" At the time of the film""s release, the fictional book had surpassed 1.5 million copies sold.(Now, more than 30 million copies of the 1936 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel have been sold.) More records were set when the film was first aired on television in two parts in late 1976, and controversy arose when it was restored and released theatrically in 1998.Peter...don""t do it till you""re sure I""m coming back.I""m gonna try not to.I wanna try not to come back." On a TV broadcast, scientist Dr.Millard Rausch proposed a radical solution -- dropping nuclear bombs on all the big cities, while remaining unemotional, rational, logical and undivided: "They won""t run out of food while we""re still alive.Flashbacks cut back and forth to the footage from the previous afternoon.Ann: I don""t know what I""m gonna get him for Christmas yet.He""s already got everything.Mark: He doesn""t need anything anymore.Ann: Well, I haven""t decided what I""m gonna get you yet.Mark: Better start looking.Ann: What about me?Mark: You""ll see.Ann: A lot of fun you are.You""re supposed to tease me, give me hints, make me guess, you know.Mark: Does it bother you?Ann: What?Mark: Walking around in circles.Ann: (spotting the derelict on the park bench) Oh look, that""s terrible.Mark: He""s not hurting anyone.Ann: Neither are we.Oh God.Every time I see one of those old guys, I-I always think the same thing.Mark: What do you think?Ann: I always think that he was once somebody""s baby boy...and he had a mother and a father who loved him.And now, there he is, half-dead on a park bench and where is his mother or his father or his uncles now? Anyway, that""s what I always think.He handed her his whip to provide instant punishment for his reward of a kiss:Sophia: (after the kiss) Why did you do that?Count: Because I""ve fallen in love with you.As the pit was opened, Henry exclaimed: "What hell-spawned thing lurks there?" One unlucky guy was thrown in first - with the sound of a spash and a geyser of blood spewing out of the hole.