The Great Escape (1963)

David McCallum: Ashley-Pitt 'Dispersal'

Photos 

Quotes 

• Ashley-Pitt : [watching Hilts be brought back into camp]  I didn't think he'd get caught so soon.

  Bartlett : He wasn't caught.

• Willie : This is the dirt from the compound.

  Danny : This is from the tunnel.

  [Mac takes a handful of tunnel dirt and sprinkles it onto the mound from the compound] 

  MacDonald : Wherever we put it, they're going to spot it a mile away.

  Willie : Well, maybe we could put it under the huts. The dirt's dark there.

  MacDonald : Nah. No, it's the first place the ferrets would look. I saw one measuring the height under a hut yesterday.

  Willie : Well, maybe we could dry it out the same color.

  Danny : We'll have fifty tons of it.

  Willie : Well, I was just thinking out loud.

  Bartlett : If you must think, for God's sake, think clearly. Where the devil is Ashley-Pitt?

  MacDonald : We can't destroy the dirt, and we can't eat it. The only thing left to do is... camouflage it. That's as far as my thinking takes me.

  [Ashley-Pitt enters] 

  Bartlett : Didn't they teach you promptness in the R.N.?

  Ashley-Pitt : You'll never believe it, but I think I have the solution. The problem is somehow to get rid of this tunnel dirt over the compound.

  Bartlett : Well, of course.

  Ashley-Pitt : Would you mind?

  [Eric hands Danny and Willie a blanket, which they set on the floor, while Eric gets his contraption ready] 

  Ashley-Pitt : Now... you fill these bags with the dirt from the tunnel. Then, wearing them *inside* your trousers, you wander out into the compound, where you pull these strings in your pockets. Out come the pins...

  [Eric pulls the pins out to demonstrate] 

  Danny : Eric, it's good.

  Ashley-Pitt : All you have to do is... kick it in. Unless you're a complete fool, the ferrets will never see a thing.

  MacDonald : It's indecently brilliant. What do you think, Roger?

  Bartlett : We'll try it first thing tomorrow.

  Ashley-Pitt : I already have. It works.

• Hendley : Right.

  Bartlett : Dennis, maps and surveys. Colin, you'll take your usual job. Eric, have you thought how you're going to get rid of this dirt?

  Ashley-Pitt : Yes, I have. The usual places. I hadn't anticipated three tunnels, but we'll manage.

  Sorren : Roger, who's going to handle security for all this?

  Bartlett : You are. I want a system of stooges covering this compound from front to back, checking every goon in and out. I want a signal system so perfect that if ever a ferret gets within fifty feet of any of the huts in which we're working, we can shut down without a sign.

• Hendley : Well, what do you think, Navy?

  Ashley-Pitt : I must say it's an interesting first twenty minutes.

  Willie : I'd say we made fools of ourselves.