prologue Quotes in The Big Trees (1952)

prologue: In 1900 the Congress of the United States passed a law which made a young man in Wisconsin decide to prove - that money growas on trees.

Prologue: [Written prologue] He was born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.

Prologue: Toward the close of the last century, when History still wore a Rose, and Politics had not yet outgrown the waltz, a Great Royal Scandal was whispered about in the Anterooms of Europe. However true it was, any resemblance in "The Prisoner of Zenda" to Heroes, Villains, Heroines, living or dead, is coincidence not intended...

Prologue: The Spanish Main - cruel, oppressive and ruthless, where power alone was a man's single title to everything he held dear, including his very life. It was, thus, a cruel fate that a peaceful Dutch pilgrim ship should be driven there by torrential waves - and crash upon the rocks immediately outside Cartagena, its most remorseless citadel.

Prologue: The history of the west was written with the blood of men both good and bad. In 1880, the last frontier was being won to the music of six-shooters on the cattle range. At this time, and into this stirring scene, there rode a young outlaw who lived his violent hour in defiance of an advancing civilization. His name has gone down in legend as "Billy the Kid."

Prologue: This picture takes place in Paris in those wonderful days when a siren was a brunette and not an alarm - and if a Frenchman turned out the light it was not on account of an air raid!

Prologue: "The Outlaw" is a story of the untamed West. Frontier days when the reckless fire of guns and passions blazed an era of death, destruction and lawlessness. Days when the fiery desert sun beat down avenginly on the many who dared defy justice and outrage decency.

Prologue: [on screen, unspoken] "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the Earth, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" Job 38:4,7

Prologue: Though our story is at an end, our poet's is not; for his monument is everliving. Not of stone but of verse. And it shall be remembered. As long as words are made of breath. And breath of life.

[opening title card]

[Prologue]: In the tangled networks of a great city, the telephone is the unseen link between a million lives... it is the servant of our common needs ~~ the confidante of our inmost secrets... life and happiness wait upon its ring... and horror... and loneliness... and... death!

[first lines]

Prologue: I see a long, straight line athwart a continent. No chain of forts, or deep flowing river, or mountain range, but a line drawn by men upon a map, nearly a century ago, accepted with a handshake, and kept ever since. A boundary which divides two nations, yet marks their friendly meeting ground. The 49th parallel: the only undefended frontier in the world.

Prologue: In 1815, Florida was Spanish territory, sparsely populated and totally ungarrisoned. West Florida was a hideout for smugglers, renegade whites and savage tribes of marauding Creeks and Seminoles. Armed with contraband rifles, these Indians raided American settlements across the border, then retreated to their West Florida refuge. Unable to pursue them into foreign land, General Andrew Jackson established a border patrol of Mississippi volunteer militiamen to protect the pioneers.

Prologue: A gun, like any other source of power, is a force for either good or evil, being neither in itself, but dependent upon those who possess it.

Prologue: The town grew fast and loud. And as usual, men died faster... louder.

Prologue: In 1755 a new war in Europe between England and France had re-lighted the fuse under the uneasy peace in America. Everyone knew a final struggle between the rival colonies of Canada and New England was inevitable. Once again that ancient Indian warpath known as the Iroquois Trail, the only natural passage between the St. Lawrence and Hudson River Valley, would provide the main battleground. At the northern end stood Montreal, while to the South, the little city of Albany was the main British base of operations.

Prologue: 1865 brought to a close the Civil War, but the wounds of battle were still unhealed. Carpetbaggers and renegades roamed the land, leaving in their wake hatred and distrust. The situation became so critical that the Secret Service was called in to prevent martial law in many of the states.