Unfinished Business (1941)

Robert Montgomery: Tommy Duncan

Quotes 

• Nancy Andrews : I hear you drink more than is good for you.

  Tommy Duncan : An escape.

  Nancy Andrews : You'll end up ruining your health.

  Tommy Duncan : Health, like money, is no good unless you spend it.

  Nancy Andrews : I hear you're very lavish with both.

  Tommy Duncan : It's my way of having fun.

  Nancy Andrews : What are you running away from?

  Tommy Duncan : Life.

  Nancy Andrews : I didn't know drinking could help you avoid life.

  Tommy Duncan : It does.

  Nancy Andrews : How?

  Tommy Duncan : You being naïve?

  Nancy Andrews : No, I'd like to know.

• Tommy Duncan : Where do you come from, anyway?

  Nancy Andrews : Messina, Ohio.

  Tommy Duncan : Oh, Indian country.

• Tommy Duncan : You aren't complaining, Elmer?

  Elmer : Why should I complain? I've had two wonderful hours sleep every night for a week.

• Nancy Andrews : Well, it's all your fault. You said you were going to teach me how to live. I'm gonna learn if it kills me.

  Tommy Duncan : Learning how to live is one thing. We didn't enter into a suicide pact.

• Tommy Duncan : If you've got something in your system that bothers ya, get rid of it. An inhibition is only a small fact of life that people refuse to face. And later on when you're asleep or, shall we say, slightly relaxed...

  Nancy Andrews : Relaxed is a good word.

  Tommy Duncan : ...out it pops. The minute you face the fact, it ceases to be an inhibition. Am I making sense, or are these eggs getting the better of me?

  Nancy Andrews : I only wish I could get rid of some of my inhibitions sometime when I'm conscious.

• Tommy Duncan : Did I ever tell you about my obsession?

  Nancy Andrews : I didn't know you had one.

  Tommy Duncan : Yeah, when I was a baby, a black cat crawled into my crib and sat on my chest. Scared the living daylights out of me. For years, I used to wake up at night and see that cat's eyes staring at me. Well, I got rid of that.

  Nancy Andrews : Don't tell me you dropped a black cat down the back of some woman's evening dress?

  Tommy Duncan : No. My grandmother filled the house with black cats. Black cats upstairs, downstairs, in the bed, underneath the bed. Lady, I got so I could meow right in the cat's face and never bat an eye. If a cat scratched me, I scratched it back. That got rid of that complex.

• Tommy Duncan : Uh, Mrs. Duncan, I'd like to present Mrs. Duncan.

  Nancy Andrews : How do you do!

  Sheila : I suppose we should all congratulate each other.

  Tommy Duncan : I've already done it. You three can go ahead.

  Nancy Andrews : Congratulations!

  [Shakes hands with Sheila] 

  Sheila : Oh, congratulations.

  Nancy Andrews : Congratulations!

  [Shakes hands with Steve] 

  Steve Duncan : Congratulations!

  Nancy Andrews : Maybe we can all celebrate our anniversaries together if our husbands remember.

  Sheila : They can always be prompted.

• Tommy Duncan : I've been doing a lot of thinking this past year.

  Nancy Andrews : Have you?

  Tommy Duncan : Yeah. The Army has a way of toughening up your muscles and softening up your pride.

  Nancy Andrews : Well, you mustn't allow anything to soften your pride.

• Tommy Duncan : I suppose you never will forgive me.

  Nancy Andrews : Nothing to forgive.

  Tommy Duncan : I can be sorry, can't I?

  Nancy Andrews : Are you?

  Tommy Duncan : I guess I was pretty hurt at the time.

  Nancy Andrews : Maybe you had a right to be.

  Tommy Duncan : I had no right to be crude.