The Salzburg Connection (1972)

Barry Newman: William Mathison

Photos 

Quotes 

• Bill Mathison : And that's what's put a bug up the international spy network's ass - a box of soggy records, twenty five or thirty years out of date? You've got to be kidding!

  Chuck : Four dead bodies is not kidding, old buddy.

  Bill Mathison : Hey. look, I can see a few warmed-over Nazis getting steamed up, I can see the Israelis sending out their war criminals but what the hell is our government interested in this for?

  Chuck : Put your legal mind into gear, Bill. Forget the Nazi revivals, forget war criminals; think how many former German nationals the United States has in sensitive jobs. If any of the them are in the Toplitz lists, they're vulnerable to blackmail. We need to know those names. And if our guess is right, they're in the Finstersee box - wherever the hell it is.

  Bill Mathison : And you think Anna Bryant knows and is going to tell me, if I ask her nicely?

  Chuck : She, or her brother.

  Bill Mathison : Her brother wouldn't give me the right time. Tell you what: why don't you ask them? I'll introduce you.

  Chuck : I'm staying out of town until we know where the box is. I need a freehand when the action starts.

  Bill Mathison : Look, there's a better idea; there's a guy named Felix Zauner. He's a friend of the family.

  Chuck : Also, an Austrian intelligence agent; 'thought you were CIA, by the way. I was with him in Vienna, early this morning. Sure, he's on our side, but he's competition. My worry is that Zauner might just beat us to it just because of the old friend bit. You're clean. You've got an established business reason for seeing her. She knows you. And she seems to trust you. You're our connection, Bill. Like it or not.

• Bill Mathison : Oh, pardon me.

  Elissa Lang : Oh, that's okay. I just wanted to say goodbye.

  Bill Mathison : Well, did we say hello?

  Elissa Lang : No, not to you. To Salzburg.

  Bill Mathison : Well, pardon me, again. Go right ahead.

  Elissa Lang : Goodbye, Salzburg. Auf Wiedersehen.

• Elissa Lang : When you get there, why don't you give me a call.

  Bill Mathison : I'd love to.

  Elissa Lang : 3-4-0-0-3-8. I might take you up on that dinner - with no interruptions.

• Bill Mathison : Yeah, I read you.

  [sarcastically] 

  Bill Mathison : Should I turn up the collar of my trench coat?

• Bill Mathison : How about dinner? We could eat in my room.

  [Elissa gives him a look] 

  Bill Mathison : No, no, no, no, no. Just so I won't have to leave you in the restaurant when my New York call comes in.

  Elissa Lang : Might be more convenient to be interrupted *in* your room.

• Elissa Lang : It's my last stop before home. Unless something comes up.

  Bill Mathison : Like what?

  Elissa Lang : Like a job.

  Bill Mathison : I would have thought you were still fighting the Battle of the B-Average.

  Elissa Lang : Thank you. I won that two years ago with straight A's.

  Bill Mathison : Brains, too.

  Elissa Lang : Thanks again. I got six months in Europe as a graduation present and I've stretched it like you wouldn't believe. Now, suddenly lots of static and no more bread. You wouldn't happen to be young executive needs bi-lingual secretary, driver, companion, etc.?

  Bill Mathison : Too bad I'm on vacation.

• Bill Mathison : There are three dead bodies already and I don't intend to be the fourth. You see, I'm on vacation.

• Chuck : Never fear, Chuck is here.

  Bill Mathison : Christ! When will you cowboys grow up?

• Elissa Lang : I still get a kick out of going to a bar without having to show my ID.

  Bill Mathison : Pepsi Generation, huh?

  Elissa Lang : If that's what turns you on.

• Bill Mathison : Tell me about that job.

  Elissa Lang : Arranging accommodations for ski parties. I get to travel all over, trying the soups, testing the beds.

• Elissa Lang : It could have been a lot of fun.

  Bill Mathison : Yeah, I'll never forgot what might have been.