The Light Touch (1951)

George Sanders: Felix Guignol

Photos 

Quotes 

• Felix Guignol : Here's to art. The only world where age comes before beauty.

• Felix Guignol : You seem very positive.

  Mr. Aramescu : I have faith.

  Felix Guignol : In that case, accept my condolences.

• Felix Guignol : How much progress have you made with Miss Vasarri?

  Sam Conride : Well, either she's extremely naïve, or, what is worse, she's just plain honest.

• Felix Guignol : Dear boy, when you ask for money, you're appealing to the most unresponsive side of my nature.

• Felix Guignol : Don't be so unhappy. Marriage is a lottery. You may be getting a prize.

  Sam Conride : Well, if it's a lottery, there ought to be a law against it.

• Anton : Do you think deep down he loves her?

  Felix Guignol : Dear boy, love is something that takes place before marriage, not during, and never after. For proof, ask any of my four ex-wives.

• Felix Guignol : There are only two kinds of people: the impractical and the practical. And you cannot do business with the impractical. The best thing to do is to stay away from them. They confuse faith and ethics for business.

  Sam Conride : Have you got a faith, Felix?

  Felix Guignol : Certainly, my faith is that nothing is worth believing in. My faith is faithlessness, and so is yours. If we give that up, what are we going to live by? Man has to believe in something, even if it's nothing.

• Felix Guignol : They say that collecting art is a disease - not dangerous, but contagious.

• Felix Guignol : My affection for you is returning.

• Felix Guignol : So, the painting is burned, eh?

  Sam Conride : Well, it was either save the painting or my life.

  Felix Guignol : But there're so many lives in this tortured world and so few clients willing to pay nearly $100,000. Here you are alive and so much money is dead. I'm in deep mourning.

• Sam Conride : The paintings gone. Burnt.

  Felix Guignol : What do you mean burned?

  Sam Conride : The boat accidentally caught fire. I was lucky to escape with my life.

  Mr. Aramescu : Luck? You call it luck if it destroys a masterpiece? Such an imbecile! Idiot!

• Sam Conride : Felix, you can trust me, don't you.

  Felix Guignol : If I trust you as much as you trust me, the truth would melt in our mouths.

• Sam Conride : That cologne of yours is very loud.

  Felix Guignol : But in Tunis, very necessary.

• Felix Guignol : If it has a crooked aspect, it has occurred to me.

• Felix Guignol : A man has to believe in something, even if it's nothing.

• Sam Conride : We can get Alfredo to do the imitations.

  Felix Guignol : He's in jail in New York.

  Sam Conride : There's Max. He paints in the Renaissance style.

  Felix Guignol : Oh, Max, has turned honest. He's starving to death.

  Sam Conride : I'll send him a cable.

  Felix Guignol : If I can help it, I never do business with honest people.

• Felix Guignol : Accept my apology.

  Sam Conride : What did you do to me now?

  Felix Guignol : I still don't know who did what to whom.

• Felix Guignol : What a coincidence.

  Sam Conride : Yes, isn't it. I was looking for you and you were looking for me and we meet. Coincidence.

• Felix Guignol : Shall I have a good talk with her?

  Sam Conride : Oh, no. The better she knows you, the less she'll trust me.

• Felix Guignol : No need to be alarmed, my dear. You're very young, very talented, and very lovely. And I'm sorry to have interrupted your work. Politics, business and art bring together strange bedfellows. Au revoir.

• Felix Guignol : Sam, hold onto her. No matter how you do it, promise her anything. As a last resort you can even promise her more money. But, only as a last resort.

• Felix Guignol : Man has to believe in something, even if it is nothing.

• [last lines] 

  [as Sam and Anna walk away arm-in-arm, Charles racks his gun aims at their backs. But Felix snatches the gun away and says...] 

  Felix Guignol : It's no use. I'm afraid we've lost him---and he had such a wonderfully crooked soul. Oh, well.

• Felix Guignol : Dear boy, the world as we know is populated with all sorts of lunatics. Now, take the ancient Christians. They were ready to be eaten by lions and were. There are only two kinds of people: the impractical and the practical. And you cannot do business with the impractical. The best thing to do is to stay away from them. The confuse faith and ethics with business.

  Sam Conride : Have you got a faith, Felix?

  Felix Guignol : Certainly. My faith is that nothing is worth believing in. My faith is faithlessness.

• Felix Guignol : My experience is that you can never trust people who are in love, especially women - extremely unpredictable, very impractical. Very.