Winter Meeting (1948)

Bette Davis: Susan Grieve

Photos 

Quotes 

• Stacy Grant : It seems to me I've been walking up and down stairs for hours.

  Susan Grieve : Its good for you.

  Stacy Grant : I *loath* clean living and outdoor sports.

• Stacy Grant : Susan, I like your poems very much.

  Susan Grieve : No you don't.

  Stacy Grant : I'm no judge really.

  Susan Grieve : You probably prefer the Byron school. All fire and brimstone.

• Susan Grieve : I dare say you have me properly pigeonholed. Well-to-do Yankee spinster, no emotions worth mentioning, I really should have a cat.

• Stacy Grant : This lad frightens me. He doesn't act like a hero.

  Susan Grieve : Because he is one.

• Stacy Grant : I'm only trying to warn you he's just a nice American kid.

  Susan Grieve : Oh, those nice American kids - torn from Mom and a girlfriend, from the ice cream cone and the hot dog, and the car and a good paying job, learning to kill and be killed - an easy, cosy pattern. You have no more idea of what goes on in the heads of those nice American kids than the man in the moon.

• Susan Grieve : Where did you run into him?

  Stacy Grant : He was at a party, bored stiff, on his way to being tight. I asked him on impulse. Now I wonder why. Frankly the idea of dinner with Peggy and Novak...

  Susan Grieve : Peggy?

  Stacy Grant : My exceedingly beautiful and arrogant secretary. She's going to be for the hero. Blind date, I believe it's called. Grisly idea.

  Susan Grieve : And I'm supposed to be for you. To make the whole thing look less obvious.

• Susan Grieve : It's disconcerting, isn't it - to be involved with someone with exceptional quality; especially to those of us who aren't exceptional at all.

• Susan Grieve : Don't you worry about tomorrow night. I'll wear my most seductive dress, I'll put perfume behind my ears, I will not argue, and I will be a credit to you.

  Stacy Grant : That's a good girl.

• Stacy Grant : My guess is he'll get tight and make love to Peggy.

  Susan Grieve : My guess too.

• Stacy Grant : There he is. At the bar, as usual.

  Susan Grieve : You seem to forget, lonely, young men in uniform like to sit somewhere besides the hotel room.

• Susan Grieve : I think he dislikes us intensely.

  Stacy Grant : Oh dear, here they come. I can't remember when I've had a more exhausting evening.

• Susan Grieve : There's an almost eerie sexiness about her.

  Stacy Grant : You're so right. Did you notice the way they reared their heads when they were introduced? Like a couple of cobras in search of their mate.

• Slick Novak : Grandpappy came to US because there was a demand for cheap labor. He wasn't a pioneer, he was an immigrant.

  Susan Grieve : I don't see the difference!

  Slick Novak : Maybe you don't. Most folks do.

• Susan Grieve : I think I better go home. I have to be up at seven. I know its unfortunate to be the first to suggest to leave.

  Stacy Grant : But, of course, Susan, dear. No matter how dull the party, the first one to leave is momentarily loathed by everyone.

• Slick Novak : I guess I just never ran into a girl as bright as you.

  Susan Grieve : Its your own fault. If you'd gone with Peggy...

  Slick Novak : Quit dragging her into it or I'll bop you one on the nose. If I'd wanted Peggy, I could have gone with her. I happen to like you.

  Slick Novak : Oh.

• Susan Grieve : I'm afraid I'm not very good at entertaining a hero.

  Mr. Castle : Have I complained?

  Susan Grieve : We seem constantly at swords points. Well, we have one thing in common, at least. We both smoke.

• Susan Grieve : Once in awhile, you'd think we were passengers exchanging information on a train. I guess I'm not very good at this sort of thing.

  Slick Novak : That's for me to decide, isn't it?

• Susan Grieve : I think I have everything.

  Mrs. Castle : You keep thinking that, Miss Susan.

• Susan Grieve : She started having little flirtations. Harmless, at first, but more serious as time went on. When she was in the middle of one of them, she'd be kind and gay.

• Susan Grieve : I was bringing your breakfast in bed. I want to pamper you and you won't cooperate.

  Slick Novak : Sorry, I'll do better next time.

  Susan Grieve : Well, anyway, here it is.

  Slick Novak : Oh, I don't want any breakfast.

  Susan Grieve : Can't I watch you eat? I like the way your mouth moves. Its fascinating.

• Slick Novak : I guess women can be pretty rough on each other.

  Susan Grieve : Men like to think so.

• Susan Grieve : If I could copyright the way I feel, we'd make millions!

• Slick Novak : You're the champion coffee drinker of all time.

  Susan Grieve : Father used to say it warms the cockles of the heart.

  Slick Novak : I don't think your heart needs warming, Susan.

  Susan Grieve : Not today. It's a regular little hot plate of a heart, already.

• Stacy Grant : Susan, dear, I feel you have things to tell me. Why don't you just consider me as some doting old uncle, for the moment; the one who once photographed you on a bearskin rug.

  Susan Grieve : Oh, Stacy, there are times when you are positively shameless.

• Susan Grieve : Yesterday, Lieutenant Novak said he was going to make love to you, you're such a wonderful cook.

• Stacy Grant : Darling, you look divine. Is it a new hat?

  Susan Grieve : Yes, it is. It cost far too much.

• Stacy Grant : What I simply can't understand is how a man like that ever got to first base with you? He's not out of the top drawer and you are out of the top drawer, Susan, darling and I cannot see...

  Susan Grieve : At the moment I feel as if I come from underneath the chiffonier.

• Susan Grieve : Do I look so awful?

  Stacy Grant : You look fine.

  Susan Grieve : I did everything I could to cover up; but, nothing does much good. You don't say it isn't true because your expression was one of genuine horror.

• Stacy Grant : People make much too much fuss about love. So many things are more interesting!

  Susan Grieve : Such as?

  Stacy Grant : Well, society, gardening, a good murder mystery - even snails in garlic butter.

• Susan Grieve : All the bitterness went away suddenly. And a queer sort of tenderness took its place.

• Peggy Markham : What a sweet hat. Is it new?

  Susan Grieve : Yes.

  Peggy Markham : Would it be out of turn for me to ask where you got it?

  Susan Grieve : At Henri Bandel's.

  Peggy Markham : I guess it set you back plenty. I see its a special hat. A special occasion sort of a hat?

• Slick Novak : Peggy, have you read poetry?

  Peggy Markham : Read poetry? Why should I ?

  Stacy Grant : Miss Grieve is a famous poetess.

  Peggy Markham : Oh, for heaven sakes!

  Susan Grieve : There have been moments when I have wished I hadn't even learned to read or write. This is one of them.

  Peggy Markham : Oh, but I just adore poetry.

• Slick Novak : I guess you're pretty used to doing things for yourself.

  Susan Grieve : I'm afraid so.