First Quote Added
April 10, 2026
Latest Quote Added
"Oh, blast all this discussion! What good are words? I'm sick of words. Hang the repercussions and the responsibility! If I fail, I'm responsible. Leave the cell door open. Let him escape. Let him! It's our only chance! Let them threaten me with the bottom pits of hell and still I insist! This obscenity must be destroyed! Do you hear me? Destroyed!"
"Well, who but a Nazi would deny that Karl Marx was a German because he was a Jew?"
"In prison, in Czechoslovakia, a war criminal was awaiting execution. This was Konrad Meinike, one time executive officer for Franz Kindler. He was an obscenity on the face of the earth. The stench of burning flesh was in his clothes. But we gave him his freedom on the chance that he might lead me to Kindler. He led me here, Mrs. Rankin. And here, I lost him. Until yesterday. Your dog, Red, found him for me. But unfortunately, Meinike was dead and buried. Now, in all the world, there is only one person who can identify Franz Kindler. That person is the one who knows, knows definitely, who Meinike came to Harper to see."
"[to Judge Longstreet, about Mary] She has the facts now, but she won't accept them. They're too horrible for her to acknowledge. Not so much that Rankin could be Kindler, but that she could ever have given her love to such a creature. But we have one ally, her subconscious. It knows what the truth is and it's struggling to be heard. The will to truth within your daughter is much too strong to be denied."
"Why wasn't it I... Franz Kindler? Kill me. Kill me, I want you to. I couldn't face life knowing what I've been to you and what I've done to Noah. But when you kill me, don't put your hands on me! [Picks up a fireplace poker] Here! Use this!"
"Mr. Potter: [after Meineke's body is dug up] I knew darn well it was the same feller. 'Course, he's changed some. Uh, being buried in the earth does it."
"Orson Welles - Franz Kindler / Professor Charles Rankin"
"Edward G. Robinson - Mr. Wilson"
"Loretta Young - Mary Longstreet Rankin"
"Philip Merivale - Judge Adam Longstreet (Mary's father)"
"Richard Long - Noah Longstreet (Mary’s brother)"
"Konstantin Shayne - Konrad Meinike"
"Byron Keith - Dr. Jeffrey Lawrence"
"Billy House - Mr. Potter"
"Martha Wentworth - Sara"
Young though he was, his radiant energy produced such an impression of absolute reliability that Hedgewar made him the first sarkaryavah, or general secretary, of the RSS.
- Gopal Mukund Huddar
Largely because of the influence of communists in London, Huddar's conversion into an enthusiastic supporter of the fight against fascism was quick and smooth. The ease with which he crossed from one worldview to another betrays the fact that he had not properly understood the world he had grown in.
Huddar would have been 101 now had he been alive. But then centenaries are not celebrated only to register how old so and so would have been and when. They are usually celebrated to explore how much poorer our lives are without them. Maharashtrian public life is poorer without him. It is poorer for not having made the effort to recall an extraordinary life.
I regret I was not there to listen to Balaji Huddar's speech [...] No matter how many times you listen to him, his speeches are so delightful that you feel like listening to them again and again.
By the time he came out of Franco's prison, Huddar had relinquished many of his old ideas. He displayed a worldview completely different from that of the RSS, even though he continued to remain deferential to Hedgewar and maintained a personal relationship with him.