just bump your head on bunk when you get up this morning, huh?

'Long Jack': Or, maybe you Portuguese just don't know nothin' about troll fishing.

Manuel Fidello: I tell you what I do, I take Jonah-kid with me tomorrow. I fish hand-line, I show him same time. I bet you we bring in fish as you and Nate together.

'Long Jack': Speak English, will ya: more fish as me and Nate together.

Harvey: More fish *than* you and Nate together.

[Crew laughs]

Manuel Fidello: Now, come on. 1-2-3 Row! Row! We get some place. Bottom of the ocean, I think, frankly.

Manuel Fidello: Now we fish. - Well, go on, bait your hook. How you think he gonna fish, sitting there looking at me! - Naw, you bait just like you row boat. Here. Look. You must put barb all way through. Like this. Otherwise, that fish he spit that out six seven times when he feels something. You know, this fish he don't go to school. He don't know French; but, he pretty smart too. Now, drop him down to bottom. Then pull up - 'bout six inches, maybe, so he can fish straight in eye and say, "Look here, I got corn beef and cabbage."

Harvey: Here, I've got one!

[Pulls up his line, but no fish]

Manuel Fidello: You got new idea, maybe, too, huh? What you think? We just feed fish, free, here, for nothing?

Harvey: I-I guess I was too anxious, again.

Manuel Fidello: I told you, stay away from that anxious business. Let the fish be anxious. Here. Look. One - Two - Now it's in his mouth - Now, up he come.

Harvey: Gosh, can I take him off the hook?

Manuel Fidello: We got not time for that. We don't know these fish personal.

Harvey: Gee, I've got one now!

Manuel Fidello: All right, pull 'em up! Pull 'em up! Don't let him stay down there and tell all other fish what is going on. Pull 'em up!

[Harvey almost falls out of the boat]

Manuel Fidello: Hey, wait a minute, Hey. You gonna bring fish up see you? You going down see him? Pull 'em up!

Manuel Fidello: Nothing going on, here, now. That fish he have meeting down below. He tell all other fish there's something not so funny going on.

Harvey: Oh, oh, I'm sorry.

Manuel Fidello: What you sorry about?

Harvey: Well, I mean, your father, they didn't find him.

Manuel Fidello: What they need find him for? He all right.

Harvey: Well, but, drowning out in the ocean, all alone at night.

Manuel Fidello: What's the trouble about that? That fine way. The savior, he take my father up to fishermen's heaven - with all his old friends.

Manuel Fidello: Savior, he see my father all tired and wet down there in the water. So, he light the harbor buoy and he say, "Come on up, old Manuel. I so happy you come up here to help us." And my father, he say, "Thank you. I am very happy to come up, too. Maybe I show you something about fishing up here, huh?" And then they all laugh. And the Savior he put his arm around my father and he give him brand new dory to fish in.

Harvey: Do you think they really fish in heaven?

Manuel Fidello: Well, sure they fish in heaven. What else they do?

Manuel Fidello: The Apostles, they all fishermen, ain't they? Remember that Simon called Peter? Remember that time when he don't catch no fish in the Sea of Galilee? And the Savior, he stand on the shore and he say, "Simon, you throw your net on the right side." Simon, he throw his net on the right side and he catch so many fish his net almost break in two. Oh, I think the Savior, he the best fish man. But, my father, he come next.

Manuel Fidello: Hey, sleepyface! Look! You log on the bunk.

Harvey: Oh, say, I didn't...

Manuel Fidello: Easy now, easy, he's a big one. And stay off your backside, you hear me. Come on, pull 'em up!

Harvey: I'm try-trying to...

Manuel Fidello: Oh, you want Manuel's help, huh? I think you get blisters. Blisters good for fisherman. Come on, pull 'em up! Pull 'em up!

Manuel Fidello: By golly, my little fish catch fish bigger than he is.

Manuel Fidello: Manuel and his little fish, they beat everybody. We make fisherman out of you, huh, little fish?

Manuel Fidello: I think you put hooks in yourself, so you got chance to drink more rum, huh?

Manuel Fidello: What's the matter, little fish? You sleepy?

Harvey: I-I'm so ashamed, Manuel.

Manuel Fidello: Sure. We all got to be ashamed once. So we don't do things again when we got be ashamed of, see?

Manuel Fidello: [singing] There's a school of fish when I leap in the sea. Where the little fish study geography.

[Talking]

Manuel Fidello: My father, he teach this song and I put your kind of words to it.

[singing]

Manuel Fidello: Now they write on the slate and they read from a book. Learn to run with the bait and just leave 'em the hook.

[Talking]

Manuel Fidello: I gotta sing every time I get mad. It drive those flying fish out of my stomach, you know?

[singing]

Manuel Fidello: Yea-ho little fish, don't cry, don't cry. You'll be a balaya by and by.

[Talking]

Manuel Fidello: Balaya - that mean *big* fish, like whale, you know?

[singing]

Manuel Fidello: With your fins and a tail to help you sail. And maybe some wings to help you fly. Yea-ho little fish, don't cry, don't cry. Yea-ho little fish, don't cry, don't cry...

Manuel Fidello: I think maybe I light candle for myself, too. I had a few bad thoughts this trip.

Harvey: You never had any bad thoughts.

Manuel Fidello: Oh, sure.

Harvey: What were they?

Manuel Fidello: Oh, I forget 'em now; but, I had them, I think.

Manuel Fidello: We have good times together, say little fish. We laugh. We sing. So, you smile, now. So, smile.