Jason Robards
(as Cheyenne)
Cheyenne:
Do you know anything about a guy going around playing the harmonica? He's someone you'd remember. Instead of talking, he plays. And when he better play, he talks.
Jason Robards
(as Cheyenne)
Jason Robards
(as Cheyenne)
Jason Robards
(as Cheyenne)
Cheyenne:
They wanna hang me. The big, black crows. Idiots. What the hell? I'll kill anything. Never a kid. Be like killin' a priest. Catholic priest, that is.
Charles Bronson
(as Harmonica)
Cheyenne:
What the hell is this?
Harmonica: [off screen] Can't you see?
[emerges from behind a pile of wood]
Harmonica: It's a station. And all around it a town. Brett McBain's town.
Cheyenne: [starts to laugh] Was he crazy, heh!
Harmonica: Yeah in a very special way. An Irishman.
[starts measuring out a square and hammers wood spikes into the ground]
Harmonica: He knew someday or another that railroad through Flagstone would continue on west. So he looked over all this county here. Until he found this hunk of desert. Nobody wanted it! But he bought it.
[continues with work]
Harmonica: Then he tightened his belt, and for years he waited.
Cheyenne: Waited for what?
Harmonica: For the railroad to reach this point.
Cheyenne: Ah, but how in the hell did he know the railroad would pass through his property?
Harmonica: Them steam engines can't roll without water. And the only water within fifty miles west of Flagstone is right here. Under this land!
Cheyenne: Ah ha, he was no fool, our dead friend, ah?
[chuckles]
Cheyenne: He was gonna sell this piece of desert for his weight in gold, wasn't he?
Harmonica: [looks at Cheyenne] You don't sell the dream of a lifetime! Brett McBain wanted his station: he got the rights to build it.
Cheyenne: How do you know all this?
Harmonica: I saw a document. It was all in order, seals, signatures, everything! One thing though, in very small print, there is a short clause. Which says that McBain or his heirs lose all rights, if by the time the railroad reaches this point...
[turns to Cheyenne again]
Harmonica: ...the station ain't built yet.
Harmonica: [off screen] Can't you see?
[emerges from behind a pile of wood]
Harmonica: It's a station. And all around it a town. Brett McBain's town.
Cheyenne: [starts to laugh] Was he crazy, heh!
Harmonica: Yeah in a very special way. An Irishman.
[starts measuring out a square and hammers wood spikes into the ground]
Harmonica: He knew someday or another that railroad through Flagstone would continue on west. So he looked over all this county here. Until he found this hunk of desert. Nobody wanted it! But he bought it.
[continues with work]
Harmonica: Then he tightened his belt, and for years he waited.
Cheyenne: Waited for what?
Harmonica: For the railroad to reach this point.
Cheyenne: Ah, but how in the hell did he know the railroad would pass through his property?
Harmonica: Them steam engines can't roll without water. And the only water within fifty miles west of Flagstone is right here. Under this land!
Cheyenne: Ah ha, he was no fool, our dead friend, ah?
[chuckles]
Cheyenne: He was gonna sell this piece of desert for his weight in gold, wasn't he?
Harmonica: [looks at Cheyenne] You don't sell the dream of a lifetime! Brett McBain wanted his station: he got the rights to build it.
Cheyenne: How do you know all this?
Harmonica: I saw a document. It was all in order, seals, signatures, everything! One thing though, in very small print, there is a short clause. Which says that McBain or his heirs lose all rights, if by the time the railroad reaches this point...
[turns to Cheyenne again]
Harmonica: ...the station ain't built yet.
Jason Robards
(as Cheyenne)
Claudia Cardinale
(as Jill McBain)
Jason Robards
(as Cheyenne)
Cheyenne:
You don't understand, Jill. People like that have something inside... something to do with death.
Jason Robards
(as Cheyenne)
Cheyenne:
You know, Jill, you remind me of my mother. She was the biggest whore in Alameda and the finest woman that ever lived. Whoever my father was, for an hour or for a month - he must have been a happy man.