The Feminine Touch (1941)

Kay Francis: Nellie Woods

Photos 

Quotes 

• Nellie Woods : Sorry I'm not what you were expecting.

  Elliott Morgan : What makes you think I'm expecting anybody?

  Nellie Woods : What makes me think that dogs like liver?

  Elliott Morgan : I don't get the analogy, but I expect it's very clever. It so happens that you're wrong; there's no one coming.

  Nellie Woods : You're right. She's gone out with her husband.

  Elliott Morgan : [feigning confusion]  Uh... who has?

  Nellie Woods : The liver.

• Nellie Woods : [to Elliott]  If you're lying, I'll kill you and go to the chair with a song on my lips.

• Nellie Woods : Show me a woman that's free and I'll show you a woman that sits home at night... alone.

  John Hathaway : Well, look, the very symbol of freedom is a woman. The Statue of Liberty.

  Nellie Woods : Yeah, and did you ever notice? She carries a torch!

  [Nellie quickly raises her arm imitating the Statue of Liberty] 

• Elliott Morgan : You've a pretty low opinion of me, haven't you Nellie.

  Nellie Woods : Oddly enough, no. I formed my opinion of you a *long* time ago, before you had a phobia to hide in. I thought that you were one of the smartest, most ambitious young men I'd ever known... then you grew a beard.

• Julie Hathaway : Nellie, what's happened?

  Nellie Woods : John's run amok!

  Julie Hathaway : What about?

  Nellie Woods : Elliot's beard. It's off, and it's driven John crazy!

  Julie Hathaway : [smiling]  He's jealous!

  Captain Makepeace Liveright : Comes from readin' too many books. They rot out a man's brain cells.

  Julie Hathaway : Oh, shut up. You sound just like my mother!

• Elliott Morgan : I thought this was a come-as-you-are party. Why haven't you a telephone in each hand and a knife in your teeth?

  Nellie Woods : My knife is busy elsewhere: it's in your back.

  [both chuckle menacingly] 

• Nellie Woods : Oh, it's no use, pal. I know that bird. He won't sing in a cage.

• Elliott Morgan : Nellie, I want you to drop everything at the office and concentrate on John and the book night and day until it's finished.

  John Hathaway : [to Julie]  it's going to be pretty lonesome and boring for you.

  Nellie Woods : Wanna bet on that?

• Elliott Morgan : Now, you said yourself she was out with her husband.

  Nellie Woods : She probably pushed him in front of a taxicab just so she could be here with you. What is it you've got? Hypnotism, Yoga, or do you drop things in their coffee?

• Nellie Woods : It's probably your unalterable cheapness that gets them.

  Elliott Morgan : Cheapness?

  Nellie Woods : Oh, I won't elaborate on it.

• Elliott Morgan : I have been at the office.

  Nellie Woods : Yes, three days ago... to cash a check.

• Elliott Morgan : Why, you, you don't dare. I'd go to pieces. You know I'm neurotic.

  Nellie Woods : Neurotic, my foot. There's nothing wrong with you that couldn't be cured with a good swift kick in the ego. You're no more neurotic than a pretzel.

• Elliott Morgan : I always do what Nellie here says. She's sane and sound.

  Nellie Woods : Good old Nellie here: sane and sound. One day they're going to put me out to pasture.

• Elliott Morgan : [after Nellie says she's quitting]  Nellie, you, you can't do this to me.

  Nellie Woods : To me, to me! I'm not doing it to anybody. I'm doing it for myself.

• Nellie Woods : And who wants to eliminate Jealousy?

  John Hathaway : Well, don't you?

  Nellie Woods : I love it. How could I know that I wanted a man if I didn't hate everybody else who wanted hm? W.. well, how could I be jealous if I couldn't be jealous?

• Nellie Woods : You're a fugitive from a pair of carpet slippers. A common place domesticated guy that wants to take off his shoes, overeat his dinner, and curl up in front of his wife with a good book. I've been waiting for you to come out from behind that beard. But you won't. Well, I'm tired. I've been riding on that merry-go-round long enough and I'm dizzy. Little Nellie wants to get off.

• Nellie Woods : Elliott, will you get out of that bathroom?

  Elliott Morgan : [yelling]  Not till everybody calms down.

• John Hathaway : Nellie, don't you trust Elliott?

  Nellie Woods : Certainly not.

  John Hathaway : Well then, how can you marry a man you don't trust?

  Nellie Woods : I'd only marry a man I couldn't trust.

• Elliott Morgan : [yelling from his bathroom]  Get out of my bedroom.

  Julie Hathaway : What do we care what Nellie thinks? She's the least of my troubles.

  Nellie Woods , John Hathaway : [to John as she walks in with John behind her]  Someday we'll sit down and have a nice long talk about your troubles.

  Julie Hathaway : [running to hug him after the statement]  John, you've come.

  John Hathaway : Where's Elliott?

  Nellie Woods : [pointing at the bathroom door and walking up to it]  Come out you worm, and come out talking.

• Nellie Woods : [as John gets out of bed after his near drowning]  Oh John, don't. What are you doing?

  John Hathaway : I'm gonna beat Morgan.

  Nellie Woods : Oh no.

  John Hathaway : I'm gonna beat his face to a pulp.

  Nellie Woods : [holding him back]  No, John

  Elliott Morgan : Nellie, stop him. He's gone mad.

• Nellie Woods : [dropping Elliott's head to the ground with a thud]  You know, I'm beginning to think I had Elliott wrong about this from the very start.

  Julie Hathaway : [dropping John's had to the ground with a thud]  Right or wrong, you never even had Elliott, honey.

  Nellie Woods : You did your best, angel.

  Julie Hathaway : [snapping her fingers after the statement]  Oh, my best? Kitten, all I had to do was that...

  Captain Makepeace Liveright : [as Julie and Nellie push each other and start to brawl]  Ladies, please... oh, ladies please, you mustn't...

  [Julie and Nellie take the Captain down to the ground between them] 

• Nellie Woods : And if you're smart, you'll never mention the word jealousy again.

  Julie Hathaway : Why should I? There's no such thing as jealousy.

• Julie Hathaway : They knocked each other out.

  Nellie Woods : John always was a pretty blood thirsty proposition.

  Julie Hathaway : Oh, I don't know. I think that beardless wonder had it coming to him.

  Nellie Woods : Beardless men rather interest you, don't they, dearie?

  Julie Hathaway : Beardless men, perhaps. Elliott looks as if he's been peeled.

• Captain Makepeace Liveright : [watching John and Elliott making silly boxing moves]  They ain't in very condition are they?

  Nellie Woods : Yeah, but think of the mileage you get out of 'em.

• John Hathaway : [to Julie and Elliott]  In the meantime, why don't the two of you take a nice long walk in the park?

  Elliott Morgan : I'm allergic to grass.

  Nellie Woods : And fresh air... and me.