The Big Knife (1955)

Patty Benedict: When we first met, all you could talk about was the New Deal or the fair deal or some deal.
Charlie Castle: I believed in it.
Patty Benedict: What do you believe in now?
Charlie Castle: Health, hard work, rare roast beef and good scripts.

Patty Benedict: There were over 400,000 divorce cases in this country last year. It's getting as common as the ordinary head cold.

Marion Castle: Charlie! A man can live only one of two ways, either married or like a bachelor. What you want is the best of both! And that's not a marriage, not in my book.

Marion Castle: Charlie, he's only a man. He's not God, to strike us down in his wrath.

Nat Danziger: Charlie, never underestimate a man because you don't like him.

Charlie Castle: Every way is a way to die, huh?
Nat Danziger: I’m older. Every way is a way to live.

Charlie Castle: I’m asking you for the last time... Please, let me go.
Stanley Hoff: I can't force you to sign, can I? Can I?

Connie Bliss: Don't fight it, darling. Get with it.

Charlie Castle: Just what do you believe in? What?
Connie Bliss: Fun, Charlie, not gloomy thoughts. Perfume and staying young, and goodies of every sort and description, and secrets and locked doors, and enjoying the wildest things that come into my mind.
Charlie Castle: Why don't you go home, Connie? Your mother's looking for you.

Charlie Castle: Anything for my art.

Charlie Castle: You're saying funny things, Smiley, but I don't see you smiling. What do you mean, "she never opens her mouth again?"
Smiley Coy: That's it.
Charlie Castle: What's it?
Smiley Coy: Charlie, she'll have to be removed.
Charlie Castle: Removed?
Smiley Coy: Sorry to throw the raw meat on the floor. A fact, like a rock, has certain dimensions and gravity.

Charlie Castle: You see, everyone needs a cause to touch greatness.


—
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It Never Ends Well for the Chicken

Lucifer 5×4

Trixie: Parents. They're a mystery.

Lucifer: Mm. Uh...
Trixie: My mom usually starts with "Once upon a time."
Lucifer: Does she? Right, well... Once upon a time, the Devil went to New York City. The year... was 1946.

Lucifer: It was a wonderful time. Men wore hats, hemlines were on the rise, and so was crime. Rationing was over, the boys were home from the war, and the air was full of big band music and possibility.

Lucifer: How about we cheer you up with a healthy distraction, hmm? We could rent out a brothel, rob a bank... Oh! Ernie Hemingway's in town. He's always good for a laugh.

Lucifer: The Devil, solving crime. It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.

Jack Monroe: Well, if it ain't Lucifer Morningstar... What can I do you for?

Trixie: Wait, hold it!
Lucifer: Oh, for crying out loud.
Trixie: I thought you said Mr. Stompanato. "Mr." is a man.
Lucifer: Did you or did you not request a gender-balanced narrative? I'm simply following your instructions.

Tommy Stompanato: Next time... I won't be so nice. That means you're gonna die. And you... You're lucky you're a friend of Lily's. But don't get too friendly.

Lucifer: Sorry, got lost in a daydream, on account of your problem being so extraordinarily boring. Have you considered forgetting about it?
Jack Monroe: Have I considered forgetting about it? Is that your advice?
Lucifer: Well, in my experience... problems are like Bible salesmen, or... genital warts. If you pretend they're not there, sooner or later, they disappear.

---

William Kincannon: Who the hell are you?
Jack Monroe: Jack Monroe, PI.
Lucifer: Lucifer Morningstar, Devil.

Lucifer: Quite a unique fellow, aren't you? There's a word to describe you, but I can't quite put my finger on it. It's like a shower, but French...

Lucifer: This apartment is literally the most depressing hovel I've ever seen, and I've seen Kafka's Hell loop.
Melvin the Magnificent: Look over there! For just 12 dollars, 12 dollars, our deluxe ceremony of Anubis includes this ceremonial mask, two acolytes, and a drum made from the skin of a Vestal Virgin, a gilded sacrificial dagger, and one live... chicken!
Lucifer: It never ends well for the chicken.
Melvin the Magnificent: Or you might prefer our economy package. Uh... only six dollars! Lucifer: And the chicken heart comes pre-sacrificed for your convenience.
Not particularly accurate, historically speaking, but quite, uh, bloody. My old friend Tutankhamen would've loved it.

Lucifer: So, why don't I repay my debt some other way? A castle, a private island, a mountain of gold? The world is your oyster, and I, your concierge.

Lilith: All this time you've spent on Earth... have you ever connected with a human?
Lucifer: I've connected with thousands of humans. Once, Caligula and I made a human train of 37...

Gertie: We all die, Lily. And that's okay. Truth is... I'd rather die today trying to save the man I love... than live forever without him.

Jack Monroe: Well, you're an odd duck, but it's been... It's been real interesting... You take care of yourself, kid.
Lucifer: You too, old man.

Lilith: They all think they want to live forever. But they already have something so much more precious... Gertie was right. It's knowing there's an end. That's what makes the rest of it count. That's what connects them to one another. What makes them brave, even when they have no reason to be.

