The Little Colonel (1935)

Lionel Barrymore: Colonel Lloyd

Quotes 

• Col. Lloyd : For your years and weight, you're probably the stubbornest person in this county.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : You weigh a lot more than I do!

• Col. Lloyd : Child, you're a true Lloyd. You've got all the fire and courage our family's always had. And you've got the same infernal temper that's been our curse. It's going to cause you a lot of unhappiness unless you learn to control it. Will you try?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : I will if you will.

  Col. Lloyd : Well, you've got a lot more time to learn than I have.

• Miss Lloyd Sherman : Grandfather, do you know any blue stories?

  Col. Lloyd : [surprised]  Blue stories? Well, I do... a few.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Tell me one.

  Col. Lloyd : I don't know any that I can tell *you.*

• Col. Lloyd : Oh, stop chattering, Walker!

  Walker : Yes, sir.

  Col. Lloyd : I don't want to hear all this gossip.

  Walker : No, sir. I was going to tell you about the cottage, sir, but I suspect you're not interested.

  Col. Lloyd : The cottage?

  Walker : Yes, sir. Someone's moved into it.

  Col. Lloyd : Walker! Confound you, why don't you let me know when things are going on around here? Who's moving into the cottage?

  Walker : I don't know, sir.

  Col. Lloyd : It's been empty a long time now, ever since - well, maybe I'd better call on our new neighbors and see what kind of folks they are.

  Walker : Yes, sir. Having some new neighbors won't make it so lonely 'round here.

  Col. Lloyd : Who says it's lonely 'round here?

  Walker : Not me, no sir!

  Col. Lloyd : Anyway, I like it lonely!

• Miss Lloyd Sherman : Don't you dare poke with that old stick!

  Col. Lloyd : You'd better learn some respect for your elders.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : I won't respect anyone who pokes me with a stick!

  Col. Lloyd : For a little girl, you've got a bad temper!

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : That's your fault.

  Col. Lloyd : What? Who are you?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : They call me the little colonel.

  Col. Lloyd : What under the sun do they call you that for?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Because I'm so much like you.

  Col. Lloyd : What? How are you like me?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Because I stop my foot when I get mad, and I get all red in the face! I holler back at people, too!

  Col. Lloyd : Look at you! You're a pretty sight. What are you running around the country for, like poor white trash? I don't know who your mother is, but whoever she is, she ought to teach you some manners.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : [throwing mud on him]  Don't you dare say anything bad about my mother!

  Col. Lloyd : Whose child is that?

  Becky Porter : How can I tell you, sir, when you don't want nobody to even say her name?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : I'm Lloyd Sherman, that's who I am!

  Col. Lloyd : Lloyd Sherman!

  Becky Porter : Come on now, child, your mama's mighty worried about you.

  Col. Lloyd : I - I didn't know.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Oh, that's all right. Goodbye, Grandfather.

• Col. Lloyd : Maria, I've got a young lady here whose clothes need drying.

  Maria : Yes, sir?

  Col. Lloyd : Well, take her!

  Maria : But Colonel sir, what can I put her in while her clothes is a-dryin'? I ain't got nothin' for a little girl to wear.

  Col. Lloyd : Uh, Walker, go up into the attic, and you'll find a small trunk. There may be some clothes in there that will fit Miss Lloyd.

  Walker : A small trunk in the attic, sir?

  Col. Lloyd : Yes, you numbskull! Don't you understand English? Attend to it right away.

  [the Colonel leaves] 

  Walker : Do you know whose trunk that is and whose clothes they is?

  Maria : Course I do. You go on now and fetch them things. We don't want no menfolk 'round here.

  Walker : With that face, you don't have to worry!

• Col. Lloyd : That was your grandmother, dear. And that was her song you just sang.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : I know. My mother teached it to me. Teached isn't right, is it?

  Col. Lloyd : No, taught is correct.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Taught, then. What was my grandmother's name?

  Col. Lloyd : Her name was Amanthis.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Amanthis? That's a beautiful name.

  Col. Lloyd : She was a beautiful person. With a beautiful soul.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : I wish she was here now.

  Col. Lloyd : You do, dear? Why?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : I know if she was here, she'd go right to my mother and kiss away all of her sorry feelings.

• Col. Lloyd : What are you wearing those old clothes for? Why don't they dress you up when you go visiting? It isn't showing proper respect to send you off in the oldest things you have.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : They're the best I've got, and I like them. And anyway, I don't need any new ones because pretty soon we'll be going away.

