The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

James Gregory: Senator John Yerkes Iselin

Photos 

Quotes 

• Mrs. Iselin : [at meal time]  I'm sorry, hon'. Would it really make it easier for you if we settled on just one number?

  Sen. John Yerkes Iselin : Yeah. Just one, real, simple number that'd be easy for me to remember.

  [Mrs. Iselin watches her husband thump a bottle of Heinz Tomato Ketchup onto his plate] 

  Sen. John Yerkes Iselin : [addressing the Senate]  There are exactly 57 card-carrying members of the Communist Party in the Department of Defense at this time!

• Sen. John Yerkes Iselin : There's just one thing, babe. I'd be a lot happier if we could just settle on the number of Communists I know there are in the Defense Department. I mean, the way you keep changing the figures on me all the time, it makes me look like some kind of a nut, like... like an idiot.

• Sen. John Yerkes Iselin : No evasions, Mister Secretary, no evasions if you please.

  Secretary of Defense : Evasions? What the hell are you talking about?

  Secretary of Defense : [whispering to Marco]  What the hell is this nonsense?

  Marco : [covering the microphones]  Mister Secretary, I'm kind of new at this job, but I don't think it's good public relations to speak that way to a US Senator, even if he is an idiot.

  Sen. John Yerkes Iselin : I am United States Senator John Yerkes Iselin, and I have here a list of two hundred seven persons who are known by the Secretary of Defense as being members of the Communist Party!

  Secretary of Defense : [amid shocked reaction from the crowd]  What?

  Sen. John Yerkes Iselin : Who nevertheless are still shaping the policy of the Defense Department!

  Secretary of Defense : Senator who?

  Sen. John Yerkes Iselin : I demand an answer, Mister Secretary! There will be no covering up, sir! No covering up!

  Secretary of Defense : How did you get in here in the first place?