The Philadelphia Story (1940)

Katharine Hepburn: Tracy Samantha Lord

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Quotes 

• Tracy Lord : The time to make up your mind about people is never.

• [Dexter has just proposed] 

  Tracy Lord : Dexter, are you sure?

  C. K. Dexter Haven : Not the least, but I'll risk it. Will you?

  Tracy Lord : You bet! You didn't do it just to soften the blow?

  C. K. Dexter Haven : No, Tracy.

  Tracy Lord : Nor save my face?

  C. K. Dexter Haven : Oh, it's a nice little face.

  Tracy Lord : Oh Dexter, I'll be yar now. I'll promise to be yar.

  C. K. Dexter Haven : Be whatever you like, you're my redhead.

• Tracy Lord : I'm going crazy. I'm standing here solidly on my own two hands and going crazy.

• George Kittredge : But a man expects his wife to...

  Tracy Lord : Behave herself. Naturally.

  C. K. Dexter Haven : To behave herself naturally.

  [George gives him a look] 

  C. K. Dexter Haven : Sorry.

• Macaulay Connor : This is the Bridal Suite. Would you send up a couple of caviar sandwiches and a bottle of beer?

  Margaret Lord : What? Who is this?

  Macaulay Connor : This is the Voice of Doom calling. Your days are numbered, to the seventh son of the seventh son.

  Margaret Lord : Hello? Hello?

  Tracy Lord : What's the matter?

  Margaret Lord : One of the servants has been at the sherry again.

• C. K. Dexter Haven : Sometimes, for your own sake, Red, I think you should've stuck to me longer.

  Tracy Lord : I thought it was for life, but the nice judge gave me a full pardon.

  C. K. Dexter Haven : Aaah, that's the old redhead. No bitterness, no recrimination, just a good swift left to the jaw.

• Tracy Lord : You hardly know him.

  C. K. Dexter Haven : To hardly know him is to know him well.

• C. K. Dexter Haven : Orange juice, certainly.

  Tracy Lord : Don't tell me you've forsaken your beloved whisky and whiskies?

  C. K. Dexter Haven : No-no-no-no. I've just changed their color, that's all. I'm going for the pale pastel shades now. They're more becoming of me. How about you, Mr. Connor? You drink, don't you - alcohol, I mean?

  Macaulay Connor : Oh, a little.

  C. K. Dexter Haven : [amused]  A little? And you a writer? Tsk, tsk, tsk. I thought all writers drank to excess and beat their wives. You know, at one time I think I secretly wanted to be a writer.

  [he and Tracy exchange scornful looks] 

• Macaulay Connor : You've got all the arrogance of your class, haven't you?

  Tracy Lord : What have classes to do with it? What do they matter except for the people in them? George comes from the so-called lower class, Dexter, the upper. Well?

  Macaulay Connor : Well...

  Tracy Lord : Mac the night watchman is a prince among men, Uncle Willie is a... pincher. Upper and lower my eye. I'll take the lower, thanks.

  Macaulay Connor : If you can't get a drawing room.

  Tracy Lord : What does that mean?

  Macaulay Connor : My mistake.

  Tracy Lord : Decidedly. You're insulting!

  Macaulay Connor : Sorry.

  Tracy Lord : Oh, don't apologize!

  Macaulay Connor : Well, who's apologizing?

  Tracy Lord : I never knew such a man.

  Macaulay Connor : You wouldn't be likely to, from where you sit!

  Tracy Lord : Talk about arrogance.

  Macaulay Connor : Tracy.

  Tracy Lord : What do you want?

  Macaulay Connor : [pause]  You're wonderful.

• Margaret Lord : Oh, dear. Is there no such thing as privacy any more?

  Tracy Lord : Only in bed, mother, and not always there.

• Seth Lord : What most wives fail to realize is that their husband's philandering has nothing whatever to do with them.

  Tracy Lord : Oh? Then what has it to do with?

  Seth Lord : A reluctance to go grow old, I think.

• Macaulay Connor : Tracy.

  Tracy Lord : What do you want?

  Macaulay Connor : You're wonderful. There's a magnificence in you, Tracy.

  Tracy Lord : Now I'm getting self-conscious. It's funny. I - Mike? Let's...

  Macaulay Connor : Yeah?

  Tracy Lord : I don't know - go up, I guess, it's late.

  Macaulay Connor : A magnificence that comes out of your eyes, in your voice, in the way you stand there, in the way you walk. You're lit from within, Tracy. You've got fires banked down in you, hearth-fires and holocausts.

  Tracy Lord : I don't seem to you made of bronze?

  Macaulay Connor : No, you're made out of flesh and blood. That's the blank, unholy surprise of it. You're the golden girl, Tracy. Full of life and warmth and delight. What goes on? You've got tears in your eyes.

  Tracy Lord : Shut up, shut up. Oh, Mike. Keep talking, keep talking. Talk, will you?

• Margaret Lord : We both might face the facts that neither of us has proved to be a very great success as a wife.

  Tracy Lord : We just picked the wrong first husband.

• Tracy Lord : Oh, we're going to talk about me again, are we? Goody.

• George Kittredge : You're like some marvelous, distant, well, queen, I guess. You're so cool and fine and always so much your own. There's a kind of beautiful purity about you, Tracy, like, like a statue.

  Tracy Lord : George...

  George Kittredge : Oh, it's grand, Tracy. It's what everybody feels about you. It's what I first worshipped you for from afar.

  Tracy Lord : I don't want to be worshipped. I want to be loved.

• Tracy Lord : These stories are beautiful. Why, Mike, they're almost poetry.

  Macaulay Connor : Don't kid yourself. They are.

• Tracy Lord : My, she was yar...

