Since You Went Away (1944)

Colonel William G. Smollett: Good morning. Mrs. Hilton, I presume?
Mrs. Anne Hilton: Yes.
Colonel William G. Smollett: May I be permitted to observe that this is the first house I've found in this godforsaken community that doesn't smell of cabbage.
Mrs. Anne Hilton: Well, it does sometimes.
Colonel William G. Smollett: I was given to understand at the office of the Purchasing Division, to which I have the misfortune to be attached, that you had a room for rent.
Mrs. Anne Hilton: Yes, but I specified an officer. You see, my husband -
Colonel William G. Smollett: My name is Smollett, William G., Colonel, United States Army, retired. Retired, I might add, by virtue of certain fatuous opinions held in the War Department which judge a man's usefulness neither by his experience nor his ability, but by the number of years since he was weaned.
Bridget 'Brig' Hilton: [dog growls and barks] Soda. Soda!
Colonel William G. Smollett: There was nothing in the information I was furnished, madam, which indicated that you had children and domestic pets.
Mrs. Anne Hilton: Well, I'm sorry, but they go with the house.
Colonel William G. Smollett: We won't discuss it. With your permission, madam, may we dispense with further conversation? I should like to inspect the room.
Mrs. Anne Hilton: Certainly. Just follow me. I do hope you'll forgive me if I've been long-winded.
Colonel William G. Smollett: Not at all, madam. Through a full, and somewhat protracted existence, I have learned to accept the natural tendency of all women to be garrulous.
Mrs. Anne Hilton: You're very tolerant, Colonel.

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Corporal William G. 'Bill' Smollett II: You will marry me when it's over, won't you, Jane? You won't be mad at me because I didn't marry you now?
Jane Deborah Hilton: Of course I won't be mad. But you take care of yourself.
Corporal William G. 'Bill' Smollett II: I will.
Jane Deborah Hilton: You write to me.
Corporal William G. 'Bill' Smollett II: I will. You do understand, don't you?
Jane Deborah Hilton: I think so.
Corporal William G. 'Bill' Smollett II: You know it's because I wouldn't want you to be - Well, you know, if anything happened to me ...
Jane Deborah Hilton: A widow, you mean.
Corporal William G. 'Bill' Smollett II: Well, yes, but not only that. If something happened - I mean, if I was -
Jane Deborah Hilton: If you were wounded? Oh, Bill, I'd take care of you the rest of our lives, always.

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Colonel William G. Smollett: Oh yes, and another thing. I neglected to inform your mother that I like my breakfast promptly at seven. Coffee, thin toast, and two eggs, boiled, two and a half minutes, under no circumstances more than three.
Bridget 'Brig' Hilton: But golly, Colonel Smollett, we can't afford to give you breakfast.
Colonel William G. Smollett: Indeed?
Bridget 'Brig' Hilton: Even as it is now, poor Mother doesn't know what she's going to do. When Fidelia was here, the bills didn't seem so high, but now, with the way things are going -
Colonel William G. Smollett: Please. I'm quite prepared to pay.
Bridget 'Brig' Hilton: Oh. That's fine. What would you say to fifty cents a day?
Colonel William G. Smollett: That seems a bit high under the circumstances.
Bridget 'Brig' Hilton: All right, we'll make it three dollars a week. There's the doorbell. Well, let's call it a deal. Good night, Colonel.

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Katharine Cornell loved the book and campaigned to play the role, but David O. Selznick turned her down in favor of Claudette Colbert.
Original cinematographer George Barnes left the production to be replaced by Lee Garmes and Stanley Cortez.
David O. Selznick was credited as producer for his writing the screenplay.
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