High Society, 1956

"Louis Armstrong: End of song, beginning of story."

"Mike: She's a lovely girl.
Tracy: Yes, isn't she? Ah, but we're afraid she has a homicidal streak."

"Tracy: Do you like my dress?
Uncle Willie: Oh yes, it's quite beautiful.
Tracy: It's awfully heavy."

 

"Mike: Didn't you once know a girl named Tracy Samantha Lord?
Dexter: Yes, I did.
Mike: No, you didn't! If you did, you wouldn't have let her go!"

"Dexter: Uncle Willy, this morning you look like a tree full of owls."

"Mike: Don't dig that kind of crooning, chum.
Dexter: You must be one of the newer fellows."

images via verdoux.wordpress.com

"George Kittredge: That's all?
Mike: That's all.
Tracy: Why? Was I so cold? So forbidding?
Mike: Not at all. On the contrary but you were somewhat the worse 

or the better for the wine and there are rules about such things."

"Tracy: Oh, it got dark all of a sudden."

"Tracy: I'm such an unholy mess of a girl.
Dexter: Oh, come on, that's not even good conversation, Tracy."

"Mike: Is that for me?
Dexter: It's for Sam, you want one?
Mike: You know how I feel about my grandmother but I'd sell her for a drink.
Dexter: Uncle Willie's in the pantry doing weird and wonderful things with healing waters. Tell him you'd like one of the same.
Mike: Can I ask for two?
Dexter: Keep going till you run out of grandmothers.
Mike: I'll be drinking a long time."

"Dexter: Oh Sam you're slipping. 

That used to terrify me, the withering glance of the goddess."

"Mike: She can't be for real.
Liz Imbrie: Who was doing the interviewing?
Mike: You think she was born that way?
Liz Imbrie: Nah. Takes years."

"Tracy: Help me off the pedestal.
Seth Lord: Watch out for that first step, it's quite a tumble."

Movie stills

 

Image Bob Willoughby

High Society, 1956

On the Waterfront, 1954

 

"Charlie: You're getting on. You're pushing 30. You know, 
it's time to think about getting some ambition.
Terry: I always figured I'd live a bit longer without it."

"Terry: You know, I seen you a lot of times before. Remember parochial school out on Paluski Street? 7, 8 years ago. Your hair, you had your hair uh...
Edie: Braids.
Terry: Looked like a hunk of rope. And you had wires on your teeth and glasses and everything. You was really a mess."

"Edie: Which side are you with?
Terry: Me? I'm with me, Terry."

"Terry: It wasn't him, Charlie, it was you. ... You was my brother, Charlie, you shoulda looked out for me a little bit. You shoulda taken care of me just a little bit so I wouldn't have to take them dives for
the short-end money.
Charlie: Oh I had some bets down for you. You saw some money.
Terry: You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. 
I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let's face it. It was you, Charlie."

"Big Mac: The only arithmetic he ever got was hearing the referee 
count up to ten."

"Edie: I want you to stay away from me.
Terry: Edie, you love me... I want you to say it to me.
Edie: I didn't say I didn't love you. I said, "Stay away from me."

"Terry: You know you're not too funny today, fat man."

 

On the Waterfront, 1954

Clash by Night, 1952

"Mae Doyle D'Amato: Home is where you come when you run out of places."

 Divine Barbara Stanwyck with Marilyn Monroe in a petite [bikini] role

Mae: You don't know anything about me. What kind of an animal am I? 

Do I have fangs? Do I purr? What jungle am I from? You don't know a thing about me.

Mae: Aren't there any more comfortable men in this world? Now they're all little and nervous like sparrows or big and worried like sick bears. Men!
Earl: Women!

 

Mae: You don't like women, do you?
Earl: Take any six of 'em - my wife included. Throw 'em up in the air. The one who sticks to the ceiling, I like.

 

Mae: Confidence! I want a man to give me confidence, somebody to fight off the blizzards and the floods, somebody to beat off the world when it tries to swallow you up. Huh, me and my ideas.

Mae: You impress me as a man who needs a new suit of clothes or a new love affair - but he doesn't know which.
Earl: You can't make me any smaller. I happen to be pre-shrunk.

Earl: Love is rotten when it happens like this - the hard way. But we want each other, this is the fire we have to walk through, because this is forever, Mae.
Mae: Forever?
Earl: Or until he sticks a knife in me, or you walk out.

Clash by Night, 1952

Desk Set, 1957

"Bunny Watson: Have some tequila, Peg.
Peg Costello: I don't think I should. There are 85 calories in a glass of champagne.
Bunny Watson: I have a little place in my neighborhood where I can get it for 65."

"Peg: Certainly. How does champagne go with Four Roses, Scotch, Martinis, and Bloody Marys?
Bunny: Oh, fine. They're all the same base: alcohol."

"Bunny: I don't smoke. I only drink champagne when I'm lucky enough to get it. My hair is naturally natural.

Richard Sumner: You don't say."

Thoughts on drinking via Desk Set

Desk Set, 1957

Beat the Devil, 1953

"Time. Time. What is time? Swiss manufacture it. French hoard it. Italians squander it. Americans say it is money. Hindus say it does not exist. Do you know what I say? I say time is a crook."

Julius O'Hara (played masterfully by Peter Lorre)

Beat the devil (1953) via imdb 

 

Beat the Devil, 1953