When Ladies Meet (1933)

Myrna Loy: Mary Howard

Photos 

Quotes 

• Clare : You are a darling.

  Bridget Drake : And here's the nightie and the kimono.

  Clare : Of course, I shan't be able to sleep a wink for admiring them.

  Mary Howard : Bridgie's things are so alluring, they're indecent!

  Bridget Drake : Well, why not? I believe in keeping up your standards - at night.

• Jimmie : Where do you sleep, Walt?

  Walter : Down at the end of the hall.

  Jimmie : Oh.

  Mary Howard : And that's my room in there. That's where I sleep. And here I am.

  Clare : And that's where I sleep. In case you want to know.

  Jimmie : I certainly do. I was in a house once that caught fire in the middle of the night, and people came out of the strangest places.

• Mary Howard : Can't a man fall as deeply and honestly in love as a woman?

  Clare : Of course! And if he does honestly love this other woman and if the wife still loves him, I think that's the most tragic thing in the world for all three of them.

• Mary Howard : Oh, you don't know anything about women.

  Jimmie : Oh, yes, I do! All kinds: good and bad, straight and loose. Some of the loose ones are the best; they're honest, anyway. A woman who pretends to be decent and isn't is just a so-and-so. If she's good, she's good. If she's bad, she's bad. That's all there is to it.

  Mary Howard : Oh, that's Victorian bunk. You're even out of touch with your own sex, Jimmie.

• Rogers : You've got the best looking feet in the world. Thoroughbred!

  Mary Howard : Yes? They've escaped notice until now. Odd compliments. I like it.

• Mary Howard : You're so interesting and so contradictory.

  Clare : Oh, why?

  Mary Howard : Oh, you're so full of everything worthwhile. You simply vibrate with it.

  Clare : Well, my vibrations have been just a little on the subdued side of late. You and Jimmie have keyed them up some.

  Mary Howard : Jimmie certainly is good at keying people up.

• Mary Howard : You know, I'd like awfully to know what you'd think of my book.

  Clare : I want very much to read it.

  Mary Howard : Two men have told me two different things, but I care a lot more about what women think. That is, my own kind of women.

  Clare : Oh, yes. Socialize our writing. Women can't fool women - about women.

• Mary Howard : You have the best looking feet. Thoroughbred.

  Clare : Thank you. I'm really grateful! I haven't heard that about my feet for a long time.

• Bridget Drake : Jimmie says Mrs. Clare is some kind of a cousin, Mary.

  Mary Howard : Oh, indeed. I didn't know Jimmie had a cousin.

  Jimmie : Oh, there are cousins and cousins. She's the kind that you don't talk about.

• Jimmie : Well, when will you marry me?

  Mary Howard : Never.

  Jimmie : Three thousand years ago, when a guy swam the Tiber, his gal used to marry him as soon as he came out.

  Mary Howard : Three hours ago, a guy swam the Hudson and kept his gal waiting all that time for supper. If you're not ready in five minutes, I'll eat without you.

  Jimmie : Dictator!

• Rogers : I should think even you might know better than this.

  Mary Howard : Rogers, what are you saying?

  Rogers : Didn't you know that I never meant this to happen?

  Mary Howard : Certainly not. You mean that you've been lying to me, Rogers?

  Rogers : Mary, you were lying to yourself.

• Jimmie : Good afternoon.

  Mary Howard : I'm not speaking to you.

  Jimmie : Good, then that'll give me a chance to say something.

• Mary Howard : Listen, Jimmie, are you talking about my work or are you talking about me?

  Jimmie : On the level, I'm darned if I know.

• Bridget Drake : You like this hat?

  Mary Howard : Well, I like it if you want to look like a hussy!

  Bridget Drake : Well, I do.

• Mary Howard : Oh, Bridgie, don't be an ass.

• Mary Howard : Well, now, in my book, the girl is perfectly straight, and she doesn't want to marry him.

  Clare : Why?

  Mary Howard : He's married already.

