Victor Parmalee Quotes in Boy on a Dolphin (1957)

Monk at Meteora Monastery: [Upon meeting Parmalee, who has just ascended to the Meteora Monastery via a hand-operated "elevator"] Welcome to Meteora.

Victor Parmalee: May I ask, who carries your insurance?

Monk at Meteora Monastery: We put our trust in the Almighty.

Victor Parmalee: A very safe company.

Phaedra: He's important man, Mr. Calder, huh?

Victor Parmalee: In his pedestrian way. "Incorruptible Jim," I call him.

Phaedra: You know him a long time?

Victor Parmalee: Our paths have crossed and re-crossed: in Dresden, Rotterdam, Florence - wherever the Nazis looted. Raphaels, Rembrandts, even down to a dreary little china pot, which belonged to Madame Pompadour... there was always Captain Jim Calder of the U.S. Army, restoring priceless objects to their rightful owners - a typical middle-class gesture.

Victor Parmalee: You'll dive with Calder - dive all over the Aegean Sea. Except in one spot: the spot with the boy on a dolphin.

Phaedra: But sir...

Victor Parmalee: [Cutting her off] Dive until he runs out of patience, runs out of ambition, out of money, out of oxygen, and hope!

Phaedra: [Tapping her finger to her temple] Oh, Mr. Parmalee, you have plenty of noodle, you know?

Victor Parmalee: Thank you.

Phaedra: Now, we all have wine!

Victor Parmalee: Jim, you're talking to me as if I were a man of honor... I'm not!

Dr. James 'Jim' Calder: May I remind you of Paragraph 9 of the Penal Code of Greece:

[reading from a book]

Dr. James 'Jim' Calder: "Any and all objects of a historical value cannot under any circumstances be removed from Greek territory or territorial waters. They...

Victor Parmalee: [quoting by memory] ... they are to be considered the property of the Greek nation."

[pause]

Victor Parmalee: Yes, Jim, I know all about Greek Paragraph 9 - *I'm* the reason they wrote it!