The Prisoner of Zenda (1952)

James Mason: Rupert of Hentzau

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Quotes 

• Rupert of Hentzau : [referring to the King]  He's in a woodcutter's cabin. Oh, and by the way, royal blood is not blue as most people think. It's red. I know because I had to spill a little.

• Rupert of Hentzau : I'm glad you stopped lying to me. I hate being lied to by women. They never did before. I always lied to them.

  Antoinette de Mauban : You and I will never have anything to lie to each other about, Count Rupert.

  Rupert of Hentzau : Never? Somebody once called fidelity the fading woman's greatest weapon the charming woman's greatest hypocrisy. And you're very charming - to anyone whose head is not bowed beneath a borrowed crown.

• Rudolf Rassendyll : But surely, no woman in her right senses would prefer the Duke to you.

  Rupert of Hentzau : Women are never in their right senses, thank goodness!

• Michael, Duke of Strelsau : How badly did you wound him?

  Rupert of Hentzau : Not fatally, I'm afraid. But the cabin is very damp, your highness - he could easily develop pneumonia...

  Michael, Duke of Strelsau : And let the Englishman reign for the rest of his life? Could we ever expose him?

  Rupert of Hentzau : That hadn't occurred to me.

  Michael, Duke of Strelsau : But if the Englishman died first, and was buried in the cathedral as the King...

  Rupert of Hentzau : There are moments in your presence, your highness, when I feel myself an amateur.

• Rupert of Hentzau : Poor Michael, how he shortchanges himself - deserting a warm, exciting woman of the world for an insipid wax doll.

  Antoinette de Mauban : That was hardly up to your usual standard, Count Rupert. I'd heard you were much more subtle.

• Rupert of Hentzau : I love arrogance in a woman. It's always so amusing to discover that their arrogance is only a defense. But you need no defense against me. You and I are allies.

• Michael, Duke of Strelsau : It's the day, the hour, almost the moment.

  Rupert of Hentzau : History is born out of a bottle of wine.

• Rupert of Hentzau : Your Highness shows me the path of duty. It is the simple duty of a patriot to kill him like a dog.

• Rupert of Hentzau : Odd, a man not knowing his own brother. But I assure you, they're enough alike to be twins.

  Michael, Duke of Strelsau : You're trying to tell me the man I saw crowned is an impostor?

  Rupert of Hentzau : Not your type of fiction, I see, Your Highness. Too incredible. But still, these things do happen. I knew twin sisters once who - but that's another story.

• Rupert of Hentzau : It was very careless of you to leave your door ajar. Very careless - and *very* inviting.

  Antoinette de Mauban : Oh? Yes.

  Rupert of Hentzau : Come now, admit I've been patient. And patience is a virtue I generally lack.

  Antoinette de Mauban : You never lack audacity, Rupert.

• Antoinette de Mauban : You really shouldn't be here, you know.

  Rupert of Hentzau : Of course.

  [walks in] 

  Rupert of Hentzau : I shouldn't.