  Clare : Can't he get a divorce?

  Mary Howard : She doesn't want him to.

  Clare : Oh, the wife doesn't?

  Mary Howard : Oh, no. No, the one he's in love with. She wants to be sure she loves him enough to marry him. She wants to be sure he isn't making another mistake before she lets him give up the wife. So, she lives with him first. That's perfectly natural and believable, isn't it?

  Clare : Oh, if she loves him terrifically, certainly. But...

  Mary Howard : Don't you think what she does is right? Do you think it's moral or immoral?

  Clare : If she honestly believes its right, its perfectly moral - for her. But...

  Mary Howard : Go on.

  Clare : Well, the hard thing for me to believe is that she'd believe this man.

  Mary Howard : Good heavens, why? A woman knows when a man's in love.

  Clare : Perhaps, I suppose any married woman would think that this other woman ought to know enough not to believe a married man if he's making love to her.

• Bridget Drake : There's a long distance for you Rogers.

  Rogers : Oh, the devil.

  Mary Howard : Who can it be?

  Rogers : I left the phone number at the office. I never tell them where I am when I break away. I just leave the telephone number in case something really important comes up. If you'll excuse me.

  [exits] 

  Mary Howard : Was it the office, Bridgie?

  Bridget Drake : What? Oh, I don't know, but it sounded like the office. I mean, it didn't sound like his wife, if that's what you mean. Sounded perfectly impersonal, like a hotel or something.

• Bridget Drake : Shall I ask them to stay for dinner?

  Mary Howard : No.

  Bridget Drake : It seems so nasty not to. And look, it's raining dogs and cats.

• Mary Howard : Jimmie, I want you to be awfully happy.

  Jimmie : When a woman says anything like that to a man, it means that she's in love with another one. Are you, Mary?

  Mary Howard : Don't be silly.

  Jimmie : It sticks out all over you!

• Clare : Men are so proper and conventional about their own good women, aren't they.

  Mary Howard : Yes.

  Clare : So much more so than the women themselves.

• Mary Howard : You know me. I'm the girl who writes books, very smart books about modern people, very smart people. I know exactly how everybody feels, exactly what everybody's thinking. That's how smart I am! I couldn't be fooled. I know all the jokes. Even when they're on me.

• Mary Howard : Oh, I adore Bridgie. She's the most intelligent fool I've ever known.

  Clare : Well, it's refreshing to run into somebody who doesn't think they know everything.

• Mary Howard : Jimmie, you can't make fun of my writing. I'm getting along.

  Jimmie : Like a snail with a shot in the arm - backwards, very fast.

  Mary Howard , Jimmie : Why do you want to hurt me?

  Jimmie : I don't. I'm sorry, Mary, but that last book of yours...

  Mary Howard : Is the best thing I've done.

  Jimmie : Ohhh. Woodruf tell you that?

  Mary Howard : No, not exactly... yes. Yes, he did.

  Jimmie : Kind of a yes and no, huh?

• Mary Howard : Do you think most men think someone else wants them?

  Clare : Of course, and, um, somebody usually does.

• Mary Howard , Bridget Drake : What do you think I am? He's a married man.

  Bridget Drake : Of course he is. The good ones always are. Someone has always beaten you to it.

  Mary Howard : Bridgie, where did you ever get such an idea?

  Bridget Drake : I haven't any idea. I was merely saying he's a terribly attractive man who seems to drop in here terribly often and life is flying by terribly fast and after all, why not.

• Jimmie : The best fertilizer in the world is wood ashes.

  Mary Howard : I'm not speaking to you.

  Jimmie : Good. That'll give me a chance to say something.

• Mary Howard : You're testing your friendship very hard, Jimmie.

  Jimmie : I'm telling you the truth because I love you.

• Clare : You still think the wife should have the intelligence to give him up?

  Mary Howard : Is that what you're going to do?

  Clare : Is that what you expect me to do?