Trixie: My mom says dealing with your problems is the only way to get past them.

--
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+ Soundtracks!

Mildred Pierce (1945)

Policeman on Pier: What's on your mind, lady? You know what I think? I think maybe you had an idea you'd take a swim. That's what I think... If you take a swim, I'd have to take a swim. Is that fair? Just because you feel like bumping yourself off, I gotta get pneumonia. Never thought about that, did ya? Okay, think about it.

Wally: Oh, brother. I'm so smart it's a disease.

Inspector Peterson: You know, Mrs. Beragon, being a detective is like... Well, like making an automobile. You just take all the pieces and put them together one by one. First thing you know, you got an automobile. Or a murderer.

Mildred: We lived on Corvallis Street where all the houses looked alike. Ours was number 1143. I was always in the kitchen. I felt as though I'd been born in a kitchen and lived there all my life, except for the few hours it took to get married.

Wally: You gotta be educated, Mildred. You just joined the biggest army in the world. The great American institution that never gets mentioned on the Fourth of July— a grass widow with two children to support.

Mildred: Wally, ... why can't you be friendly?
Wally: But I am being friendly.
Mildred: No, I mean it. Friendship's much more lasting than love.
Wally: Yeah, but it isn't as entertaining.

Veda: Why do you think I want money so badly? .... With this money, I can get away from you. From you and your chickens and your pies and your kitchens and everything that smells of grease. I can get away from this shack with its cheap furniture and this town and its dollar days and its women that wear uniforms and its men that wear overalls... I think I'm really seeing you for the first time in my life, and you're cheap and horrible. You think just because you made a little money, you can get a new hairdo and some expensive clothes and turn yourself into a lady, but you can't. Because you'll never be anything but a common frump, whose father lived over a grocery store and whose mother took in washing. With this money, I can get away from every rotten, stinking thing that makes me think of this place or you!

Ida: Why don't you forget about her?
Mildred: I can't. I've tried, but I can't.
Ida: Well, "try, try again." That's my motto.

Ida: Personally, Veda's convinced me that alligators have the right idea. They eat their young.

Ida: To the men we have loved. The stinkers.

Veda: It's your fault I'm the way I am!

--
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A Kiss Before Dying

& Bud Corliss: It’s not right.
    Dorothy Kingship: What?
    Bud Corliss: For anyone to love somebody as much as I love you.
    Dorothy Kingship: That makes us even.
    Bud Corliss: Then we haven’t got anything to worry about.

& Dorothy Kingship: It’s exciting, isn’t it?

& Dorothy Kingship: You don’t want to get out of it, do you?
    Bud Corliss: Silly. Who wants out?

& Dorothy Kingship: It’s no way to start a marriage, with deceit.

& Bud Corliss: Don’t look down. You might get dizzy.

---

& Ellen Kingship: Don’t you even begin to see?
    Gordon Grant: I guess we’ll just have to face it. You’re talking to a pretty stupid man.
    Ellen Kingship: Brand-new gloves, a borrowed belt... a blue handkerchief, an old blouse...
    Gordon Grant: «Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.»
    Ellen Kingship: Where’s the Marriage License Bureau?

& Bud Corliss: I’m a man with a shameful, sinister secret. You know what it is?... I’ve never really been in love before.

& Ellen Kingship: I’m not worried about the caviar. Just be sure there’s enough champagne.

--
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Too Late for Tears

& Jane Palmer: You had a chance to give up the money. Why didn’t you take it?
    Alan: I was just asking myself that same question...

& Kathy: That’s why I love to come here. Everyone is so gay, so buoyant.

& Jane: We’ll be happier than we ever dreamed we could be...
    Alan: Sure we will, Jane. But the money won’t help. There’ll always be Joneses with a little more. The only thing worth having is peace of mind, and money can’t buy that.

---

& Boy in Boat: Did you hear something then?
    Girl in Boat: Stop hearing things and kiss me.

& Danny: First I’m going to get to know you better. I think probably some day you will kill me. And I wouldn’t want that to happen unless we were good friends.

& Jane: You’re going to help me again, Danny...

& Jane: Did you get it?
    Danny: The best, Duchess. Nothing but the best for you, Duchess. I say let’s kill these people in style. There’s enough there to kill most of the people you don’t like.

& Danny: Here’s to crime. It pays and pays.

--
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The Fallen Idol

& Mrs. Baines: Lying again, Master Phillipe?
    Baines: There’s lies and lies.
    Mrs. Baines: What do you mean?
    Baines: Some lies are just kindness.

& Baines: Tomorrow we’ll put up a little stone in the garden and we’ll write his name on it.
    Phillipe: «Macgregor, killed by Mrs Baines.» And the date.
    Baines: No, no. No, not that. Something like, «My Macgregor, very lovely he was in his life.» And then the date... No, we... we’ll just have «Macgregor». That’ll be plenty. We’ll remember.

& Doctor: In my position one must try to be hard. Death is like a business. It has to be attended to.

& Phillipe: Don’t worry, Baines. I won’t tell them anything.

---

& Phillipe: I haven’t done harm, have I?
    Baines: Trouble is, we... we’ve told a lot of lies.

