Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes Quotes

Count Emilio Ponticelli: It is a pity that the race will now be won by a Protestant.

Mother Superior: Protestant?... Sisters, don't stand around gaping - this good Catholic needs our help!

Captain Rumpelstoss: But... how will I learn to fly?

Count Manfred Von Holstein: Same way as we learn everything else in the German army: From the book of instructions!

Colonel: [watching Mays take off after having helped him return to the race] I think I'll get one of those, Muriel.

Colonel's Wife: I shouldn't, Willie - you're near enough to your wings as it is.

Sir Percy Ware-Armitage: I've given the Frenchman the address of a very lovely young lady.

Courtney: Oh, ho, ho - I'll bet she's a bit of all right, guv'nor.

Sir Percy Ware-Armitage: You should know - she's your daughter.

Courtney: But guv'nor - she's an innocent young girl!

Sir Percy Ware-Armitage: Not *is*, Courtney - *was*!

Sir Percy Ware-Armitage: You dirty rotter! I *had* hoped that I should be dealing with a gentleman.

Trawler Skipper: So had I.

[first lines]

The Neanderthal Man: [watches a gull flying over a beach]

Narrator: Ever since man started to think, he's wanted to fly. But flying was strictly for the birds.

The Neanderthal Man: [flapping his arms enthusiastically, he leaps from a sandy bluff and falls onto the beach below]

Narrator: And continued to be so for thousands of years.

[in ancient Greece, a man wearing makeshift wings is forced at swordpoint off a temple roof]

Narrator: Man, eternally optimistic, kept trying.

[a man in medieval times, also in man-made wings, jumps from a cliff, after which a variety of failed experimental flying machines from the late 1800s are depicted]

Narrator: Encouraged by his many successes, man kept trying. Through his genius and his inventiveness, he managed to get his machines off the ground - and sometimes, he brought them down again.

[Count Emilio Ponticelli is seen starting his flying machine]

Narrator: All over the world, early pioneers were making flying history. And in Italy, Count Emilio Ponticelli made what many people claim was the first long-distance flight.

[the screen widens, as Ponticelli is seen crashing about 100 feet after taking off]

Narrator: There was no doubt about it; by nineteen hundred and ten, flying had become the rage - man had conquered the air, and people everywhere were all agog about those magnificent men in their flying machines.

Lord Rawnsley: I believe if the Lord had intended me to fly, he would have given me wings.

Patricia Rawnsley: You travel by train, father, but you haven't any wheels.

Count Emilio Ponticelli: Sophia? Look. I shall enter. I shall win... for Italia.

Countess Sofia Ponticelli: But you promised.

Count Emilio Ponticelli: Is postponed.

Sir Percy Ware-Armitage: I'm not only going to join it, dear boy. I'm going to win it.

Patricia Rawnsley: Do you really think you have a chance, Sir Percy?

Sir Percy Ware-Armitage: Miss Rawnsley, I never leave anything to chance.

Patricia Rawnsley: Look, Father! He's teaching her to fly!

Lord Rawnsley: How ridiculous. Anyone can see that young woman... isn't in the least mechanically minded.

Courtney: You're not going... You're not going to sabotage it, governor?

Sir Percy Ware-Armitage: I certainly am not. You are.

Captain Rumpelstoss: It is impossible to cross, Herr Colonel.

Count Manfred Von Holstein: Nothing is impossible for the fatherland.

Courtney: He's right. This'll be the one to beat, governor.

Sir Percy Ware-Armitage: In that case, we'll have to nobble the man and not the machine. Perhaps a little cascara in his chop suey.

[both snickering]

Count Emilio Ponticelli: You are sure it will fly?

Harry Popperwell: Of course it'll fly! What do you think it's gonna do, lay an egg?