A Letter to Three Wives (1949) - Quotes

Wondering and Wandering in Relationships

Taglines: All of them wondered while one of them wandered!

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Delightful Revelations in Life's Journey

Taglines: It's a sheer delightful revelation!

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A Promise of Secrecy and Surprise

Taglines: Promise! You won't peek-and-tell... the ending!

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Mystery of the Wandering Wife

Taglines: All of them wondered which of them wandered!

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Debating Values in Commercial Radio

George Phipps: Come here. Sit down for a minute.

George Phipps: Look, Ri, let's put aside my nausea at the idea of working for the Manleighs. Let's put aside my personal likes and dislikes; they're not important. I'm willing to admit that to a majority of my fellow citizens I'm a slightly comic figure: an educated man.

Rita Phipps: Nobody's asking you not to be. Think of the good you could do; maybe raise the standards?

George Phipps: Of commercial radio? What's the phrase, "Wait for your laugh?

George Phipps: I'm a schoolteacher. That's even worse than being an intellectual. Schoolteachers are not only comic they're often cold and hungry in this richest land on earth.

Rita Phipps: And thousands are quitting every year to take jobs that pay them a decent living.

George Phipps: That is unhappily true.

Rita Phipps: Then why not you?

George Phipps: Because I can't think of myself doing anything else!

George Phipps: What would happen, do you think, if we all quit? Who'd teach the kids? Who'd open their minds and hearts to the real glories of the human spirit, past and present? Who'd help them along to the future? Radio sponsors? Comic strips? At that I've been luckier than most. Even without what you earn I've managed to keep our heads above water.

Rita Phipps: It's quite a strain over a period of time with the water lapping at your chin.

George Phipps: And that's where you've been a great help. You made it a lot easier for both of us. I'll admit it has upset my male ego from time to time.

Rita Phipps: And your overdeveloped sense of taste and discrimination which is apparently equaled only by that of Addie Ross!

George Phipps: Let's try to keep Addie out of this one.

Rita Phipps: I am fed up with taste and discrimination!

George Phipps: You're not making sense!

Rita Phipps: I'm fed up with your nobility and wisdom and superiority and your contempt for me and everything I try to do!

George Phipps: You're talking nonsense.

Rita Phipps: Everything I say is nonsense!

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Unspoken Love and Fear of Rejection

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.

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Love and Transactions in Marriage

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.

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Prioritizing Happiness Over Financial Struggles

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.

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The Influence of Addie Ross on Conversations

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.

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Confidence in Personal Style

Lora Mae Hollingsway: [who has just finished dressing for a date] How do I look?

Sadie: If I was you, I'd show more o what I got. Maybe wear somethin with beads.

Lora Mae Hollingsway: What I got don't need beads.

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Language and Perception in Everyday Conversation

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.

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Unexpected Responses in Marriage Proposal

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!

Defining Personal Perspectives on Relationships

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

New Year's Eve Tensions Rise at Home

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.

The Irony of Love and Advertising

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.

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.

A Man's Perspective on Strength and Nature

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!