When Ladies Meet (1933)

Robert Montgomery: Jimmie Lee

Photos 

Quotes 

• 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!

• 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.

• Jimmie : I'll grab myself a highball and go to work.

• 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.

• 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.

• Jimmie : I'm the dust under her feet, not the cream in her coffee.

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

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

• [last lines] 

  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.

• 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!

• Jimmie : Good afternoon.

  Mary Howard : I'm not speaking to you.

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

• Jimmie : Do you want me to give you a word picture of what's going on in that man's mind when he's talking to you about your book?

• 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.

• Jimmie : Say, Freddie, do you got a pair of BVDs - about these dimensions?

• Jimmie : A man wants a decent woman to stay decent. And if she doesn't, why he bawls her out for doing the one thing in the world that he always told her was the greatest thing a woman can do: giving him all for love.

• Jimmie : If your girl ever did what she wanted to do, the guy'd get so sick of her in about a year he'd poke her in the nose. Gosh, I've persuaded so many women and hated them afterwards.

• 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!

• Clare : Oh, this is the funniest thing that ever happened to me. Why me? Why didn't you pick some beautiful, sweet young thing that she'd be jealous of?

  Jimmie : Oh, she'd know I wouldn't fall for anything like that. I - oh, I mean, that you're the kind that she would be jealous of.

  Clare : That's better.

• 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.

• 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!

• 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?

• Jimmie : [Tipsy, breaking in on Mary and Woodruf]  Oh, you still talking about that book jacket? Must be some jacket. You know, we newspaper men have to be a lot faster than you publishers. Anybody want a drink? Personally, I don't need one.

• 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.

• Party person on the yacht : Ladies and gentlemen. He swam the mighty Hudson. The human eel, my friends. Ten cents, one slender dime for the thinless fear

  [sic] 

  Party person on the yacht : ..

  Freddie - the Party Boy : All the way over.

  Jimmie : And all the way back. I win all the bets. Say, Freddie, have you got a pair of BVDs about these dimensions?

  Freddie - the Party Boy : Sure, I have.

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

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

• Jimmie : [after his caddy sneezes]  Nine million caddies out of work, and I picked one with hay fever.

• 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] 

• Jimmie : There's bound to be a first time for everything, Woodruf. Some woman was bound to say no to you some day. And mean it.

  Rogers : Go ahead, Jimmie. Say anything you want.

  Jimmie : You've got some kids. And whatever it takes to get back to them, you better find it some place. There's only one thing the matter with you. You're too smart. You think the simple things are silly. Real love, and home and good old stuff. It's for copy books and morons like me. You've wasted an awful lot of genius trying to make a fool out of Mary. Try and get your feet back under your own table again. It'll be a battle. But a couple of great women think pretty well of you.

• 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.

• Jimmie : You know, the trouble with a lot of men is they're too smart. They choose to think that the simple things in life - home, kids, fire side are copy book stuff - meant for children and morons.

  Rogers : Yes, I know that now.

• 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!

• Jimmie : I'm telling you the truth because I love you. You used to be able to write about men and women; your last book has neither. You take a decent girl and a perfectly grand guy, who's a married man, and before you get through with them, they'll need a fish flash but slightly foul; they haven't got a leg left to stand on.

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

  Mary Howard : A book's a book.

• 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?

• Jimmie : [drunkenly]  Very, very nifty party. Tails and everything!

• Jimmie : Here, take mine, snooks.

• 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.

• Jimmie : Maybe I'm all wrong.

  Rogers : Just a blundering jackass, that's all!

• 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.

• 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...

• Jimmie : Mary, will you marry me?

  Mary Howard : No.

  Jimmie : All right, back I go.

• Jimmie : [Golfing with Claire Woodruf]  I see this is gonna be a cinch. All I have to do is hole out in one each time to give you a pretty close game.

• 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...