When Ladies Meet (1933)

Alice Brady: Bridget Drake

Photos 

Quotes 

• Bridget Drake : I tell you this is an awfully hard age for a good woman to live in - I mean a woman who wants to have any fun. The old instincts of right and wrong merely hold you back. You're neither one thing nor the other. You're neither happy and bad, nor good and contented. You're just discontentedly decent.

• Bridget Drake : [outside on Mary's balcony]  Ooh, my, but it's hot. Will I stick to that chair, Jimmie?

  Jimmie : You know better than I do how sticky you are!

• 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.

• Bridget Drake : Good night, Clara.

  Clare : Good night.

  Bridget Drake : I'm awfully glad you're here. You know, I like you. I like you because most women who know anything always treat me as though I didn't. And you don't.

• Bridget Drake : Oh! I had lunch yesterday afternoon with Laura Mills. And I'll bet it's true!

  Jimmie : What's true?

  Bridget Drake : About she and Phil Lawrence. I never believed it before, actually, but I do now.

  Jimmie : Why now? Does she look guilty?

  Bridget Drake : Guilty? On the contrary, she looks satisfied.

  Jimmie : What?

  Bridget Drake : I mean complacent.

• Bridget Drake : Well, after all, why control yourself? Nobody else does. I know I'm a fool being so decent about Walter. Everybody else does exactly as they please. So, why shouldn't I? But, I don't. And the funny thing is that I actually don't know whether it's because I'm too good or I haven't got the nerve.

• Bridget Drake : You know, you can't get men to come out to the country and stay there. Of course, I could fill the house full of women easily, but oh my goodness, I'm so sick of females!

• Bridget Drake : Jimmie, what's the matter with you? Are you tight?

  Jimmie : No, no. That's why I'm nervous.

• Bridget Drake : Well, I'm going back to bed. Come along, Walter. Oh! I didn't mean that.

• 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.

• 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.

• Bridget Drake : Oh, Jimmie, you'll have to give us a lift uptown. I mean, will you? You know, the taxis are terrible down here, darling. I always feel exactly as though I will pay my income tax all over again.

• Walter : I'm the right man. Why don't you marry me?

  Bridget Drake : To be 10 years older than a man is the only reason on earth for not marrying him. Now you see, because I'm honest enough to say 10. You probably think it's 20.

• Bridget Drake : When do you work, Jimmie?

  Jimmie : I don't. Why don't you let me go and shake up a cocktail?

• Bridget Drake : We went down to MacDougal Alley to look at some pictures, and I said to Walter, "As long as we've come this far, we might as well go the whole way."

  Jimmie : You said that to Walter?

  Bridget Drake : About the pictures, idiot!

• 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 : I saw you sitting around with a pencil in your hand, but I didn't know anything was going on. Anything creative, I mean. This creative business is so funny. You never do know when its going on. I suppose people themselves don't. Are you creative, Mrs. Clare? I know I would be - if I just let go.

  Jimmie : That's when I'm creative.

• 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.

• Bridget Drake : I'll just get you a nightie and toothbrush and things.

  Clare : Oh, I am being a lot of trouble.

  Bridget Drake : Not at all. I'm tickled to death to have someone to use one of them. I've had them on hand for years, and nobody ever needs them.

• Bridget Drake : What's the matter with you people? Don't you know what beds are for, or do you? Or is that the wrong thing to say?

• Bridget Drake : Mary's such a fool, but I love her for it. It makes me feel so close to her.

• Bridget Drake : When a strong, intelligent woman, like you, finally persuades herself that a man is the thing in life; well, of course, she's the biggest fool of all!

• 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.

• Bridget Drake : I tell you, this is an awfully hard age for a good woman to live in. I mean, a woman who wants to have any fun. The old instincts of right and wrong may hold you back.

• Bridget Drake : If I were you, Mary, I'd never forgive Jimmie. If a woman wants to make a fool of herself, the least a man can do is let her be one in her own way. Of course, it's happened to me so often, I never expect anything else. I mean, making a mistake about a man.

• Jimmie : What I wanna know is why am I out in the barn all alone? I'm house-broken.

  Bridget Drake : Because there aren't any other rooms, idiot... .

  Jimmie : Well, I'll be off to my little cell. If lightning strikes me, at least I'll be alone. That'll be a lucky break... for you.

• Bridget Drake : Oh, you idiots. Make him some coffee, Mary, and some bacon and eggs if you like.

• 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.

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

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

• Bridget Drake : I bet you can't guess what we've been doing?

  Jimmie : You and Walter?

  Bridget Drake : Yes.

  Jimmie : I thought that's what we weren't supposed to guess?

• Bridget Drake : What's that you're playing, Walter? It's sweet!

  Walter : "Love, You Funny Thing."

  Bridget Drake : Oh! Don't be an ass, Walter.

• Jimmie : Where's your room, Bridgie?

  Bridget Drake : It's just across the hall. Come along if you want to see a real room.

  Walter : Bridgie doesn't go in for quaintness and purity like this.

  Bridget Drake : I do not! Marie Antoinette and Madame Du Barry aren't in it. I said to Walter, "No early American influence in my bedroom! That's one place I'm going to let go and express myself." Nightie night.

• Bridget Drake : There's no use trying to fool yourself. The only real unhappiness in life is losing a man. Of course, if he dies, well, that's a different matter. If you lose him that way, well, you know it isn't your fault. You know, death isn't nature's greatest mistake - falling in love is. Of course, if we didn't do that, all the misery of life would be cut right out of it, but my goodness, there wouldn't be any fun either! So what are you going to do about it?

• Jimmie : What'd ya do with the cows, Walter? Seems a shame to turn them out of here.

  Bridget Drake : Now, don't tell me you still smell cow?

  Jimmie , Bridget Drake : [Sniffing]  Fragrant as the new mown hay.

  Bridget Drake : Well, that's the last straw, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm.

• Bridget Drake : Oh, Irene just found out that there's epilepsy in the Stewart family. And now, she's just waiting for Harry to throw a fit any minute. But she says, they've had three awfully happy years, if he does.

• 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.

• Bridget Drake : You see, Walter, Jimmie brought the man's wife down because Jimmie's in love with another man's girl. And the man didn't want Jimmie to take his wife home at two o'clock in the morning. And the sun rises in the East and sets in the West. You see... isn't that it, Mary?