Wagon Train (TV Series)

The Sister Rita Story (1959)

Robert Horton: Flint McCullough

Photos 

Quotes 

• Sister Rita : WHOA, WHOA.

  Flint McCullough : Hang on, Ma'am.

  Sister Rita : WHOA. I'd let go if I could. WHOA.

  Flint McCullough : You all right, Ma'am?

  Sister Rita : My father warned me never to twist a rope like that.

• Sister Joseph : Mr McCullough, you were like St Michael himself after the dark angels the way up you came riding down from that hill.

  Flint McCullough : [Countless Indian children spill out of a wagon]  Navajo?

  Sister Joseph : Poor little things. They're the only survivors of an entire village.

  Sister Rita : Massacred by another tribe. We found this little lad

  [the only one with a feather in his headband] 

  Sister Rita : in the mountains, half-starved and lost.

  Flint McCullough : You mean you headed into this country knowing there was Indian trouble.

  Sister Rita : Our mission is to help the Indians, Mr McCullough.

  Flint McCullough : They don't seem to know it, Ma'am.

• Flint McCullough : You've got your hands full with the old man. This'll wait.

  Sister Monica : I was a surgical nurse in a field hospital for two years during the war. I'm quite able to decide what's to be done first.

  Flint McCullough : [as Sister Monica unbuttons his shirt and pulls a sleeve down to tend to his wound from the arrow]  The first thing to be done, Sister, is post a guard. Juan?

  Juan : Senor?

  Flint McCullough : You'd better stand guard outside. Don't let anybody out of the wagon area and sing out at the first sight of Indians.

• Sister Joseph : Oh no, Mr McCullough, we're not alone. God is with us.

  Flint McCullough : Well, I'll be

  [Flint is so shocked he uses one of the Major's stock phrases of surprise] 

• Sister Monica : Mr McCullough, we're not savages. This man is our patient, not our prisoner. He can do no harm in that condition.

  Flint McCullough : You've got a lot to learn about Indians, Sister. We can be under attack within the matter of an hour. We have to use every second to our best advantage.

• Flint McCullough : Sometimes a frightened man fights better than a brave one. There's a saying: Nuns rush in where angels fear to tread.

  Sister Monica : The correct quotation is: Fools rush in. So you think we're fools.

  Flint McCullough : I think someone's been making some mighty foolish decisions.

• Sister Monica : There's something rather sad about an unmarked grave, no one ever knowing who lies there.

  Flint McCullough : God knows, Sister.

  Sister Monica : So he does, Mr McCullough. So he does.

• Sister Rita : Don't look so worried, Mr McCullough.

  Flint McCullough : I'm not so sure you can keep up.

  Sister Rita : Well, you can be very sure I won't be left behind.

• Flint McCullough : You must have quite a way with horses. He's

  [Little Buck] 

  Flint McCullough : usually pretty skittish around strangers.

  Sister Rita : I grew up around skittish horses.

  Flint McCullough : Did you? Ma'am?

  Sister Rita : Why don't you call me 'Sister' as you do the others?

  Flint McCullough : Oh, I don't know. I guess you just seem different than the others.

  Sister Rita : Oh, I hope not.

  Flint McCullough : Well, you don't expect a nun to handle the wagon and drive a team like a man. Or capture the heart of a one-man horse.

  Sister Rita : One isn't born into a convent, Mr McCullough.

• Flint McCullough : Well, I don't carry a mirror either. But the water in that pool is clear enough for me to shave by this morning

• Sister Rita : And I challenged my brother and his friends to a race. And I won. not one of them would dance with me. I had the fastest horse in the state.

  Flint McCullough : You just carry the lightest load. That's plain to see even in that outfit you wear.

• Flint McCullough : You're a woman. Giving up family and friends for a lonely and desolate country that could turn deadly in a minute.

  Sister Rita : A lot of places have been lonely and deadly. People have changed them.

  Flint McCullough : Sometimes the places change the people.

• Flint McCullough : You might think they might understand. Then, all of a sudden, in a minute, they revert to their old ways. You'll be wasting your life out here. You think you can change these people, you're in for a heartache, besides hardship.

  Sister Rita : Mr McCullough, if we can just plant a few seeds of faith in a few souls, hardship is a small price to pay

  Flint McCullough : Yeah, but seeds have to planted in fertile soil.