  Col. Lloyd : Going away? Where?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : To the poorhouse!

• Col. Lloyd : Walker, I want you to go to town on Saturday and buy a lot of little girls clothes.

  Walker : What shall I buy, sir?

  Col. Lloyd : Well, what do you suppose? Hats, shoes, stockings, dresses, and whatever goes under the dresses. And Walker?

  Walker : Yes, sir?

  Col. Lloyd : I'm an old fool.

  Walker : Yes, sir!

• Col. Lloyd : What under the sun's goin' on here? What are you doing?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Hello, Grandfather! We were just baptizing Henry Clay.

  Col. Lloyd : Baptizing Henry Clay?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Yes, and he must be *awful* bad, because it took two dunks to save him!

• Col. Lloyd : Confound you, Walker! Watch what you're doing!

  Walker : I'm sorry, sir.

  Col. Lloyd : If you'd broken that, I'd have broken your head.

  Walker : Yes, sir.

  Dr. Scott : Someday your temper is going to split you wide open.

  Col. Lloyd : Well, I won't call for you to sew me up!

• Col. Lloyd : What are you doing here?

  Elizabeth Lloyd Sherman : Wait, Jack, let me tell him! Father, this is the man I'm going to marry. I knew you would never give your consent, so that's why we were going to elope.

  Jack Sherman : I wanted to come to you, sir, and ask your permission, but?

  Col. Lloyd : Silence! Why did you assume that I would object to an honorable marriage?

  Elizabeth Lloyd Sherman : I know how you feel about the South.

  Col. Lloyd : I hate all Yankees.

  Elizabeth Lloyd Sherman : That's why we didn't come and tell you.

  Col. Lloyd : Then you knew you were doing wrong! How can you marry a man who represents everything that a true Southerner should hate? A man who fought against your father, your brother, and all your kinfolk. For all you know, he may have fired the shot that killed your brother!

  Jack Sherman : I was in the war, sir, and though I fought on the other side, the South has always had my admiration and respect. My mother was a Virginian. But might I remind you, sir, that the war has been over for some time.

  Col. Lloyd : The war will never be over for me and mine, sir. I want to kill you. I don't know but what I will. Elizabeth, go to your room.

  Elizabeth Lloyd Sherman : No.

  Col. Lloyd : Go to your room, I tell you!

  Elizabeth Lloyd Sherman : I'm going with Jack!

  Col. Lloyd : Elizabeth, when that door closes, it will never open for you again!

• Miss Lloyd Sherman : Grandfather?

  Col. Lloyd : Well, what is it?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : I'm sorry I threw mud on you. And I'm sorry I lost my temper. And I'm sorry I took the sheets off your bed.

  Col. Lloyd : What? You took my sheets?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : I had to have them.

• Miss Lloyd Sherman : Play a game with me.

  Col. Lloyd : What kind of a game?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Well, it couldn't be tag or prisoner's base, could it?

  Col. Lloyd : No, no, it couldn't.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : It better be a sit-down game, then. Do you know how to play jacks?

  Col. Lloyd : Jacks? Do you play that with cards?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : No, with a ball.

  Col. Lloyd : Oh, then I don't know how to play it, no. Do you play cribbage?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Cribbage? Is that like hopscotch?

• Col. Lloyd : You're going to come see me again, aren't you, even though your mother tells you not to?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Yes, Grandfather, and the next time we play, we won't quarrel.

• Col. Lloyd : Let's get back to this game. These men are yours. Now, I'll be the Confederacy, and you'll be the Union.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Oh, goody, goody, goody! I got the winning side already.

  Col. Lloyd : Oh, no, you haven't! I'll show you!

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Maybe you'd like to be the North, and I'll be the South?

• Miss Lloyd Sherman : Grandfather, Grandfather!

  Col. Lloyd : What under the sun? Why, child, what is it? What's the matter?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Oh, Grandfather, you've gotta come with me right away!

  Col. Lloyd : Come where?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Home to my house. There are two bad men there, and they're saying bad things to Papa Jack!

  Col. Lloyd : I wouldn't set foot in that house for anybody or anything!

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : But you've got to! Papa Jack is sick, and those two men are going to hurt him!

  Col. Lloyd : Why should I help a Yankee?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Because he's my papa, and I love him!

• Dr. Scott : Marriage is a wonderful institution.

  Col. Lloyd : Yes, us, no family should be without it.