Shanghai Express (1932)

Lawrence Grant: Mr. Carmichael

Photos 

Quotes 

• Reverend Mr. Carmichael : Can you tell me what's wrong now?

  Mr. Henry Chang : You're in China now, sir, where time and life have no value.

• Reverend Mr. Carmichael : Well, sir, I supposed every train carries its cargo of sin, but this train is burdened with more than its share!

  Captain Donald 'Doc' Harvey : Sir, you seem distressed.

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : My name's Carmichael, Doctor of Divinity in the service of mankind. And whom have I the honor of addressing?

  Captain Donald 'Doc' Harvey : Well, sir, my name is Donald Harvey, Doctor of Medicine in the service of His Majesty. It's charming to make your acquaintance, sir.

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : Dr. Harvey, I want to put you on your guard.

  Captain Donald 'Doc' Harvey : On my guard? Why, what's wrong?

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : One of them is yellow and the other one is white, but both their souls are rotten.

  Captain Donald 'Doc' Harvey : You interest me. Mr. Carmichael. I'm not exactly irreligious, but... being a physician, I sometimes wonder how a man like you can locate a soul, and, having located it, diagnose its condition as rotten.

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : That's heathen talk, Doctor. You're a materialist, sir. Any man with half an eye should be able to see that those two women are riding this train in search of victims.

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : A very grave charge, Mr. Carmichael. I don't know anything about the Chinese woman, but as for the other lady...

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : Why, confound it, sir. That's Shanghai Lily. For the last fortnight, I've been attending a man who went out of his mind after spending every penny on her. And that's not all I know. She's wrecked a dozen men up and down the China coast.

  Captain Donald 'Doc' Harvey : Look here, sir, you're mistaken. She's a friend of mine.

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : Well, sir, if I were in your boots, I wouldn't brag about it.

• Reverend Mr. Carmichael : [to the porter]  You change me now. I haven't lived for ten years in this country not to know a woman like that when I see one. Get me in another compartment! Take my luggage out of here.

• Mrs. Haggerty : I heard your gramophone, ladies, and thought I'd come in and get acquainted, if you don't mind.

  Shanghai Lily : Not at all. Come in.

  Mrs. Haggerty : It's a bit lonely on the train, isn't it? I'm used to having people around. They put my dog in the baggage car. That's why I dropped in on you. I've been visiting my niece in Peking. She married a seafaring man. He hasn't been home in four years, and she ain't been very cheerful. I have a boardinghouse in Shanghai. Yorkshire pudding is my specialty, and I only take the most respectable people.

  Shanghai Lily : Don't you find respectable people terribly... dull?

  Mrs. Haggerty : You're joking, aren't you? I only know the most respectable people. You see, I keep a boardinghouse.

  Shanghai Lily : What kind of a house did you say?

  Mrs. Haggerty : A boardinghouse.

  Shanghai Lily : Oh.

  Mrs. Haggerty : I'm sure you're very respectable, madam.

  Hui Fei : I must confess I don't quite know the standard of respectability that you demand in your boardinghouse, Mrs. Haggerty.

  Mrs. Haggerty : I've made a terrible mistake. I'd better look after me dog.

  [She bumps into the Reverend Mr. Carmichael] 

  Mrs. Haggerty : I beg your pardon.

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : I beg yours.

• Reverend Mr. Carmichael : It's a shame allowing such women on a first-class train.

  Sam Salt : What's the matter with them, parson?

  Mr. Henry Chang : I imagine the Honorable Divine objects to their morals.

  Sam Salt : Why, I thought they were pretty good-looking. At least Shanghai Lily is.

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : Do you mean to say that Shanghai Lily is on this train?

  Chinese attendant with hot water : Hot water, sir.

  Sam Salt : It's about time. Well, being a married man, I only knew her by sight and reputation. But I'll lay you a hundred to one in any currency you've got that the lady in the next compartment is Shanghai Lily.

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : Shanghai Lily.

  Sam Salt : Is it a bet?

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : I told you once before, sir...

  Hot towel woman : Hot towel, please?

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : No thank you - I don't bet!

  Sam Salt : Well, I'll bet you a Mexican dollar, or whatever you use for money, that those two dames next door are not going to have an easy time on this train.