• Flint McCullough : [He uses his rifle to shoot three times at the Indian and asks Sister Rita]  Are you all right, Ma'am?

  Sister Monica : Was it quite necessary to shoot to kill, Mr McCullough?

  Flint McCullough : First thing you learn out here, Sister, is when you have to use a gun, is shoot fast and shoot to kill.

• Sister Monica : In this case, Sisters, the ends justify the means. Do as you think best, Mr McCullough.

  Sister Joseph : Oh, Mr McCullough

  [Flint has made a grab for the Ute boy] 

  Flint McCullough : Now, Sister, don't you worry about anything

  [he removes the boy's medcine bag] 

  Flint McCullough : I don't mean him any harm but I need this for a while.

• Flint McCullough : And one thing about the Utes is they love their children.

• Flint McCullough : You're not at war with such as these. The women in these wagons come in the name of the Great Spirit to heal the sick, to teach your children. They mean no harm to your people.

• Flint McCullough : Don't worry about me Ma'am, I've got strong medicine.

  Sister Rita : Perhaps this will make it even stronger. My brother wore it through the war. He said it brought him safely to his home and sweetheart. May it bring you back to yours.

  Flint McCullough : Well, I don't have a sweetheart to come home to but I'll be glad to wear it.

• Obuki , Chief Rico : When the old one was a little boy, he went to the Mission school and later the soldiers came from across the Ocean. And the people felt the sharpness of their bayonets. And they grew angry. His father and the father of his father took part in the massacre killing all the soldiers and the Black Robes too. All this he remembers. He tells us they are coming again soon. And that we must kill them. The soldiers will come soon and men without honour. My people will suffer.

  Flint McCullough : If you make war on these people, you make war on a future brave, one of your own

  [Knife fight ensues with the combatants being Flint and the Ute father of the boy] 

• Sister Rita : Oh, be careful.

  Flint McCullough : I've got very powerful medicine.

• Flint McCullough : One thing you should know. I'm saving three bullets. You and the Sisters won't be taken alive.

  Sister Rita : Poor Mr McCullough.

  Flint McCullough : On a night like this, a man gets to thinking about things he might have done differently. Any regrets, Ma'am?

  Sister Rita : No. And you?

  Flint McCullough : Two. One that I can't get you out of this.

  Sister Rita : And the other?

  Flint McCullough : That we didn't meet a long time ago. Being in the war and riding alone a lot like I do, a man builds a picture of a woman, a kind of an image that he keeps in his heart like a shrine. Some men go their whole lives and never find it. I found it in you. Our few days here have been among the best days of my life. I'm sorry. I just wish things could have been, well, worked out differently. I didn't mean to offend you.

  Sister Rita : Offend me, Mr McCullough? You paid me a very beautiful compliment.

• Flint McCullough : Major, how long do you figure it'll take you to get to the St Joseph's?

  Major Seth Adams : About a week, I guess. Why?

  Flint McCullough : Oh, just wondering Thought I'd like to ride out and take a look at the Salt Flats.

  Major Seth Adams : That'll take you better than a week, Boy.

  Flint McCullough : That's right.

  Major Seth Adams : Listen, you- Maybe you do need a little rest. Why'd you go ahead?

  Flint McCullough : Thanks.

• Flint McCullough : I can never ride far enough to leave a memory like that behind.

• Flint McCullough : I'd like you to keep it, Mr McCullough. So that you know wherever you go, our prayers are with you.

  Flint McCullough : Via con Dios, Sister.

  Sister Rita : Via con Dios, Mr McCullough. Go with God my Friend.

• Flint McCullough : There's an Army saying: Balancing one life against all in danger.

  Sister Monica : Expendable?

  Flint McCullough : Mm, mmh

  [She pulls his shirt back over his shoulder and chest] 

• Flint McCullough : If only Major Adams could see me now, like a nester with a rolling convent and an orphanage.

• Sister Rita : [She is tending to knife wounds on Flint's lower arm]  Please don't think that I'm afraid.

  Flint McCullough : After what you did tonight, how could I? You know, the Chinese believe when you save a person's life, you're responsible for it after that. I guess if that's so, we're responsible for each other from here on out.

  Sister Rita : From here on out- How long will that be?

• Flint McCullough : You've got your faith, I've got mine

  [He branishes his rifle to Sister Joseph]