- Henry Holland: A minute later, the guard will appear around this corner, and you, Pendlebury, will detain him for at least half a minute. Ask him for a light, ask him the way, ask him anything, but keep him there, we must have those thirty seconds.
- Pendlebury: Edgar.
- Henry Holland: I beg your pardon?
- Pendlebury: Isn't one supposed to say that when one's being briefed? On my rare visits to the cinema...
- Henry Holland: The word is "roger."
- Pendlebury: Oh, roger. How silly of me.
- Henry Holland: I was a potential millionaire, yet I had to be satisfied with eight pounds, fifteen shillings, less deductions.
- Henry Holland: Instead of changing as usual at Charing Cross, I came straight on to Rio de Janeiro. "Gay, sprightly, land of mirth and social ease." Pendlebury.
- British man: Plus six Eiffel Towers. How much did they fetch?
- Henry Holland: Twenty-five thousand pounds. Enough to keep me for one year in the style to which I was, ah, unaccustomed.
- Neighbor: Ah, Holland, heh heh, the man of millions! What'd you get away with today? Got any spare ingots for an old pal? Ha ha, you'll be the death of me, Holland!
- Henry Holland: I sincerely trust so.
- Miss Evesham: [greeting Holland and Pendlebury on their tipsy return from a celebratory dinner] You naughty men, waking us all up at this hour.
- Pendlebury: A thousand pardons.
- Henry Holland: [Restraining Pendlebury as he's about to enter] Wipe your feet.
- Pendlebury: A little celebration.
- Miss Evesham: Already? Your holidays don't start till tomorrow.
- Henry Holland: Today is tomorrow.
- Pendlebury: "O polished perturbation! Golden care! That keep'st the ports of slumber open wide!" Henry IV, part two.
- Miss Evesham: Good night, you naughty men. Don't forget to switch off.
- [Henry Holland is reading aloud to the elderly Mrs. Chalk from a book titled YOU'D LOOK SWELL IN A SHROUD]
- Henry Holland: Where did we get?
- Mrs. Chalk: Duke Milligan was about to take a gander at Mickey the Greek's hideout.
- Henry Holland: Oh yes, here we are. "I handed my fedora to a hatcheck girl with all that Venus de Milo had got and then more, and I was admiring the more when I glimpsed something in the back of this frail that set my underwear creeping up on me like it had legs."
- Mrs. Chalk: I know that feeling well.
- Henry Holland: "A guy had soft-shoed out of the door from the gaming room as quiet as a snake on tip-belly, and I didn't need my case history of Smiling Abe Montana to know that sonny boy was his number-one triggerman, Ricky the Filipino."
- Mrs. Chalk: I thought it was Little Boy Shultz who carried the rod for Mr. Montana.
- Henry Holland: It was, Mrs. Chalk, but surely you remember? Montana found Shultz taking liberties with that lady.
- Mrs. Chalk: Yes, yes, they took him for a ride. Only last night, wasn't it? Oh, I must be getting old. Read on, Mr. Holland.
- Pendlebury: By Jove, Holland, it's a good job we're both honest men.
- Henry Holland: It is indeed, Pendlebury.
- Henry Holland: I must apologize, gentlemen, for the somewhat informal manner in which we effected our introduction, but my colleague and I have a certain proposition which we'd like to put to you. I might almost call it a gilt-edged proposition, although paradoxically it does entail a measure of risk. However, when I quote the anticipated dividend, I'm sure that you will both agree with me that the...
- [There is a noise at the open window]
- Pendlebury: Not another one, surely.
- Henry Holland: Tell him we're suited.
- Turner: Paris, eh? You're stepping out, Holland. Wonderful, isn't it, what a little extra money will do?
- Henry Holland: Yes, it's going to make a big difference to me.
- [on the day before Holland and his associates are to carry out the robbery, he has a chat with his boss Turner, who thinks that the subject is over Holland's forthcoming promotion]
- Turner: And, erm, here's the order for tomorrow's consignment. Somewhat larger that I expected: 212 bars.
- Henry Holland: That won't worry me, sir.
- Turner: Dependable to the last. I'm going to miss you, Holland.
- Henry Holland: You're very kind, sir. I shall always have the happiest memories of the dear old bullion office.
- Turner: Has Mr. Applecrumby spoken to you about your holiday?
- Henry Holland: Yes, sir. I'm going to Paris.
- Turner: Paris, hey? You're stepping out, Holland. Wonderful isn't it, what a little extra money will do?
- Henry Holland: Yes, it's going to make a big difference to me.
- [just as he is planning the robbery, Holland is told that he is being promoted to another department]
- Henry Holland: I'm too old to change my views now, sir.
- Turner: Nonsense. You're never too old to better oneself. Think of what you can do with an extra 15 shillings a week.
- Henry Holland: But sir, I like the bullion office. It holds all I ever wished for.
- Turner: The trouble with you, Holland, if I may speak frankly, is that you do not have enough ambition. When a good opportunity comes along grab it with both hands. May not occur again.
