London Can Take It! (1940)

Quentin Reynolds: Self - Commentator: War Correspondent, Collier's Weekly

Quotes 

• Quentin Reynolds : [loud explosions of bombs and anti-aircraft are heard]  These are not Hollywood sound effects. This is the music they play every night in London - the symphony of war.

• [first lines] 

  Quentin Reynolds : I'm speaking from London. It is late afternoon, and the people of London are preparing for the night. Everyone is anxious to get home before darkness falls - before our nightly visitors arrive. This is the London rush hour; many of the people at whom you are looking now are members of the greatest civilian army ever to be assembled - these men and women who have worked all day, in offices or in markets, are now hurrying home to change into the uniform of their particular service. The dusk is deepening. Listening crews are posted all the way from the coast to London, to pick up the drone of the German planes. Soon the nightly Battle of London will be on. This has been a quiet day for us - but it won't be a quiet night. We haven't had a quiet night now for more than five weeks. They'll be over tonight. They'll destroy a few buildings, and kill a few people - probably some of the people you are watching now.

• Quentin Reynolds : London raises her head, shakes the debris of the night from her hair, and takes stock of the damage done. London has been hurt during the night... The sign of a great fighter in the ring is: Can he get up from the floor after being knocked down? London does this every morning. London doesn't look down upon the ruins of its houses, upon those made homeless during the night, upon the remains of churches, hospitals, workers' flats. London looks upwards toward the dawn, and faces the new day with calmness and confidence.

• [last lines] 

  Quentin Reynolds : They will drop thousands of bombs, and they'll destroy hundreds of buildings, and they'll kill thousands of people. But a bomb has its limitations. It can only destroy buildings, and kill people. It cannot kill the unconquerable spirit and courage of the people of London... London can take it.