14 quotes
A Tense Exchange About Memories and Gifts
Frank
I can't remember that far back.
[after he and Cora are married]
Cora
As far as I'm concerned, you imagined it even then.
Frank
Oh, dry up.
Cora
Notice his neck-tie, Mr. Keats. It's my wedding present to him. But the way he wears it, you'd think it was a noose around his neck.
Keats
Well, I can only think of fifteen or twenty reasons why you two should never be happy.
[proposing a toast]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Contemplating the Future and New Beginnings
Frank
Well, I've never liked any job I've ever had. Maybe the next one is the one I've always been lookin for.
Driver
Not worried about your future?
Frank
Oh, I've got plenty of time for that. Besides, maybe my future starts right now.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
The Ethics of Theft and Consequences
Cora
Too bad Nick took the car.
Frank
Even if the car were here, we couldn't take it, not unless we want to spend the first night in jail. Stealing a man's wife, that's nothing. But stealing his car, that's larceny.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Unfulfilled desires and conflicting emotions emerge.
Cora
What are we going to do?
Frank
That's great comin from you after you've been high-hatting me the way you have.
Cora
What else could I do? Oh Frank. Frank, if I'd only met you first.
Frank
Well...
Cora
Frank, do you love me?
Frank
Yes.
Cora
Do you love me so much that nothing else matters?
Frank
Yes.
Cora
There's, there's one thing we could do that would fix everything for us.
Frank
What? Pray for something to happen to Nick?
Cora
Something like that.
Frank
Cora!
Cora
Well, you suggested it yourself once, didn't you?
Frank
I was only joking.
Cora
Were you?
Frank
Yes, I was.
Cora
Why had you started to think about it a little?
Frank
Maybe I said it, but I didn't really mean it.
Cora
Well, I say it again now and I do mean it.
Frank
Cora!
Cora
Listen to me, Frank. I'm not what you think I am. I want to keep this place and work hard and be something, that's all. But you can't do it without love - at least a woman can't. I've made a big mistake in my life and I've got to be this way just once to fix it.
Frank
But they'd hang you for a thing like that.
Cora
Oh, but not if we do it right and you're smart Frank. You'll think of a way. Plenty of men have.
Frank
He never did anything to me.
Cora
But darling, can't you see how happy you and I would be together here, without him?
Frank
Do you love me, Cora?
Cora
That's why you've got to help me. It's because I do love you.
Frank
Yes you do. You couldn't get me to say yes to a thing like this if you didn't
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Conflict Over Authority and Expectations
Cora
My husband tells me your name is Frank.
Frank
That's right.
Cora
Well Frank, around here, you'll kindly do your reading on your own time.
Frank
Your husband, Nick told me I was through for the day and I thought he was boss around here.
Cora
The best way to get my husband to fire you would be not doing what I tell you to do.
Frank
Well, you haven't asked me to do anything - yet.
Cora
I want all these chairs painted.
Frank
All right. I'll look in the paper. Maybe I can find a sale on some cheap paint.
Cora
You won't find anything cheap around here! Look in the cupboard under the counter.
Frank
As my friend Nick would say, That's wonderful. Next time anybody makes a trip into town, they can pick up a paintbrush.
[He looks and finds a can of paint]
Cora
Look on the bottom shelf.
Frank
Well, what do you know about that. Why didn't you start this campaign of rehabilitation before I came? Or were you waiting for me?
Cora
Nick was saving that paint.
Frank
Nick saves a lot of things.
Cora
It's none of your business what he saves.
Frank
I didn't say it was. Only when I have something, I don't save it. What do you want to paint these chairs for. They look all right to me.
Cora
Because I want to make something of this place. I want to make it into an honest-to-goodness...
Frank
Well, aren't we ambitious? We want to make a lot of money so we can buy lots of pretty clothes. Or maybe we want to put a little aside for our husband and us in our old age?
Frank
For a couple of weeks then, she wouldn't look at me, or say a word to me if she could help it. I began to feel like a cheap nobody making a play for a girl that had no use for me. While I disturbed her, and I knew she hated me for that worst of all.
[voiceover]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Anticipation of Love and Life
Frank
I've been waiting a long time for that kiss.
[while driving]
Cora
When we get home, Frank, then there'll be kisses, kisses with dreams in them. Kisses that come from life, not death.
Frank
I hope I don't wait.
Cora
Darling. Look out, Frank!
[They kiss; they crash]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Uncertain Future Amidst Difficult Choices
Cora
Frank, look. If I divorce Nick, he'll never give me a nickel. He'll keep the Twin Oaks and everything.
Frank
So? What do we care?
Cora
Yeah, but where are we headed?
Frank
What's the difference? Anywhere.
