Oliver Twist (1948)

Francis L. Sullivan: Mr. Bumble

Photos 

Quotes 

• Mr. Bumble : Cry your hardest now, it opens the lungs, washes the countenance, exercises the eyes and softens down the temper. So cry away.

• Mr. Brownlow : The law assumes that your wife acts under your direction.

  Mr. Bumble : If the law supposes that, then the law is a ass, a idiot! If that's the eye of the law, then the law is a bachelor. And the worst I wish the law is that his eye may be opened by experience.

• Mr. Bumble : You'll make your fortune, Mr Sowerberry.

  Mr. Sowerberry : The prices allowed by the board are very small.

  Mr. Bumble : So are the coffins.

• Oliver Twist : Please, sir. I want some more.

  Workhouse Master : What?

  Mrs. Corney : What?

  Mr. Bumble : What?

  Chairman of the Board : Ask for more?

• Mr. Sowerberry : I've just taken the measure of the two women that died last night.

  Mr. Bumble : Coffins are looking up, Mr. Sowerberry.

• Mr. Bumble : You'll make your fortune, Mr. Sowerberry.

  Mr. Sowerberry : The prices allowed by the Board are very small, Mr. Bumble.

  Mr. Bumble : So are the coffins.

  Mr. Sowerberry : Well, well, Mr. Bumble, there's no denying that. But we must have some profit, Mr. Bumble.

• Mr. Bumble : I name all our foundlings in alphabetical order. The last was an "S." "Swabble" I named him. This was a "T." "Twist" I named him.

  Mrs. Corney : Why, you're quite a literary character, sir.

  Mr. Bumble : Well, well, perhaps I may be, Mrs. Corney. Perhaps I may be.

• Mr. Bumble : Where is this audacious young savage?

• Mr. Bumble : Be good enough to tell Mr. Sowerberry that the beadle is here.

• Mr. Bumble : He comes from a bad family, sir. Excitable natures, Mrs. Sowerberry.

• Mrs. Corney : Are you gonna sit there snoring all day?

  Mr. Bumble : I shall sit here as long as I think proper, ma'am. And though I was not snoring, I shall snore, gape, sneeze, laugh or cry - as the humor strikes me, such being my prerogative.

  Mrs. Corney : Your prerogative.

  Mr. Bumble : I said the word, ma'am. The prerogative of a man is to command.

  Mrs. Corney : And what's the prerogative of a woman, in the name of goodness?

  Mr. Bumble : To obey, ma'am.

  Mrs. Corney : Huh!

  Mr. Bumble : As your late, unfortunate husband should have taught you. And then, perhaps, he might have been alive now. I wish he were a poor man.

  Mrs. Corney : You brute!

  [begins to crying out] 

  Mr. Bumble : [stands up]  Cry your hardest, ma'am. It opens the lungs, washes the countenance, exercises the eyes, and softens down the temper. So, cry away.

  [He begins to leave, takes the hat. She begins to throws things at him. He turns around shocked, she charges angrily and slaps him] 

  Mrs. Corney : Brute!

  [beating him up with a parasol] 

  Mrs. Corney : You blasphemer!

  [slaps him in the face] 

  Mrs. Corney : Talk about your prerogative again if you dare! Get up. Get away from here, or I might do something desperate!

  Mr. Bumble : Certainly, my dear. Certainly.

  [begins to leave] 

• Mr. Bumble : My parochial apologies, sir.