  Mary Howard : Well, it isn't just as I thought it was going to be. I thought you were different somehow. I don't know why, but I did.

  Clare : Surely, you must know that even a plain woman resents being cast aside.

• Jimmie : [Reading the newspaper to cheer up Mary]  Dear Miss Fairfax, I'm a young man, 19 years of age. Would like to meet a young girl who's fond of light wine and dancing.

  [He looks askance at Mary who's pouring coffee, then turns the page of the newspaper] 

  Jimmie : Ha, ha, ha, ha. How to make raspberry whip. Take a few raspberries a...

  [He looks at Mary] 

  Jimmie : Mary, have you any raspberries?

  Mary Howard : Not a raspberry.

  Jimmie : I see that polka dots are coming back this year for evening wear. Say, you know, I'm awfully glad about that. If there's one thing in the world I was worried about, it was polka dots.

  [Mary starts laughing; they both laugh and Jimmie wipes her ear with a napkin] 

• Mary Howard : But what if he did?

  Clare : Love somebody else?

  Mary Howard : Yes. And she came to you honestly and told you how much she loved him, what would you do?

  Clare : I'd loathe her with a deadly hate that would shrivel her up. I'd call her a vile, brazen... but I don't think she'd come.

• Clare : I'd say, of course I can understand his loving you. But are you prepared to stand up to the job of loving him? Most of the things you find so irresistible in him are very hard to live with. You've got to love him so abjectly that you're glad to play second fiddle just to keep the music going for him.

  Mary Howard : But don't you think that love makes it easy?

  Clare : No, I don't. I think it makes everything very difficult.

• Mary Howard : But who wants a husband nobody else wants?

• Jimmie : You see, darling, if you marry me, I could spend my days working and my nights following you around. Say yes, Mary.

  Mary Howard : No.

  Jimmie : No? Yes!

  Mary Howard : No!

• Rogers : Mary, I read the last chapter of your book and I thought I might persuade you to come into town and talk about it.

  Bridget Drake : Oh, Mr. Woodruff, nights like this are made for love, not for work.

  Rogers : Well, I save odd hours for the occasional genius that comes my way.

  Mary Howard : Oh, thank you sir.

• Jimmie : Would you do what that girl in the book does?

  Mary Howard : A book's a book.

• Mary Howard : Will you have some tea, Bridgie?

  Bridget Drake : I will not! I'm not as old as all that.

• Clare : This has been a lot of fun. A real adventure.

  Mary Howard : I love unexpected things, don't you?

• Mary Howard : Will you have a cigarette?

  Clare : I'd love one. Oh! This does feel so good.

• Jimmie : Bridget, we want you to know - famous author is eloping with rising young journalist. Tomorrow's headlines. You know how she writes about life.

  Mary Howard : [Shaking her head]  No!

  Jimmie : If she marries me, she'll live life...

• Bridget Drake : If women do have loves - nice women, I mean, where do they go?

  Mary Howard : Why are you saying all that stuff to me?

  Bridget Drake : I'm not saying anything. I don't mind having just you and Woodruf, if you don't. It'll be so hard to keep from looking, well, you know.

  Mary Howard : I don't know. It's business.

  Bridget Drake : Yes, I know.

• Jimmie : Mary, will you marry me?

  Mary Howard : No.

  Jimmie : All right, back I go.

• Jimmie , Mary Howard : Woodruf's a married man, isn't he?

  Mary Howard : Rogers Woodruf?

  Jimmie : I believe that's the name. Rogers, not Clarence or Jake or Broderick.

  Mary Howard : What's that got to do with my book?

  Jimmie : Mary, if he didn't tell ya that that story was as full of holes as a Swiss cheese, the reason is this...

• Mary Howard : I can't believe it. I couldn't be fooled like that. Answer me, Rogers. Is that what you meant to do to me?

• Mary Howard : Oh, what a pity Jimmie's meddling should slam us in the face like this.

  Clare : Oh, no, no... No! It's providential. It had to come. I'm quite all right now.