(no subject)

[calimac]

If Wikipedia can tell me the origin of the phrase "Take me to your leader," why can't it do the same for "There are some things man was not meant to know" or "We have ways of making you talk"?

Comments

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

Have you looked under "We have ways to make you talk"? The use of the infinitive is very formal English and sounds a bit stilted as dialogue, but it also suggests that the speaker learned English in school, which I think is the intent; at any rate, it's the phrasing I associate with a cinematic German accent.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I've heard The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935) cited as the origin of the "we have ways" quotation, though it's slightly different: "We have ways to make men talk", and the speaker is not German.