Sirocco

Gen. LaSalle:
My soldiers didn't survive Verdun to have their throats cut in this stinking hole!

Col. Feroud:
[discussing Smith] As far as I know he's reliable, but don't trust him.

Nasir Aboud:
[hearing gunfire] It's a French gun.

Harry Smith:
What do you care whose gun it is as long as it isn't aimed at you?

Achmet:
What an oddity you are, Mr. Smith, - an American in Damascus. No morals! No political convictions!

Harry Smith:
I've had a few.

Achmet:
I find that difficult to believe.

Harry Smith:
I had a bellyful of them. I left them in the states with my first wife!

Achmet:
Isn't there anything you believe in?

Harry Smith:
You mean right now? Sure! [looking through the envelope of money he has just been paid off with] I believe in this, and it's two thousand short!

Feisal:
[skulking into the barber shop] You wish to buy some jewels?

Harry Smith:
You got some good ones?

Feisal:
Beautiful jewels fit for a dream of a girl, one who is different!

Nasir Aboud:
Ah, they're all the same!

Feisal:
Oh, no, each new girl is different. With each new love a mist comes before the eyes, the pleasure you will have before the mist rises and you find out that she's like all the others!

Nasir Aboud:
Hey, what's the matter with you?

Balukjiaan:
Nothing is the matter. Why?

Nasir Aboud:
You look sick. [to his assistant] Doesn't he look sick?

Nasir's assistant:
Yeah!

Balukjiaan:
I'm never sick!

Nasir Aboud:
That's what my poor father said just before he died.

Balukjiaan:
[entering the warehouse] Nasir, my little lamb, my sweet friend!

Nasir Aboud:
[with sarcasm] We smelled you coming.

Balukjiaan:
Uh?

Nasir's assistant:
He said you smell like a goat!

The barber:
Get your big stomach out of my way!

Balukjiaan:
My poor stomach! Every little thing upsets it. Do you have any soda?

Harry Smith:
What's the matter with your stomach?

Balukjiaan:
It talks to me like my conscience.

Harry Smith:
What does it say?

Balukjiaan:
It says,"Levon, my lamb, why do you stay in this terrible town? Why don't you go away - far away?"

Harry Smith:
[to Violette] I don't know whether I'm too good for you, or you're too good for me.

Emir Hassan:
[to Feroud] We do not fight to win. You will win, but it will be a victory you will regret.

Harry Smith:
[getting her a drink] For you - chartreuse!

Violette:
I want to tell you why I came.

Harry Smith:
[giving her the drink] Whatever it is, it will look better through the bottom of this glass.

Violette:
What a man! You're so ugly! Yes, you are! How can a man so ugly be so handsome?

Col. Feroud:
Why don't you do both? Take the money and kill me too.

Emir Hassan:
You want to die? Why do you want to die?

Col. Feroud:
I only want to arrange a truce. Cease fire for 24 hours, so that Syrians and Frenchmen can sit together.

Emir Hassan:
And what shall we discuss, the terms of our surrender?

Col. Feroud:
We can try to settle our differences according to the dignity of man.

Emir Hassan:
There is dignity in men who are willing to give their lives for what they believe in.

Col. Feroud:
Men needn't die to prove their dignity.

Emir Hassan:
You're asking me to surrender!

Col. Feroud:
I'm asking you to consider your people. An effort must be made. We must make some effort! Otherwise, we're not civilized men. Perhaps we'll fail and the war will go on, but at least we will have tried. That's all I want.

Emir Hassan:
Colonel, you are a fool.

Col. Feroud:
I come to talk of peace and understanding and you call me a fool?

Emir Hassan:
Yes, Colonel. I respect you, but you are a dreamer and a fool.

Gen. LaSalle:
Why don't you say it? Go ahead and say it. This hostage business makes you want to vomit.

Col. Feroud:
On the contrary, General, I think it's an excellent idea, as far as it goes. But why shoot only five hostages? Why not ten, or even twenty for every soldier killed? In no time at all, you can have the whole population of Damascus lined up against the walls and you've ended all resistance.

Gen. LaSalle:
Do you think I like to slaughter civilians?

Col. Feroud:
The Syrians will think so.