& Baines: There are faults on both sides, Phile. We don’t have any call to judge. Perhaps she was what she was because... I am what I am. We ought to be very careful, Phile, cos we make one another.
    Phillipe: I thought God made us.
    Baines: Trouble is, we take a hand in the game.

& Phillipe: Oh, please. Please! It’s the truth. Please! Oh, please, do listen to me. Please! It’s very important what I want to tell you...

--
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In a Lonely Place

& Dixon Steele: You know me. If I don’t answer the third ring, I’m not home.

& Dixon Steele: There’s no sacrifice too great for a chance at immortality.

& Mildred Atkinson: She falls in love with Channing, who’s not really a lifeguard, but a student at Columbia University studying to be a «bachelortorologist.» Well, you know, one of those fellows that looks into the «microbes.»

& Dixon Steele: It could have happened to anybody.
    Dixon Steele: I know, but somehow it always happens to you.

& Dixon Steele: Why do you want me to confess?
    Mel Lippman: Because I’ll have to get you a lawyer. Or maybe get you across the border into Mexico.
    Dixon Steele: Lippman and his connections...

& Dixon Steele: You know, you’re out of your mind. How could anybody like a face like this? Look at it.
    Laurel Gray: I said I liked it. I didn’t say I wanted to kiss it.

---

& Dixon Steele: No, Sylvia, I didn’t do it. I assure you I could never throw a lovely body from a moving car. My artistic temperament wouldn’t permit it. No, naturally.
    You see, we so-called creative artists have a great respect for cadavers. We treat them with the utmost reverence. Put them in soft beds, lay them out on fur rugs, leave them lying at the foot of a long staircase, but we definitely could never throw them from a moving car as though they were cigarette butts.
    No, naturally not.

& Laurel Gray: He’s writing a script. I’m doing the typing.
    Capt. Lochner: Do you receive a salary for your work?
    Laurel Gray: No. I’m doing it for love.

& Martha: A girl like you should think about security. And remember, angel, in the beginning was the land. Motion pictures came later.

& Dixon Steele: Oh, I love a picnic. Acres and acres of sand, and all of it in your food.

& Dixon Steele: I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me. You like it?

& Dixon Steele: A good love scene should be about something else besides love. For instance, this one. Me fixing grapefruit, you sitting over there dopey, half asleep. Anyone looking at us could tell we were in love.

& Dixon Steele: Uh, Effie wants us to get married. Says it’ll give her a chance to vacuum the apartment while we’re away.
    Laurel Gray: Isn’t there a simpler way?

--
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The Killing

& Johnny Clay: You know, Fay, the biggest mistake I made before was shooting for peanuts. Five years have taught me one thing, if nothin’ else — anytime you take a chance, you better be sure the rewards are worth the risk... because they can put you away just as fast for a $10 heist as they can for a million-dollar job.

& George: Why did you ever marry me anyway?
    Sherry: George, when a man has to ask his wife that, well, he just hadn’t better, that’s all. Why talk about it? Maybe it’s all to the good in the long run.

& Sherry: After all, if people didn’t have headaches, what would happen to the aspirin industry?

& Johnny: I know you like a book. You’re a no good, nosy little tramp. You’d sell out your own mother for a piece of fudge, but you’re smart along with it. Smart enough to know when to sell and when to sit tight, and you know you better sit tight in this case.
    Sherry: I do?
    Johnny: You heard me. You like money. You got a great big dollar sign there where most women have a heart.

---

& Maurice: You have my sympathies, Johnny. You have not yet learned that in this life you have to be like everyone else— the perfect mediocrity. No better, no worse. Individuality is a monster, and it must be strangled in its cradle... to make our friends feel comfortable.

& Maurice: You know, I often thought that the gangster and the artist... are the same in the eyes of the masses. They’re admired and hero-worshipped, but there is always present... underlying wish to see them destroyed at the peak of their glory.
    Johnny: Yeah. Like the, um— Like the man said, «Life is like a glass of tea.» Huh?
    Maurice: Oh, Johnny, my friend, you never were very bright... but I love you anyway.

& Maurice: Still, I will probably go to jail, and jails I have found unpleasant. Food is very bad, company is poor, beds are too small...

& Maurice: There are some things, my dear Fisher, which do not bear much looking into. You have undoubtedly heard of the Siberian goat herder... who tried to discover the true nature of the sun. He stared up at the heavenly body until it made him blind. There are many things of this sort... including love and death and my business for today.

--
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Killer's Kiss

& Davey: It’s crazy how you can get yourself in a mess sometimes... and not even be able to think about it with any sense... and yet not be able to think about anything else. You get so you’re no good for anything or anybody. Maybe it begins by taking life too serious...

& Davey: I love you.
    Gloria: Love me? That’s funny.
    Davey: Why is it so funny? Why?
    Gloria: It’s a mistake to confuse pity with love.

---

& Vinnie: You said you were mad about me. Remember? I’m just an old man, and I smell bad. Remember?
    Gloria: I didn’t mean it. You know I didn’t mean it.

--
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