Trader Horn (1931)

Duncan Renaldo: Peru

Photos 

Quotes 

• Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : They have a telegraph, though - drums. There's a sound that'll crawl up your spine and down to your gizzard. Maybe you'll hear it one of these days.

  Peru : And maybe when I do, I will be very frightened, eh?

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Maybe.

  Peru : Anyway, I'd like to hear those drums. I think maybe it is fun to be frightened.

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : No, laddie. It's no fun.

• Peru : Don't you understand? White people must help each other.

• Peru : Look, Horn!

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Aye, I remember. Its a rare thing bein' a lad and seeing strange sights for the first time. Painted aborigines. Queer shapes of death and cannibals.

  Peru : There are cannibals?

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Aye! A God-fearin' race they are. Except, as you say, in a matter of diet.

• [first lines] 

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Say, did I ever tell you, Peru, I was the first white man to ever set eyes on this river?

  Peru : Yes, several times.

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : I was about your age then, 18 years old or - or maybe 17.

  Peru : Pardon me, I am 23!

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Well, I was speakin' not so much of years, lad, as of common sense.

  [laughs] 

• Peru : Tell me, why'd you ever come the first time up this river?

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Oh, for one thing or another: ivory, hides, rubber - adventure! Same as you.

• Peru : My father always used to tell me, Trader Horn knows everything about Africa.

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Everything? No, lad. More than a warthog, maybe; but, not near so much as an elephant. Of course, no white man knows more of Africa than I.

• Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Your father was my friend. So, maybe he was over partial to me.

  Peru : You have loved my father. Didn't you?

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Laddie, your father was the finest gentleman I ever knew. I was a young lad then. Funny too, him knowin' no more of the Lord's English than a Zulu.

• Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Now, I'll show you how we honest traders get a house full of ivory, for a fistful of salt.

  Peru : For salt?

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Aye, the natives would swap their mothers for it.

• Peru : Horn, you're mistaken about these people. They're not savages. They're just happy, ignorant children.

• Peru : Who are they?

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Maasai. The fiercest fighters in Africa and all they eat is milk and fresh blood. The young ones have to kill a man or a lion, singlehanded.

• Peru : Further up the river?

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Yes.

  Peru : I thought you weren't looking for adventure?

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : When I set out to trade a river, I trade it!

• Peru : Horn, what is this JuJu?

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : A magical act. God knows how it started or where it comes from. But, as long as those drums call, every black devil in the bush will be a homicidal maniac. If your skin happens to be white...

• Peru : Why can't we all go?

  Edith Trent : That's kind. That's very generous of you. But, I can't allow it.

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Allow it, ma'am?

  Edith Trent : No. You see, men with guns would startle them into violence; but, a woman alone, might get through.

• Peru : Is it usual to see so many animals so close together?

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Aye, lad. Beast are like people. They congregate where living is the best and easy. Sometimes, of course, if they're crowded, like humans, they herd together.

• Peru : Do animals talk together?

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : No, lad. But, they pass word along, from one to another. Just the same as men do. Only, they don't gossip!

• Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Do you realize we haven't seen any game now for an hour, lad?

  Peru : Does that mean something?

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Everything in nature means something, lad. The question is: what it means?

• Peru : Horn, white! - - She is beautiful.

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : Aye and as great a savage as any of the black ones.

• Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : We can't put off the beginning of her education. You bring her, lad. You can take care of her, fine.

  Peru : Me?

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : She didn't learn that kissing from the Pygmies, did she?

  Peru : But, Horn, I can explain about that.

  Aloysius 'Trader' Horn : You can't explain the way of a man with a maid - especially a young man.