Noir Nook: Quotable Noir, Part 3
There are lots of things I love – old movie magazines, baking, nighttime soap operas (right now, I’m heavily into Knots Landing) – but nestled among all of these is tradition! And around these parts, it’s a new tradition for me to kick off the new year with some of the awesome lines that have been featured in our favorite shadowy features. So . . . happy new year and enjoy these quotable quotes of noir!
“Life in Loyalton is like sitting in a funeral parlor waiting for the funeral to begin.” Rosa Moline (Bette Davis) in Beyond the Forest (1949)
“You know what I do to squealers? I let ‘em have it in the belly so they can roll around a long time, thinkin’ it over.” Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark) in Kiss of Death (1947)
“There’s a kind of depravity in you, Sam.” Helen Trent (Claire Trevor) in Born to Kill (1947)
“Somebody’s going to shoot you, sooner or later.” Harold Vermilyea in Chicago Deadline (1949)
“You’re a mess, honey.” Madame Tanya (Marlene Dietrich) in Touch of Evil (1958)
“Some people can smell danger. Not me.” Michael O’Hara (Orson Welles) in The Lady from Shanghai (1948)
“We’ve got a lot – but we haven’t got everything. I want what she’s got. All of it. I want her house, her name, her man. And I want them now. Tonight.” Daphne (Hazel Brooks) in Sleep, My Love (1948)
“Anybody who puts the finger on me is living on borrowed time.” Harry Coulton (Lawrence Tierney) in Shakedown (1950)
“What a witches’ sabbath . . . so incredibly evil. I didn’t think such a place existed except in my own imagination – like a half-remembered dream. Anything could happen here, at any moment.” Poppy (Gene Tierney) in The Shanghai Gesture (1941)
“One more crack like that and I’ll slap your kisser off ya. Believe me?” Barney Nolan (Edmond O’Brien) in Shield for Murder (1954)
“There’s one good thing in being a widow, isn’t there? You don’t have to ask your husband for money.” Mrs. Poetter (Frances Carson) in Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
“You’ll discover as you grow older that sometimes a man does things he’d prefer not to do.” Leo Morse (Thomas Gomez) in Force of Evil (1948)
“I’ve wanted to laugh in your face ever since I first met you. You’re old, ugly, and I’m sick of you – sick, sick, sick!” Kitty March (Joan Bennett) in Scarlet Street (1945)
“Don’t disappoint me and turn out to be honest.” Vince Phillips (John Hoyt) in Loan Shark (1952)
“Doesn’t it ever enter a man’s head that a woman can do without him?” Lily Stevens (Ida Lupino) in Road House (1948)
“What’s it worth to you to turn your considerable talents back to the gutter you crawled out of?” Carl Evello (Paul Stewart) in Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
“He’s as shifty as smoke, but I love him.” Moe Williams (Thelma Ritter) in Pickup on South Street (1953)
“Don’t ask me no favors – I can’t be bribed, see. Besides, you ain’t got enough money to bribe me.” Hodges (J.C. Flippen) in Brute Force (1947)
“I used to live in a sewer. Now I live in a swamp. I’ve come up in the world.” Edie Johnson (Linda Darnell) in No Way Out (1950)
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– Karen Burroughs Hannsberry for Classic Movie Hub
You can read all of Karen’s Noir Nook articles here.
Karen Burroughs Hannsberry is the author of the Shadows and Satin blog, which focuses on movies and performers from the film noir and pre-Code eras, and the editor-in-chief of The Dark Pages, a bimonthly newsletter devoted to all things film noir. Karen is also the author of two books on film noir – Femme Noir: The Bad Girls of Film and Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir. You can follow Karen on Twitter at @TheDarkPages.
If you’re interested in learning more about Karen’s books, you can read more about them on amazon here:
