Nicholas Nickleby (2002)

Jim Broadbent: Mr. Wackford Squeers

Photos 

Quotes 

• [At the assembly to see Smike flogged for running away] 

  Mr. Squeers : Is every boy here? Get back! You too Nickleby!

  [to Smike] 

  Mr. Squeers : And you. Have you anything to say?

  Smike : [Crying]  Please, sir, spare me.

  Mr. Squeers : I'll spare you. I'll flog you to within an inch of your life, and I'll spare you then.

  [Squeers strikes him once, Smike cries out in pain] 

  Nicholas : Stop! This must not go on. I will not allow it.

  Mr. Squeers : You dare to challenge my authority! Stay back!

  Nicholas : Touch him at your peril! I will not stand by and see it done.

  Mr. Squeers : You will do as you're told!

  Nicholas : If you raise the devil within me, the consequences shall fall on your own head! Once I begin, God help you!

  [Nicholas grabs the stick and starts hitting Squeers with it] 

  Mr. Squeers : Stop! No, please, wait!

  Nicholas : I do not know why, but I am going to show you what you have never shown any boy in this room... Pity.

  [Nicholas cuts down Smike and helps him out] 

• Ralph Nickleby : He was stolen, right from under you?

  Wackford Squeers : Not to be literal about it, and I'm not sure if this will dissipate your various strong emotions on the subject, but he was actually stolen right from over me.

• Mr. Squeers : How do you Iike Mr. Knuckleboy?

  Mrs. Squeers : I hate him, that's how I Iike him. He's a nasty, stuck-up monkey. He needs his pride brought down.

  Mr. Squeers : I'II Ieave that to you, my Iove. There's not a woman in all England... can bring a person's pride down quicker than you can.

  Mrs. Squeers : Oh, thank you, Squeery.

• Mr. Squeers : Thee talking about the same blacksmith?

  John Browdie : Aye, that's him. Saw him the other day. I stuck up for thee. He said thee weren't fit to live with pigs. I said thee were.

  Mr. Squeers : Thank you kindly, John Browdie, you're an honorable man.

• Mr. Squeers : Subdue your appetites and you've conquered human nature.

• Mrs. Squeers : Is that my Squeery?

  [multiple kisses] 

  Mr. Squeers : The crime of my dead eye, my Iove, is that I can't see you twice.

• Mr. Squeers : Don't give me that high-and-mighty Iook. He don't pay. Therefore, he works.

• Mrs. Squeers : Young Braithwaite's had a fever. Third time this year. I say it's obstinacy and we beat it out of him.

  Mr. Squeers : No one can cure an illness quicker than you, my Iove.

• Mr. Squeers : He's insulted not just you, but the whole house of Squeers.

• Ralph Nickleby : He might come after you again.

  Mr. Squeers : Surely he's been punished by you.

  Ralph Nickleby : Our ties have been cut. I'm not sure that he views that as a punishment.

• Mr. Squeers : Capturing wayward boys is something of a specialty.