• Shanghai Lily : [after Hui Fei is dragged away]  Can't you do something about this?

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : All I can do is to suggest that you get down on your knees and pray.

  Shanghai Lily : I think you're right, if God is still on speaking terms with me.

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : God remains on speaking terms with everybody.

• Mrs. Haggerty : I've never been so shocked in my life. I suppose the Chinese girl deserves all she's getting, but as for the other lady... Well, I'm not going to say anything. Of all the brazen creatures, playing the gramophone. Why, she's the most terrible woman I've ever met. I don't see how she can look any of us in the eye. Going off with the late Mr. Chang after the way he treated us. Bad enough she tried it before he held up the train, but after the way he tortured poor Mr. Baum...

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : Look here, Mrs. Haggerty, I think you're doing the woman an injustice. I don't know what caused her to behave that way, but I'm sure there's a whole lot more behind this than appears on the surface.

  Captain Donald 'Doc' Harvey : Mr. Carmichael, when I had the pleasure of making your acquaintance yesterday, you volunteered an amazingly correct diagnosis of Shanghai Lily, and I see no reason for you to have changed it.

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : Look here, Captain Harvey, I happen to know that she prayed all night for your safety.

  Captain Donald 'Doc' Harvey : I'd give anything in the world to believe the way you do, but I heard from her own lips she was leaving with Chang.

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : That's rubbish!

  Captain Donald 'Doc' Harvey : I wish it were.

  Sam Salt : Defending that dame. I'm pretty liberal on the subject of betting, but I wouldn't back his viewpoint for all the rice in China.

  Mrs. Haggerty : Neither would I.

• Reverend Mr. Carmichael : I'd like to talk to you alone.

  Shanghai Lily : I don't wish to talk to anybody.

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : I'm sorry to have to insist, but I must talk to you.

  Shanghai Lily : If you're thinking of reforming me, you might as well save yourself the trouble.

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : I'm not trying to reform you. I'm not trying to reform anybody right now. All I want is to settle something that's been puzzling me all day. Why did you decide to leave with that barbarian who was killed by her this morning?

  [Hui Fei and Carmichael exchange glances as she leaves the compartment] 

  Shanghai Lily : What makes you want to know? Curiosity?

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : You prayed last night, probably for the first time in years. This morning, you were to shamelessly leave with Chang. There's something wrong there. You can't tell me that a human being can do two things like that within six hours.

  Shanghai Lily : Although it's nobody's affair but mine, I might tell you if you promise not to repeat it.

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : Of course I won't repeat it. I came in here to find out for myself. I'm not interested in the others.

  Shanghai Lily : He was going to deprive Captain Harvey of his eyesight. I had no other choice.

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : Does Captain Harvey know that?

  Shanghai Lily : Does he act as if he did?

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : He certainly does not. Despite the fact that I gave you my word not to tell anyone, I'm going to tell him this.

  Shanghai Lily : You're not going to do anything of the kind. Mr. Carmichael, it may seem odd for me to use your language, but it's purely a question of faith. You see, once upon a time we loved each other. We parted, and I threw my life away because I didn't care to bargain for love with words. I haven't changed since them, and neither has he.

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : You're still in love with him, aren't you?

  Shanghai Lily : Yes.

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : Is he still in love with you?

  Shanghai Lily : I doubt it.

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : You're right. Love without faith, like religion without faith, doesn't amount to very much. I don't suppose I can help you.

  Shanghai Lily : No.

• Captain Donald 'Doc' Harvey : Well, sir, did you find out what kind of a woman she is?

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : I found out enough to realize that she's worth a dozen of you!

  Captain Donald 'Doc' Harvey : I have no exaggerated idea of my own value, but just exactly what did she say to make you so emphatic on that point?

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : She made me promise not to tell anyone, particularly not to tell you, but there's no restriction to my saying that you're a profound fool.

  Captain Donald 'Doc' Harvey : Be that as it may, you evidently place a great deal of faith in what Shanghai Lily says.

  Reverend Mr. Carmichael : I know you men of science regard me and my kind as meddlesome fanatics, but I'd rather have one grain of my faith than all your scientific disbelief.