Girl of the Port (1930)

Sally O'Neil: Josie

Photos 

Quotes 

• Josie : [McEwen caressing her shoulder]  What are you a chiropractor? You rub me the wrong way.

• Kalita : This no place for white missy. I know. I big travel man.

  Josie : I big travel man, too! All the way from Coney Island to Fiji Island. That's little Josie.

• Kalita : MacDougal's is bad place! Bad men. Not good for little Missy.

  Josie : Bad men don't scare little Missy! Little Missy kick 'em in stomach.

• MacDougal : Who do you think you are?

  Josie : Get out that can of tomato soup. I'm the unexpected guest!

• Josie : Don't be so formal, Mac! Just call me Josie. You see, there was three of us, all named Josie, except Clara and her name was Irene.

• MacDougal : Go on, show us how cheeky.

  Josie : As the dog with the fleas said, that's me all over!

• Josie : Hello, beechnut! How's for a little action?

• MacDougal's Patron : Don't take no backtalk, lady.

  Josie : Advice, is it? That's true charity! Given away what cha need most!

• Josie : I don't need no assistance, thanks! My father was a bouncer in the tenth ward. My mother was a lion tamer with Ringling's. I was raised on raw meat and red pepper. Boo!

• Josie : Then came the dawn. I went on the stage, Brendan's Burlesque Beauties. Shapely and - snappy. Joined the hoofers and viewed the hemispheres.

  [delivering a cocktail] 

  Josie : There you are big shot. Hot and heavy. Take it with an asbestos teaspoon.

• Josie : I'd leave you my photograph or a lock of my hair, only, I'll be seein' ya!

• MacDougal : It's no great shakes of a room, but if you suit, I'll fix you up with a cabin of your own.

  Josie : Okay, boss! Only no vermin in my cabin - especially the two-legged kind. Get me?

• Josie : Hey! Come around tomorrow and I'll blow you to a pot of jam.

  Kalita : Yes, Missy.

• McEwen : Well, how's the little girl?

  Josie : Just as you see me, boyfriend, unspoiled by the world's applause.

  McEwen : Got you a nice little room, eh?

  Josie : Yeah, with a nice little key on the inside of the door.

  McEwen : A pretty kid like you can't afford to be snippy.

  Josie : Oh, can't afford to be anything else.

• McEwen : Say, who do you think got you this job?

  Josie : Say, did you ever get an empty stocking for Christmas?

• Josie : Hello, Bozo. Hey, time to wake up! Come there, wake up.

  Jim : Who in blazes are you?

  Josie : Lon Chaney.

• Josie : Keep your shirt on, kid. I didn't mean to hurt ya.

• Josie : Do you want it that bad?

  Jim : If I don't have it I - I've got to have it!

• Josie : Aw, get if off your chest and maybe you'll forget it.

• Jim : Do you know what liquid fire is?

  Josie : Yeah, the Dutchmen used to shoot outta guns.

  Jim : No. Out of pipes, hitched up to tanks they carried on their shoulders. Like water pipes. And the fire came hissing, curling, like water. Twenty, fifty feet. On whatever it touched, it burned. Flesh. On bone. On brains!

  Josie : Geez!

  Jim : I saw them burn. The boys beside me. Just boys, most of them. Crying like children. Calling on God to end them. Wrapped in fire!

  Josie : Oh, don't. Don't!

  Jim : We cried, "God and the Right!" Only, God wasn't with us that time.

• Jim : I can't face fire. I've tried. And I'm finished.

  Josie : Bunk! You gotta learn to take it on the chin and like it.

  Jim : You're a sweet girl, trying to buck me up. But, if you really want to help me - will you please do just one favor? Will you please get me a drink!

• Josie : You gotta scram outta Fiji snapping.

  Jim : Why?

  Josie : That McEwen, baby. He'll be layin' for ya.

  Jim : Oh, it isn't important.

  Josie : It is to me! You got in this jam on account of me and I'm gonna get you outta this, pronto! He's a bad hombre!

• Josie : Cut it out, Bozo! You ain't gotta Chinaman's chance!