Gen. LaSalle:
They don't think. They're guerillas, bandits

Col. Feroud:
They consider themselves patriots. We French came along with a mandate...

Gen. LaSalle:
And they don't like it and they don't trust us. I know all that! And I know how to make them happy, too. Pack up my army and march out.

Col. Feroud:
Sir, if I may say so, there is another way. You could send me to see Emir Hassan.

Gen. LaSalle:
You never let go of an idea, do you?

Col. Feroud:
It still isn't too late to arrange a truce.

Gen. LaSalle:
You'd only get your throat cut. You know what a butcher he is.

Col. Feroud:
I wonder what they'll call *you* after you execute those hostages.

Harry Smith:
[after the restaurant bombing] You and your cruddy Syrian patriots.

Nasir Aboud:
They were after Colonel Feroud.

Harry Smith:
They almost got *me*.

Nasir Aboud:
You eat with the French, you get what the French get.

Balukjiaan:
Look how everybody's worried. Why worry? He asked us to come, we came. If he wants to do business, we do business. If he doesn't want to do business, we don't do business. Right?

Merchant businessman:
Not right. Wrong. Wrong. What do we have to sell? Food. Since when does the Chief of Intelligence buy food for the Army?

Balukjiaan:
Don't make me nervous.

Col. Feroud:
I have here your dossier. It contains the history of your life. You're a man entirely without moral scruples of any kind. You supply the Syrians with guns and ammunition, but I respect them, they fight for a cause. Your cause is only money. While Frenchmen and Syrians kill each other, you profit by it. According to military law you have to be shot. The punishment seems hardly adequate.

Harry Smith:
What have you got me up here for? To watch me sweat, to watch me crawl? I'll bet they didn't bring Nasir up here before they shot him.

Col. Feroud:
What a pity you could only die once.

Harry Smith:
Sure, I know I'm going to be shot, but not for running guns, but because I'm something special. I made a monkey out of you. I'm the guy that ran off with your girl.

Col. Feroud:
Don't you realize if I *wanted* you shot, you'd be in a ditch right now?

Col. Feroud:
What about my money?

Harry Smith:
Confiscated.

Col. Feroud:
I'm dead without it.

Harry Smith:
Let's say you'll be alive in a new way.

Harry Smith:
You look like the kind of fella who might be married.

Major Jean Leon:
Yes. Matter of fact, I just celebrated a wedding anniversary.

Harry Smith:
Any kids?

Major Jean Leon:
Just one. A boy.

Harry Smith:
You gonna send him to St. Cyr?

Major Jean Leon:
Yes, if he wants to be a soldier.

Harry Smith:
That's fine. He'll follow in your footsteps. That's great. It's a great life. Nothing like handing it down to a bunch of kids. They'd break your neck if they knew what was coming.

Harry Smith:
I sure thought you were a goner.

Col. Feroud:
Buying my freedom was your idea, I suppose.

Harry Smith:
Yes, it was.

Col. Feroud:
Why did you do it? I should think you'd want to see me out of the way.

Harry Smith:
I made a little money on the deal.

Col. Feroud:
I see.

Harry Smith:
I saved your life and you seem to resent it.

Col. Feroud:
I do.

Harry Smith:
Maybe you should have had me shot after all.

Col. Feroud:
I agree.

Harry Smith:
[to Arthur, confessing he's broke] It's a great life. You go around in a big circle and come right back to the beginning.

Harry Smith:
[to Violette] I've got a pass. I'm going to Cairo. You still want to go along? Oh, I can't show you as good a time as I could before because I'm broke. The French took all my money, but don't worry. As long as it keeps getting dark, I can always get some.

Gen. LaSalle:
I have news for you, Colonel. Lt. Collet returned. Now I know where I stand.

Col. Feroud:
What did he say, sir?

Gen. LaSalle:
He didn't say anything. He couldn't. His throat was cut! He was found in an alley collecting flies!

Col. Feroud:
Last night we arrested one Nasir Saleem, a friend of yours. We have his full confession. The evidence against you is incontrovertible. Do you know the penalty?

Harry Smith:
Yeah, a slug in the head and a whole in the ground.