Cora
Oh anywhere, anywhere. Do you know where that is?
Frank
Anywhere we choose.
Cora
No, it isn't. It's back to hash-house for me, and for you, some parking lot where you wear a smock with Super Service on it. I would just die if I saw you in a smock like that.
Frank
Well, I wore one at the Twin Oaks.
Cora
But that was mine. Oh, don't you see, Frank? You're smart. Others could be wearing the smocks and you could be manager.
Frank
Yeah. I can hardly wait.
Cora
Oh stop acting. You're ashamed of being smart. Well, I'm ashamed of standing out here begging for a ride that'll take me right back where I started.
Frank
You mean you want to go back, huh?
Cora
I want to be somebody. And if I walk out like this, I'll lose everything and I'll never be anybody. Oh, I love you Frank, and I want you, but not this way. Not starting out like a couple of tramps. I'm going back.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Betrayal and Deceit Unveiled
Frank
We've been double-crossed, Cora. That lawyer Keats, he's nothing but a police stool pigeon.
Cora
I've been double-crossed, not you. Oh I see it all, now. I see why I had to drive the car, not you. And that other time, why it was me that had to do it and not you.
Frank
That's not so.
Cora
Oh yes it is. I used to think to myself the reason I fell for you was because you were smart. Now I find out that you are smart. Double-crossed, hah! I'll say I was. You and that Keats fixed it up so that I tried to kill you too. That was to get you clear. And then you two fixed it up to plead me guilty. Well, listen, Mr. Frank Chambers. When I get through, you'll find out there's such a thing as being too smart.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Classic Noir Duo: Turner and Garfield
Taglines
Lana Turner. John Garfield. M-G-Marvelous!
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Combining Brains and Looks for Success
Frank Chambers
With my brains and your looks, we could go places.
[to Madge Gorland]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
A Love That Consumed Everything
Taglines
Their Love was a Flame that Destroyed!
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Chained Together by Unspoken Feelings
Frank
That other girl. She don't mean anything to me.
[about the affair he had with Madge]
Cora
She told me you were going away with her.
Frank
Why didn't I? I planned to and I'll never come back. Why didn't I go away and never come back? Cause we're chained to each other, Cora.
Cora
Don't tell me you love me.
Frank
I do.
Cora
Oh, but love wouldn't mean a thing to me.
Frank
Do you hate me?
Cora
I don't know. But we've got to tell the truth for once in our lives.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Consequences of Love and Betrayal
Sackett
Suppose you got a stay of execution, a new trial, and acquittal of killing Cora. Then what? Last night, they auctioned off the fixtures of the Twin Oaks. The man who bought the cash register found a note in the back of the drawer. He brought it to me. It's addressed to you. Cora wrote it. It's a very beautiful note, Frank, written by a girl who loved a man very much. I imagine it was written earlier the very night she died. A note of farewell, isn't it?
Frank
She did try to run away that night.
Cora
And since she had no idea anyone would ever see that note but you, it therefore has in it just enough of a confession to convict you of helping her kill her husband. So, if you were to leave this room because you didn't kill her, you'd soon be right back here again for helping her kill Nick. What's the use?
Frank
Then, then what's gonna happen to me is not because I killed her?
Sackett
No, laddie. For killing Nick.
Frank
You know, there's somethin about this that's like, well, it's like you're expectin a letter that you're just crazy to get. And you hang around the front door for fear you might not hear him ring. You never realize that he always rings twice.
Sackett
What's that?
Frank
He rang twice for Cora. And now he's ringing twice for me, isn't he?
Sackett
That's about it.
Frank
The truth is, you always hear him ring the second time, even if you're way out in the back yard.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Timing and Choices in Marriage
Cora
Frank, about that question?
Frank
What question?
Cora
Why I married Nick?
Frank
My answer is that Nick came along at the right time and with a wedding ring.
Cora
The wedding ring. It was the first thing he mentioned.
Frank
And you liked it. A certain reason.
Cora
You don't know the half of it. Frank, I-I hate to say this but, I wasn't ever, ever homely. So..
Frank
You must have had to fight off a lot of guys.
Cora
A lot of guys? All the guys. I don't especially like the way I look sometimes. But I never met a man since I was fourteen that didn't want to give me an argument about it.
Frank
Sure. And by the time Nick came along, well you were ready to marry anybody that owned a gold watch.
Cora
It seemed the best thing to do, from my angle. And as for him, I told him, I told him I didn't love him.
Frank
He said that would come in time.
Cora
Yeah.
Frank
But it didn't.
Cora
But I meant to stick by him, and that's why...
Frank
That's why you married him and retired. The undefeated champ.
Cora
Not one hundred percent undefeated. Not now.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.