Wet Gold (1984 TV Movie)

Burgess Meredith: Sampson

Photos 

Quotes 

• Laura : I wonders what really happened. What *did* happen, Sampson? What happened to *all* of us?

  Sampson : I don't know. I don't know.

• Sampson : Well... you'll think of a few more things you want, before this is over. You'll *change*. Because gold is just like... booze or gamblin': you always want *more*. Gets in your blood, and nothin' else matters.

  Chris Barnes : [chuckles]  Well, that's not gonna happen to us.

  Sampson : Well, I've seen it. You know, I worked in a casino in Cuba in the '30s, and I seen rich people come in there, men and women, and go busted over the turn of a card. I seen what greed does.

  Chris Barnes : Good night, Sampson.

• Laura : You know what, Sampson?

  Sampson : What?

  Laura : Last night I dreamt about gold. I guess I've been listening to too many of your stories.

  Sampson : Them weren't stories. Those is real. Listen, I'm the only one that come out alive.

  Laura : What happened?

  Sampson : It was a hurricane. The waves big as mountains come crashin' down over the bows, sent everything flyin'. And I grabbed hold of a hunk of wood that got tore out of the deck. And the thing crashed and crashed.

  Laura : Did somebody find you and rescue you?

  Sampson : No. No. I just hung on, till I was washed ashore. I'll tell you somethin': you know we were supposed to be carryin' a load of tin from Bolivia. but what we was *really* carryin' come from the casinos in Cuba. We were sneakin' in a load of gold. It was the Santa Cruz. Ah. I never told that name to no one before, never, never.

  Laura : You're telling the truth, aren't you?

  Sampson : I got a lot of faults, but I ain't a liar.

• Sampson : Don't let 'er make you crazy, son.

• Chris Barnes : [drunkenly, to expatriate in bar]  My friend, you are looking at a man who is about to become very, very rich.

  Sampson : [alarmed, to Chris]  Time to go.

  Expatriate : Is that - ?

  Sampson : Come on. Time to go.

  Chris Barnes : In a couple days I could buy out this whole town.

  Sampson : You're full of hot air.

  Expatriate : Where's all this money coming from?

  Sampson : Ain't no money! He's had a few too many.

  Chris Barnes : Me?

• Sampson : Too much talk. Lots of ears listenin'.

  Chris Barnes : I told him we were fishin'. I just didn't tell him what we were fishin' for!

  Sampson : Come on! We gotta get outta here.

  Chris Barnes : All that matters is getting that gold. My father says he's gonna cut me off. I'm gonna show him. I'm gonna show all of 'em. I'm gonna show Laura, too.

• Sampson : Wait! What do we do with him?

  [points to Chris] 

  Ben Keating, the Diver : Sober him up.

  Sampson : [drunkenly]  *Me*?

• Sampson : [counting gold bars]  Ninety-five. Ninety-six.

  Chris Barnes : Ninety-seven.

  [They laugh] 

  Chris Barnes : Laura: your piano!

  Laura : But not a rinky-dink out-of-tune piano. *I* want a baby grand. White. Mm! And I wanna travel. London, Paris, I wanna see Italy.

• Laura : Sampson!

  Sampson : Hi.

  [coughs] 

  Laura : Are you alright?

  Sampson : Who the hell cares?

  Laura : What happened? Your eye: somebody beat you up.

  Sampson : Yeah, they - they took my stuff: my good pair of shoes.

  Laura : Come on. You're coming to my house.

  Sampson : Yeah, I need a - drink - cocoa.

• [first lines] 

  Sampson : There's nothin' in the world like gold, you know that? Nothin' in the world. A gold bar is smooth as skin, and keeps shinin' and shinin'. It's beautiful. It has its own pure color, like nothin' else in this world. And it never rusts. Did you know that? Never! It just keeps shinin' down there. And I'm the only one that knows where it is.

  Chris Barnes : [chuckles]  Come on.

  Laura : Wait!

  Chris Barnes : Laura, there's no gold.

  Sampson : Shh! I'm the only one.

• Sampson : Let him have it, all of it. I'd rather been poor and alive than rich and dead!

• Sampson : You thought I was gonna kick the bucket there for a minute, didn't you? Don't you get your hopes up. It ain't gonna be so easy.

• Sampson : What are we doin', goin' to the *library*?

  Laura : Here it is! July 27th, 1946. Santa Cruz lost at sea. How many men on board?

  Sampson : Uh... Twenty?

  Laura : Who was the captain?

  Sampson : Uh, oh he's a tough old buzzard, uh, he's a Swede... His name was Sorrenson.

  Laura : How many survivors?

  Sampson : Just me! Maybe - Maybe it says in that paper there was none, you see, because nobody knew about me, and I never told because I knew someday I was goin' back for what was in that hold.