Wit & Attitude Quote by David Niven

Niven turns disappointment into a punchline by phrasing it like a promise. "You can count on" is the setup for reliability, the kind of compliment you’d expect in a toast. Then he flips it: "he'll always let you down". The joke lands because the sentence keeps the rhythm of trust while swapping in betrayal, making unreliability sound as dependable as sunrise. It’s a clean bit of social judo: praise in form, indictment in substance.

The intent is less moral condemnation than calibrated warning, delivered with a grin. Niven isn’t merely calling Flynn flaky; he’s defining him as a type - the charming catastrophe you keep inviting back because the wreckage is entertaining and, in Hollywood, often profitable. The subtext is that charisma can function as a kind of social immunity. Flynn’s failures are expected, even narratively satisfying, so the people around him adjust their expectations instead of demanding change.

Context matters: Golden Age Hollywood ran on manufactured images and managed scandals, and Flynn’s persona - swashbuckling, rakish, perpetually one bad decision ahead of the press - was both brand and alibi. Niven, the urbane counterweight, delivers this line like an insider’s aside, a way of signaling: we all know the story, and we’re still casting him in it. It’s affectionate, yes, but it’s also a quiet indictment of an industry and a social circle that mistake predictability for virtue, even when the prediction is disappointment.