Mannix (TV Series)
Race Against Time: Part 1 (1974)
Mike Connors: Joe Mannix
Photos
Quotes
-
Dr. Myles Considine : [upon being told that he is going on a mission to perform surgery on a man who's in another country] And he told you I'd agree to this?
Joe Mannix : That's the impression I got, yes.
Dr. Myles Considine : [sighs] Well, he had absolutely no right to make such an assumption. It's... it's preposterous.
Joe Mannix : He probably took it for granted you'd go for it, what with a man's life at stake.
Dr. Myles Considine : A life at stake?
[shows Joe a piece of paper]
Dr. Myles Considine : Here are a dozen, waiting for their turns. And don't bother to tell me that your candidate is prominent. A publisher, a politician, one of the leading corporation lawyers in the country...
Joe Mannix : You are selective, Doctor.
Dr. Myles Considine : My work is exacting. And expensive.
Joe Mannix : There's a problem there. I doubt if this job would have netted you much of a fee, if any at all.
Dr. Myles Considine : It was my understanding that the man Lucas is at present in his own country, several thousand miles from here.
Joe Mannix : That is correct.
Dr. Myles Considine : In some secret hideout from a military government that apparently would much prefer him dead than alive.
Joe Mannix : That is also correct.
Dr. Myles Considine : In which case... they'd feel more or less the same about anybody who tried to keep him alive... wouldn't that also be correct?
Joe Mannix : You might say that's one other reason to get the operation over and done with as quickly as possible.
Dr. Myles Considine : And that isn't preposterous?
[Joe doesn't respond]
Dr. Myles Considine : I have patients whose lives are dependent on my life, and I involve myself in some... outlandish enterprise from which I might not return.
Joe Mannix : I don't think you quite understand, Doctor. My job is to not only get you there, but to get you back. Alive.
Dr. Myles Considine : I'm afraid that could hardly alter my decision, Mr. Mannix.
Joe Mannix : Well, then, I'll, uh, forward your profound regrets. And I'm sure you must have regrets, Doctor, seeing you're the only man who might stand a chance of saving Victor Lucas.
Dr. Myles Considine : Well, yes... of course I regret it.
Joe Mannix : Not to mention the man himself. You must have some familiarity with him. What he's done, what he stands for.
Dr. Myles Considine : I do occasionally read more than medical journals, Mr. Mannix. Of course, I know about him.
Joe Mannix : And what's your opinion, Doctor? Wouldn't you say there aren't many men like him left on this earth?
Dr. Myles Considine : Look, I don't see the point in pursuing this.
Joe Mannix : It's just that in a week from now, maybe two weeks, when you're reading his obituary, I'd like you to think about what you might have done to keep him here a little longer.
Dr. Myles Considine : No, the whole thing's quite impossible.
Joe Mannix : Yes, you've told me that.
Dr. Myles Considine : All right, go ahead, say it's a matter of nerve.
Joe Mannix : You said that, Doctor, I didn't.
Dr. Myles Considine : Say it's nerve, and I can tell you it takes more than nerve to plow into a man's chest, to lay his heart bare, to work with it as if it weren't his one, sole, pulsing hold on life.
[sighs]
Dr. Myles Considine : It takes a lot more nerve than most men ever know. But that's my field, this is my territory. You can't expect me to suddenly turn into some... superhero out of an Ian Fleming novel!
Joe Mannix : They're only asking you to be a doctor... and save a man's life we both know is worth saving.
