Mr. Morgan Quotes in Return to Paradise (1953)

Mr. Morgan: [to Pastor Corbett] I'm not asking for the keys to the city, but I'm not taking orders from any two-bit Mussolini.

Pastor Corbett: You know, Morgan, I've often wondered how you would have fared with the wardens if you hadn't had that... shotgun.

Mr. Morgan: You know, Corbett... tell you a secret. After those first two shots, it was always empty. It still is.

Joey: Mr. Morgan, is there any chance we could get Kat to take her Midol *before* she comes to class?

Mr. Morgan: Someday, you gonna get bitch-slapped and I'm not gonna do a thing to stop it.

Mr. Morgan: [after reading Shakespearean sonnet] Now, I know Shakespeare's a dead white guy, but he knows his shit, so we can overlook that. I want you all to write your own version of this sonnet.

[Kat raises her hand in the background]

Mr. Morgan: Yes, Miss "I Have An Opinion About Everything"?

Mr. Morgan: I know how difficult it must be for you to overcome all those years of upper middle-class suburban oppression. Must be tough. But the next time you storm the PTA crusading for better... lunch meat, or whatever it is you white girls complain about, ask them WHY they can't buy a book written by a black man!

White Rastas: That's right mon!

Mr. Morgan: Don't even get me started on you two!

White Rastas: [Mumble to themselves]

Mr. Morgan: All right, not that I give a damn, but how was everybody's weekend?

Joey: Oh, I dunno, maybe we should ask Kat?

Mr. Morgan: Unless she kicked the crap outta your dumb butt, I don't wanna hear about it!

Mr. Morgan: Get outta my class.

Kat Stratford: What?

Mr. Morgan: Out. Get out!

Joey: Thanks, Mr. Morgan.

Mr. Morgan: Shut up!

Mr. Morgan: Go along with you girl, a cup of tea for the men, is it?

Beth Morgan: Tea?

Cyfartha: Tea? No tea, Mrs. Morgan. In training he is.

[holding up two fingers]

Cyfartha: A glass of beer, if you please.

Beth Morgan: [exasperated sigh]

Mr. Morgan: [Opening] The name of our town is Grover's Corners, New Hampshire. It's just cross the line from Massachusetts. Latitude is 42 degrees, 40 minutes. Longitude is 70 degrees, 37 minutes. Running right through the middle of the town is Main Street. Cutting across Main Street on the left is the railroad tracks. Beyond the railroad tracks is Polish Town. You know, foreign folks who come here to work in the mills or a couple of Canuck families, and the Catholic church. You can see the steeple on the Congregational church. Presbyterian is just across the street. The Methodist and the Unitarian are up a block.The Baptist church is down in the holla'

[Coughs]

Mr. Morgan: by the river. Next to the post office is the town hall; Jail's in the basement. Bryan once made a speech right from those very steps. It's a nice town, y'know what I mean? Nobody very wonderful ever come out of it, so far as we know. The earliest dates on the tombstones up in the cemetery say 1670. They're Grovers and Cartwrights and Gibbses and Herseys. Same names as you find around here now. First, we'll show you a day in our town. Not as it is today in the year 1940, but as it used to be in the year 1901. All right, Operator, let's start. Yes sir, that's the way our town looked back in the year 1901. Along Main Street is a row of stores with hitching posts and blocks in front of them. The first automobile is going to come along in about five years. The date is June 7, 1901. It's just before dawn.

[Rooster crows]

Mr. Morgan: Yeah, just about. The sky's already beginning to show some streaks of light over there in the east, back of our mountain. The morning star gets wonderful bright the moment before it has to go. The only lights on in the town are in a cottage over in Polish Town where a mother is just giving birth to twins and down in the depot where Johnny Hawkins is just getting ready to flag the 5:45 to Boston.

[Train Whistle]

Mr. Morgan: There she is now. Of course, naturally, out in the country and around they've been up for some time, what with milking and so on. But town folks sleep late.

Elliot: [hearing gunshots] Are you in the least bit concerned?

Mr. Morgan: Oh yes, I am. He's got a very expensive watch on him that belongs to a guest of mine.