John Mills
(as Lt. Col. Basil Barrow)
Lt. Col. Basil Barrow:
When you're dying, when you really believe you're dying, you think of the most absurd things.
Capt. Jimmy Cairns, M.C.: In my war I never had time to think.
Lt. Col. Basil Barrow: Oh they gave me time, all right. Again and again. When I was in the prison camp, they nearly drowned me, then they brought me round. Then they put a wet cloth over my mouth and kept it wet until I nearly drowned again. And the only thing that pulled me through was the thought that one day I'd come back and sit in the middle of that table as colonel of this battalion, like my grandfather and his father before him. Only I was going to be the best of the lot.
Capt. Jimmy Cairns, M.C.: In my war I never had time to think.
Lt. Col. Basil Barrow: Oh they gave me time, all right. Again and again. When I was in the prison camp, they nearly drowned me, then they brought me round. Then they put a wet cloth over my mouth and kept it wet until I nearly drowned again. And the only thing that pulled me through was the thought that one day I'd come back and sit in the middle of that table as colonel of this battalion, like my grandfather and his father before him. Only I was going to be the best of the lot.
Alec Guinness
(as Maj. Jock Sinclair, D.S.O., M.M.)
Maj. 'Dusty' Miller:
[Getting dressed hurriedly for dance lessons] Hand me my kilt of burning gold. Where are my plimsolls of desire? It's cruelty, that's what it is, cruelty. Margot Fonteyn couldn't suffer more.