• Kalita : Bad. Bad for Missy, keep white fella in cabin. People say, Missy not nice.

  Josie : What a nice girl should do, huh? Well, I ain't a nice girl, see. I'm just little Josie, doin' a Mammy number.

• Jim : Did you ever know me when I wasn't thirsty?

  Josie : I ain't known you but two weeks.

• Josie : This heredity racket is the world's greatest alibi - for geezers who have misplaced their backbone.

• Jim : Allow me.

  Josie : Easiest thing I do.

• Jim : My name's Jameson.

  Josie : Oh, yeah? I've seen that name on bottles.

• Josie : You don't have to give your name away. I can see you're class, all right.

  Jim : You take a lot for granted, Josie.

  Josie : You can't fool a horse fly. Any beachcomber that's fuzzy about his fingernails and spends his last dime on a safety razor blade, can't talk me into thinkin' his family all lived in one room and took in boarders.

• Josie : Go on, a big timer like you, there must have been some fem? But, you don't have to tell me.

  Jim : I'd like to tell you, Josie. I was going to marry a girl.

  Josie : A really lady?

  Jim : A cousin of mine. Frightfully good looking. She swore she'd help me fight that fear. The fire fear. You understand.

• Josie : What a dim bulb, she turned out to be.

• Jim : Do you mind telling me what's funny?

  Josie : I was just thinkin', wouldn't it be a joke on that dame if you went back to wherever ya come from, cold sober, and no more afraid of fire than you are of a dog or a gun or a half-caste or of anything? Wouldn't that be a honey, Captain Jameson?

• Josie : Cut out the bar varnish for keeps!

  Jim : I'm doing my best, Josie.

• Josie : I gotta be on my way now.

  Jim : Don't go, Josie.

  Josie : If I stay here forever, you won't be glad to see me come back! So long.

• Jim : Oh, I say, I smashed another dish.

  Josie : Lucky it wasn't an only child.

• Josie : Listen, Bozo, you're still kinda shaky. And, no wonder, cuttin' out the hooch like you have. You don't want to go exaggeratin' what I done and gettin' all Jolson about it.

  Jim : I'm a rotter to make love to you, I know. But, Jo, you've been so dear and wonderful. I tell myself I mustn't; but, I just can't help loving you.

  Josie : Now, don't go mixin' up love and gratitude. 'Cause they ain't no more alike than champagne and Ovaltine!

• Josie : I know you're a real swell and I ain't gonna go grabbin' ya off, just when you're down on your luck and thankful to anyone that slips you a kind word.

  Jim : [Jim kisses Josie]  Do you think that's gratitude, Josie?

  Josie : Oh, I don't know what it is. But, it feels - elegant.

• Jim : You're dead right. I have no business making love to a woman. A coward.

  Josie : Don't you say that! Don't you think it even. You ain't no coward! You're - why you're a pip!

• Josie : You're the best man in all Suva, Jim, if you'll only stay off the hooch.

• Josie : You're gonna lick that too! There ain't nothin' you can't do once you make up your mind to it.

  Jim : If I do, if I do lick it, will you let me say, "I love you"?

  Josie : If you promise to say it a lot.

• Josie : What cha done with him? Tell me before I scratch that grin off your yellow face!

  McEwen : Now, now, now...

  Josie : Let go of me! Let go of me!

  McEwen : You're a bit unstrung, Josie.

  Josie : You'll see what I am!

  McEwen : I fancy you've been working too hard, day and - night.

  Josie : You would think that! You dirty half-breed!

• Josie : Well, here you are folks. Here's your alcohol rub.

  Female British Tourist : Quaint, eh? Interesting type.

  Josie : Yeah, they throw me raw fish every morning at eight. Stick around and hear me bark.

• Male British Tourist : I say, it's a white man!

  Josie : The whitest man of you all!

• Josie : You've licked the fear! You've licked it for good and all!

• [last lines] 

  Jim : Will you come home to England with me, Josie?

  Josie : Will I? Wire the King and Queen to lay out the guest towels!

• Josie : That was old when Fanny was a girl's name!