 Mrs. Finney: Can`t we have peace in this house even on New Year`s Eve?
Sadie: You got it mixed up with Christmas. New Year`s Eve is when people go back to killing each other. Mrs. Finney: "Good night, Mother dear, and don`t wait up." If a daughter of mine ever really talked like that I`d cut her tongue out!
Addie Ross: She won`t stay mad at him for long. She`s too much in love. Pretty soon she`ll be full of self-reproach. Ha ha! Women are so silly.
Porter Hollingsway: It`s a man`s world. Yeah! See something you want, go after it and get it! That`s nature. It`s why we`re made strong and women weak. Strong conquer and provide for the weak. That`s what a man`s for! Teach our kids that, there`d be more men!
Sadie: The cap`s out. Makes me look like a lamb chop with pants on.
Sadie: Look, I don`t teach you about teachin`. Don`t teach me about ducks.
Rita Phipps: Pardon my fingers.
Mr. Manleigh: Sadie may not realize it, but whether or not she thinks she`s listening, she`s being penetrated.
George Phipps: Good thing she didn`t hear you say that.
Deborah Bishop: Why is it that sooner or later no matter what we talk about... we wind up talking about Addie Ross?
Addie Ross: [off voice] Maybe it`s because if you girls didn`t talk about me you wouldn`t talk at all.
George Phipps: The purpose of radio writing, as far as I can see, is to prove to the masses that a deodorant can bring happiness... a mouth wash guarantee success and a laxative attract romance.
Rita Phipps: People in the show business, you know what I mean, those kind of people always drink scotch.
George Phipps: Well, I know what you mean, but I wish you wouldn`t say it in radio English. "That kind", not "those kind".
Rita Phipps: There are men who say "those kind" who earn $100,000 dollars a year.
George Phipps: There are men who say "stick `em up" who earn more. I don`t expect to do either.
Porter Hollingsway: Like my wife. Comes from an old Spanish family named Finney.
Porter Hollingsway: What do you want me to do about it -- build you a personal broadcasting system?
Lora Mae Hollingsway: You don`t need a station. Just yell a little louder.
Sadie: You oughtn`t to run around like that. You`ll get consumption.
Lora Mae Hollingsway: All right, so I`m gonna disgrace the fair name of Finney. Wait till it snows and throw me out in the street.
Lora Mae Hollingsway: I`ve got very definite ideas.
Porter Hollingsway: Like what?
Lora Mae Hollingsway: There`s never been anybody in particular. Nobody special.
Porter Hollingsway: Plenty that wanted to, I`ll bet.
Lora Mae Hollingsway: What do you think?
Porter Hollingsway: That you`ve been waiting for that one guy to come along.
Lora Mae Hollingsway: I got very definite ideas.
Porter Hollingsway: What`s he got to be like, this one guy?
Lora Mae Hollingsway: Someone who wants to marry me more than anything else in the world.
Porter Hollingsway: You sure got wrong ideas about things.
Lora Mae Hollingsway: They may be wrong, but they`re definite.
Lora Mae Hollingsway: It`s late. I`d better be going home.
Porter Hollingsway: OK if I call you a cab?
Lora Mae Hollingsway: Beats walking in the snow.
Mrs. Finney: Of all the times to quit a job, just before Christmas with all the bills due and five months due on the icebox!
Sadie: You got to make up your mind whether you want your kids happy or your icebox paid up.
Porter Hollingsway: OK. OK, you win. I`ll marry you. How about it?
Lora Mae Hollingsway: Thanks....for nothing.
Porter Hollingsway: Now what kind of an answer is that?
Lora Mae Hollingsway: I don`t know. I just felt like it. That`s all.
Porter Hollingsway: We`ll do all right, kid. We`re starting out where it takes most marriages years to get, out in the open. No jokers. You`ll see. You`ve made a good deal, Lora Mae.
Mrs. Finney: [walking into the room] Lora Mae, honey, if you want me I`ll be over at the Callahans` playing....
Lora Mae Hollingsway: Happy new year, Ma. We`re gonna get married.
Mrs. Finney: ....Bingo!
[She faints.]
Lora Mae Hollingsway: I`ve been a good wife. The best wife your money could buy.
Porter Hollingsway: Strictly cash and carry.
Lora Mae Hollingsway: Isn`t that what you wanted? Isn`t that what you told me? "Out in the open. You made a good deal, kid." Did you every stop to think, Porter, that in over 3 years there`s one word we`ve never said to each other, even in fun?
Porter Hollingsway: To you, I`m a cash register. You can`t love a cash register.
Lora Mae Hollingsway: And I`m part of your inventory. You can`t love that, either.
Porter Hollingsway: I asked you to marry me because I was crazy about you.
Lora Mae Hollingsway: You didn`t even ask me!
Porter Hollingsway: I`ve been a good husband. You got everything you want.
Lora Mae Hollingsway: If you`d only asked me, if you`d only made me feel like a woman instead of a piece of merchandise!
Porter Hollingsway: Did you give me a chance to? All you ever showed me was your price tag.
Deborah Bishop: Have you any idea how much Lora Mae is in love with you?
Porter Hollingsway: [scornfully] No! How much?
Deborah Bishop: So much she`s afraid to tell you, afraid you`d laugh at her.
Porter Hollingsway: Me laugh? She couldn`t say it with a straight face. Lora Mae in love with me? It`s all she can do to wait it out.
Deborah Bishop: Wait it out?
Porter Hollingsway: Yeah, like an annuity till it matures. Like a slot machine till it pays off. That`s what she`s waiting for. A chance to call it off, to collect. "The end of the line. Fares, please." Don`t tell me about love and Lora Mae.
Trivia
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To get the proper look of derision from Linda Darnell in the scene where she stares at a photo of Addie, director Joseph L. Mankiewicz used a picture of Otto Preminger, the director who had given Darnell such a hard time on the set of Forever Amber (1947).
This film was based on John Klempner`s novel, "A Letter to Five Wives." Two wives were lost in the transition to the screen.
At one point the film was called "A Letter to Four Wives". Upon submitting the adapted screenplay to 20th Century-Fox chief Darryl F. Zanuck, Joseph L. Mankiewicz mentioned that he found it too long and asked how he felt the movie could be shortened. "Take out one of the wives," Zanuck replied. Originally, the movie would have featured Anne Baxter as the fourth wife. Zanuck didn`t feel Baxter`s segment was as strong as the other three, so that one was cut.
Anne Baxter`s character in the film was to be named Martha.
General Douglas MacArthur was so confused by the ending that he had his aide write Joseph L. Mankiewicz a letter asking with whom Addie had, in fact, run off.
The identity of the actress Celeste Holm who did the voice-over for Addie Ross was kept secret when the film was released. The studio held a number of "Who is Addie?" contests around the country where moviegoers could guess the actress` name.
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# Joseph L. Mankiewicz had a real battle with the American censors at the time who would not permit him to use words like "laxative" and "toilet" in his script. He got his revenge with a famous double-entendre laden exchange which used words like "penetration" and "saturation".
This was leading stage actor Paul Douglas` motion picture debut.
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