• Tracy Lord : How do I look?

  Seth Lord : Like a queen. Like a goddess.

  Tracy Lord : And do you know how I feel?

  Seth Lord : How?

  Tracy Lord : Like a human. Like a human being.

• Tracy Lord : Dexter, say something.

  C. K. Dexter Haven : Well, I...

  Tracy Lord : Oh, Dexter, I'm such an unholy mess of a girl.

  C. K. Dexter Haven : Well, that's no good. That's not even conversation.

• Tracy Lord : [normal voice]  Hello, Dexter.

  [lower voice] 

  Tracy Lord : Hello, George.

  [high childish voice] 

  Tracy Lord : Hello, Mike.

• C. K. Dexter Haven : Of course, Mr. Connor, she's a girl who is generous to a fault.

  Tracy Lord : To a fault.

  C. K. Dexter Haven : Except to other people's faults.

• Tracy Lord : You haven't switched from liquor to dope, by any chance, have you Dexter?

• Tracy Lord : You're too good for me, George. You're a hundred times too good. And I'd make you most unhappy, most. That is, I'd do my best to.

• Tracy Lord : Aren't you coming Liz?

  Elizabeth Imbrie : Well, it seems I've got to commit suicide first.

• Tracy Lord : You're just a mass of prejudices, aren't you? You're so much thought and so little feeling, Professor.

• Macaulay Connor : Oh Tracy darling...

  Tracy Lord : Mike...

  Macaulay Connor : What can I say to you? Tell me darling.

  Tracy Lord : Not anything - don't say anything. And especially not "darling."

• Macaulay Connor : It can't be anything like love, can it?

  Tracy Lord : No, no, it can't be.

  Macaulay Connor : Would it be inconvenient?

  Tracy Lord : Terribly.

• Tracy Lord : You seem quite contemptuous of me all of a sudden.

  C. K. Dexter Haven : No Red, not of you, never of you.

• Macaulay Connor : [drunk]  You going my way miss?

  Tracy Lord : [drunk]  That's "Miss Goddess" to you

  Macaulay Connor : Okay, Miss Goddess To Me.

• C. K. Dexter Haven : The moon is also a goddess, chaste and virginal.

  Tracy Lord : Stop using those foul words.

• Tracy Lord : Dexter, would you mind doing something for me?

  C. K. Dexter Haven : Anything. What?

  Tracy Lord : Get the heck out of here.

• Tracy Lord : Put me in your pocket, Mike.

• Tracy Lord : I can't make you out at all now.

  Macaulay Connor : I thought I was easy.

  Tracy Lord : So did I. But you're not. You talk so big and tough and then you write like this. Which is which?

  Macaulay Connor : Both, I guess.

  Tracy Lord : No. No, I believe you put the toughness down to save your skin.

  Macaulay Connor : You think so?

  Tracy Lord : Yes. I know a little about that.

  Macaulay Connor : You do?

  Tracy Lord : Quite a lot.

• Tracy Lord : South Bend. It sounds almost like dancing.

• Tracy Lord : I never knew such a man.

  Macaulay Connor : You're not likely to dear. Not from where you sit.

• George Kittredge : I'm going to build you an ivory tower with my own two hands.

  Tracy Lord : Like fun you are.

• Tracy Lord : Only for the moment, I'm not interested in myself.

  C. K. Dexter Haven : Not interested in yourself, Red, you're fascinated. You're far and away your favorite person in the world.

• Tracy Lord : [Tracy and Mike have almost kissed. Both are very drunk]  Has your mind taken hold again, dear professor?

  Macaulay Connor : Good thing, don't you agree?

  Tracy Lord : No, professor.

  Macaulay Connor : [angrily]  Alright, lay off that "professor" stuff! Now, do you hear me?

  Tracy Lord : Yes, professor...

• Tracy Lord : [a very drunk Tracy]  My feet are made of clay. Made of clay, did you know? Good niiiggghhhttt little man!

• Tracy Lord : English history has always facinated me. Cromwell, Robin Hood, Jack the Ripper. Where did he teach? You're father, I mean.

• Dinah Lord : [describing her "dream" to Tracy]  Do you know what I saw coming out of the woods?

  Tracy Lord : I haven't the faintest idea. A skunk?

• Tracy Lord : [taking the perfume out of the car]  This is your Uncle Willy's favorite, Complete Surrender.

• Tracy Lord : You're just a mass of prejudices, aren't you? You're so much thought and so little feeling, Professor.

  Macaulay Connor : Oh, I am, am I?

  Tracy Lord : Yes, you am, are you? Your intolerance infuriates me. I should think that, of all people, a writer would need tolerance. The fact is you'll never... You can't be a first-rate writer or a first-rate human being until you've learned to have some small regard for human fra...

  [stops for realizing Dexter told her the same earlier] 

  Tracy Lord : Aren't the geraniums pretty, Professor?

• Tracy Lord : [on her wedding day]  Do you like my dress, Dinah?

  Dinah Lord : Oh, yes. Ever so much.

  Tracy Lord : Feels awfully heavy.

• Tracy Lord : [turns towards Liz]  Maid of honour?

  Elizabeth Imbrie : Matron.

  Macaulay Connor : [looks at Liz, puzzled] 

  Elizabeth Imbrie : Joe Smith, hardware department.

• Tracy Lord : Golly... Golly Moses.

• Tracy Lord : Hello you.

  Macaulay Connor : Hello.

  Tracy Lord : You look fine.

  Macaulay Connor : I feel fine.

• Tracy Lord : I never thought that alcohol would - Oh shut up.

• Tracy Lord : Mother, how do you spell: omelette?

  Margaret Lord : O-M-M-E-L-E-T

  Tracy Lord : I thought there was another "L"