Bataan (1943)

Robert Taylor: Sergeant Bill Dane

Photos 

Quotes 

• Sergeant Bill Dane : Come on, suckers! What's the matter with you? What are you waitin' for? Didn't think we were here, did you? You dirty rotten rats! We're still here! We'll always be here! Why don't you come and get it?

• Sergeant Bill Dane : Don't tell me that's Jap jive!

  Felix Ramirez : No, Sarge, no. That's good old America. That's U.S.A. Well, music with our meals, eh! Fancy. That's Tommy Dorsey, from Hollywood! Ohhh... He sends me, Sarge! He makes me lace up my boots! Oh, brother! Keep blowing, Tommy, keep blowing. Oh, boy, he's tall tonight, he's tall. Yeah, talk to me, talk to me. Ohhh... ha, ha, ha. Give me some of that trombone talk, Tommy.

• [first lines] 

  Sergeant Bill Dane : That's a monkey, Jake.

  [said after Jake shoots his rifle] 

  Corp. Jake Feingold : Yeah. Well, I missed him anyway. I'd hate to have hit him by mistake for a Jap.

• Sergeant Bill Dane : All right, sound off, Sailor. Name and classification.

  Leonard Purckett : Name's Leonard Purckett. Musician second class United States Navy, sir.

  Sergeant Bill Dane : We don't say ''sir'' to sergeants in the Army, Sailor. How'd you get here?

  Leonard Purckett : I started from Cavite by boat but the Japs laid a few eggs on the boat so what there was left of us swum. I kind of lost the other boys somewheres and then, first thing I knowed, I was here in the Army.

• Sergeant Bill Dane : Eh, Todd?

  Corp. Barney Todd : Yeah?

  Sergeant Bill Dane : First hitch in the Army?

  Corp. Barney Todd : I was a little young for World War I.

  Sergeant Bill Dane : Ah, You could've made it.

• Sergeant Bill Dane : Listen, you guys. What happened over there was no accident. You better know right now. Those no-tailed baboons are ichiban jozu - meaning, number one skillful. They climb trees better than monkeys. Got the best trees marked on their maps.

• Sergeant Bill Dane : How's the heel?

  Corp. Barney Todd : I'm fine, Sergeant. How are you?

• Corp. Barney Todd : You're right, Sailor. You're dead right. That's what we oughta do. Those poor civilians are havin' a tough time... havin' to give up their gas and tires and sugar... and havin' to buy bonds. We gotta keep up their morale.

  Sergeant Bill Dane : Thanks for giving us your views on the subject, Corporal.

• Sergeant Bill Dane : How'd you like to draw them in a raffle? ''Are any of the names familiar to you, Sergeant?'' says the Captain. What difference does it make what their names are? Three months ago they were all selling shoes or punching adding machines. Do you see a soldier in that lot?

• Sergeant Bill Dane : My name's Dane. Bill Dane.

• Sergeant Bill Dane : Hey, Todd! They're out there, not over here.

• Sergeant Bill Dane : Better hurry that up.

  Matthew Hardy : Can't hurry too much putting a soul underground, Sergeant.

• Corp. Jake Feingold : [at mealtime]  Sarge, what's a man do when he gets took with remorse?

  Sergeant Bill Dane : That depends on what about.

  Corp. Jake Feingold : About this. I knew a mule, used to beat his ears down, and for all I know this is him.

  Sergeant Bill Dane : He's getting even with you?

  Corp. Jake Feingold : That's why I got remorse. I toughened that mule too much

• Sergeant Bill Dane : Malloy, how are the groceries?

  Sam Malloy : The groceries? I'll tell you, there ain't no sugar for the coffee and there ain't no coffee. There's maggots in the meat and the meat is mule.

  Leonard Purckett : Mule?

  Sam Malloy : Yeah, mule.

  Felix Ramirez : If you hold your nose, it's all right.

• Sergeant Bill Dane : You ever handle one of these before?

  [hands out a Tommy gun] 

  Felix Ramirez : We never had any of these in our outfit.

  Sergeant Bill Dane : Well, you pull this and you pull this and the gun'll do the rest.

  Corp. Jake Feingold : Except in case when it jams.

  Felix Ramirez : What do I do if it jams?

  Sergeant Bill Dane : Write a letter to your Senator.

• Sergeant Bill Dane : All right, men, on your feet. Grab yourself a weapon and get in one of those foxholes. Break out the tommy guns. Jake, issue each of them a couple of pineapples.

• Sergeant Bill Dane : Maybe I oughta call the whole thing off. Maybe I've done everything wrong. Maybe this, maybe that - but I'm playin' the hand the cards dealt. The patrol stays here. Sooner or later those monkeys have gotta come out in the open where we can see 'em. We're gonna be here when they do.

• Felix Ramirez : I had the shivers.

  Sergeant Bill Dane : First the shivers and then the shakes. Hot and then cold and then hot again. I've had malaria myself. I know how it goes.

  Felix Ramirez : But, I ain't sick!

• Sergeant Bill Dane : Jitterbug kid, shakin' himself to death.

• Sergeant Bill Dane : Don't make it tough for him.

  Corp. Barney Todd : I never make it tough for anybody, Sarge.

• Leonard Purckett : Sarge, have Japs got whites in their eyes?

  Sergeant Bill Dane : We're gonna find out any minute now, Sailor.

• Sergeant Bill Dane : It don't matter where a man dies - as long as he dies for freedom.

• Sergeant Bill Dane : We figure the men who died here may have done more than we'll ever know to save this whole world.

• Sergeant Bill Dane : Sniper couldn't have got him. Couldn't even have even seen him from over there. One of those monkeys is still alive, playin' possum. Maybe more than one. The question is which?