- Henry Holland: Very good, sir. I'll follow your advice.
- [Holland leaves in order to put his plans for the robbery into motion]
- Pendlebury: Well, you might as well know. I was lying. I am a thief. It was madness to attempt it. We weren't cut out for crime, either of us.
- Policeman: We?
- Pendlebury: My partner and I.
- Sidewalk Vendor: Your partner? Here, if you're working with the fence who's got them other pictures...
- Policeman: Shh! Carry on.
- Pendlebury: Oh I make no excuses. All my life it's been my ambition to surround myself with rare and beautiful things. Suddenly faced with this golden opportunity...
- Sidewalk Vendor: Here, you call that picture of mine rare and beautiful?
- Pendlebury: Since you will keep on interrupting me, you ought to know it's a charming example of an early Rochet, while he was still under the influence of Corot.
- Sidewalk Vendor: Oh yeah? How much is it worth?
- Pendlebury: Ten pound, to those who can afford it.
- Sidewalk Vendor: Oh blimey. I've had it marked up for five bob.
- Pendlebury: [replying to Shorty's statement that he and Lackery will wait for Holland and Pendlebury to return from France with their shares of the proceeds] You mean you both trust us?
- Shorty: Oh, come off it, gov. You're as straight a pair of gentlemen as I ever worked for.
- Lackery: Hear hear!
- Henry Holland: Pendlebury.
- Pendlebury: Yeah?
- Henry Holland: Pendlebury.
- Pendlebury: What?
- Henry Holland: May I call you Alfred?
- Pendlebury: Alfred? Call me Al. And I'll call you... Henry, isn't it.
- Henry Holland: A name I never cared for.
- Pendlebury: Hm?
- Henry Holland: Mm. Call me Dutch.
- Pendlebury: Dutch. Yes.
- [They shake hands]
- Pendlebury: Good night, Dutch.
- Henry Holland: Good night, Al.
- Customs Official: L'argent.
- Pendlebury: Oh, sadist torturers! Money.
- Customs Official: Your foreign currency? What do you have?
- Pendlebury: There!
- [throws his money in the air]
- Pendlebury: Count it!
- Henry Holland: Mr. Richards, with gold at 240 shillings per fine ounce, that particle, estimating its value at, .025, would entail a loss at approximately six shillings.
- [Holland enters the yard and sees Lackery wobble past on a bicycle]
- Henry Holland: You're teaching the wrong man!
- Pendlebury: Well, I had to change him over. Shorty can't ride a bicycle.
- [Lackery falls]
- Henry Holland: Doesn't look as if he can either.
- Shorty: We're learning him.
- Henry Holland: Why couldn't you learn Shorty?
- Pendlebury: Because Lackery's color-blind.
- Henry Holland: What's that got to do with it?
- Pendlebury: Oh my dear Holland, do use your intelligence! If a policeman were to come along and see a green sunset over a purple sea...
- Henry Holland: All right, all right, spare me the details.
- Henry Holland: I said leave it.
- Lackery: A ruddy waste! There's many a starving bloke'd be glad of that lot!
- Mrs. Chalk: But surely you must have some suspicion. Who work the heist rackets in this territory?
- Policeman: Beg your pardon, lady?
- Mrs. Chalk: Oh really! I can't make myself much plainer. Which hoodlums around here specialize in toby jobs?
- Pendlebury: Now it's all over, I suppose I may dare say it's been a most remarkable coup.
- Shorty: The biggest job of its kind since One-Eyed Dobson got away with the GIs' pay packets. Two million dollars, Grosvenor Square, 'forty-five.
- Henry Holland: That was before devaluation. And this is one million pounds.
- Shorty: Oh, that's right. Blimey. We've got the record!
- Shorty: I didn't like to say so, but I don't really fancy going to Paris meself.
- Henry Holland: Why?
- Shorty: Well a friend of mine, he pinched a couple of tickets for the Test Match, see? I wouldn't half like to see that.
- Lackery: Bellamy's? In Bromley?
- Shorty: That's right. Last June. Twelver.
- Lackery: I was casing that joint the night you got pinched.
- Shorty: Well, what do you know? Shorty Fisher.
- Lackery: Nice to meet you.
- Pendlebury: Excuse me, I may be a bit slow but do I understand that in fact, you two are both professional criminals?
- Shorty: Well, what else do you take us for, rutty snoopers?
- Lackery: What's the setup?
- Pendlebury: Guns, yes. It's essential we're armed. Here we are. Here's yours.
- Henry Holland: Is it loaded?
- Pendlebury: Yes. It's a present from Margate. It fires a stick of rock.
- Lackery: [to Pendlebury who is pointing at him one of his souvenirs from Margate, a gun that fires a stick of rock] Put it away, I'm not hungry.
- Pendlebury: Edgar!
- Henry Holland: I beg your pardon.
- Pendlebury: Err... isn't one supposed to say that when one is being briefed? On my rare visits to the cinema...
- Henry Holland: The word is roger.