Primrose Path (1940)

Ginger Rogers: Ellie May Adams

Photos 

Quotes 

• Grandma : What's the idea of them pigtails?

  Ellie May Adams : What's wrong with them?

  Grandma : You ain't gonna catch no fellas runnin' around lookin' like that.

  Ellie May Adams : Wouldn't want one if I could get 'em and I couldn't get one if I wanted one.

• Ellie May Adams : Is Pa still sick?

  Grandma : He's in there sleepin' off his hangover if that's what you mean.

• Ellie May Adams : Don't you think maybe you drink too much, Pa?

  Homer : It's only a substitute, Ellie May. A substitute for some dreams I once had. But they've all gone, whistling down the wind.

  Ellie May Adams : I don't know what you mean, Pa.

  Homer : You keep your dreams, Ellie May. After they've done, you've got nothing left. 'Cause if you let those go, you've got to invent new ones, and they're never as good as the old ones.

• Homer : "We live not as we wish to, but as we can." So sayeth my old friend Menander here.

  Ellie May Adams : Who was it that said it?

  Homer : Menander, darling. One of those old greek philosophers.

  Ellie May Adams : Hmm. I wish I knowed more than I know.

• Gramp : What do you wear them pigtails fer?

  Ellie May Adams : Well, if fellas think you're a kid, they leave you be. They're just to keep the fellas from getting fresh.

  Gramp : You don't mean me, too?

  Ellie May Adams : You're a fella, ain't you?

  Gramp : [laughs]  I'm just an old hunk of buzzard bait.

• Ellie May Adams : Do you mean you didn't love pa when you married him?

  Mamie Adams : Ah, that's different. You see, he'd been to college and said a lot of them big words, and it kind of swept me off my feet, I guess. Pa is weak and drinks a lot. Anyhow, I made my bargain and I want to stick by it. Somebody has to take care of the family, and while it ain't just like I might have asked for, why, I done the best I knew how.

  Ellie May Adams : That's what them Greeks said.

  Mamie Adams : Them Greeks down the street?

  Ellie May Adams : No, Pa's Greeks. They say, "you don't live like you want to. You live like you got to."

• Ed Wallace : You know, them portugee gals will laugh at anything.

  Ellie May Adams : Well, I ain't a portugee gal.

• Gramp : Don't pay no attention to him. His mind wanders.

  Ellie May Adams : Maybe it never came back.

• Ellie May Adams : Say, don't nothin' ever get a rise out of you?

  Ed Wallace : Not unless I want it to.

• Ed Wallace : You'd think you'd never been kissed before.

  Ellie May Adams : Well, I ain't - not by a fella.

  Ed Wallace : Well, I'm sorry.

  Ellie May Adams : Well, I ain't one of them Portugee gals.

  Ed Wallace : Well, I never said you was.

  Ellie May Adams : Maybe you can go around kissin' them any time you like.

  Ed Wallace : Forget it.

  Ellie May Adams : Well, I ain't one of them Portugee gals!

• Ellie May Adams : What makes you think I woulda?

  Ed Wallace : I never said you woulda. I said you coulda.

  Ellie May Adams : Well, I wouldn'ta.

  Ed Wallace : All right, so you wouldn'ta.

  Ellie May Adams : Maybe them Portugee gals woulda, but not me.

  Ed Wallace : Well, you don't have to get sore.

  Ellie May Adams : Well, I ain't sore. I just wouldn't do nothing like that, that's all.

  Ed Wallace : All right, so you wouldn't do nothing like that.

• Ellie May Adams : It ain't what people is, it's what other people thinks about them.

• Ellie May Adams : You want another spanking?

• Ellie May Adams : Well, come on in. I want to show you some of Pa's things. This is where my Pa does all of his writin'. And everything them Greeks wrote is right in here, you know, philosophy, and he changes it into English.

  Ed Wallace : Boy, that would sure be over my head.

  Ellie May Adams : Well, he's plenty smart.

  Ed Wallace : Yeah. Well, doesn't he ever do nothin' else?

  Honeybell : Yeah, he gets drunk and falls in the ditch at the bottom of the hill.

  Ellie May Adams : Uh, you better run along, Honeybell.