I Remember Mama (1948)

Irene Dunne: Mama (Martha Hanson)

Photos 

Quotes 

• Katrin Hanson : But mama, wouldn't you *like* to be rich?

  Martha 'Mama' Hanson : I would like to be rich the way I would like to be ten feet high. It's good for some things, bad for others.

• Martha 'Mama' Hanson : [heaving a sigh of relief after doing the weekly household account]  It's good - we do not have to go to the bank.

• Florence Dana Moorhead : Look, I'm afraid I'm in a hurry. I'm leaving San Francisco this evening.

  Martha 'Mama' Hanson : But if I could talk... for just two minute. That's all.

  Florence Dana Moorhead : I've had to make it a rule never to read anyone's unpublished material.

  Martha 'Mama' Hanson : It said that you like to collect recipes for eating.

  Florence Dana Moorhead : Yes, I've written several books on cooking.

  Martha 'Mama' Hanson : l, too, am interested in

  [remembering the word] 

  Martha 'Mama' Hanson : gastronomy. I am good cook. Norwegian. I make good Norwegian dishes. Lutefisk and koettbullar... that's meatballs with cream sauce.

  Florence Dana Moorhead : I know. I've eaten them in Christiania.

  Martha 'Mama' Hanson : My mother give me special recipe for koettbullar. She was best cook I ever know. Never have I told this recipe, not even to my sisters... because they are not good cooks. But if you let me talk to you, I give it to you. Is fine recipe.

  Florence Dana Moorhead : [relenting]  Now, your daughter wants to write, you say.

  Martha 'Mama' Hanson : Yeah.

  Florence Dana Moorhead : Does she write? Or does she only want to write?

  Martha 'Mama' Hanson : She writes all the time. Maybe she should not be author, but is hard to give up something... that has meant so much.

  Florence Dana Moorhead : I agree.

  Martha 'Mama' Hanson : I bring her stories. I bring twelve.

  Florence Dana Moorhead : Twelve!

  Martha 'Mama' Hanson : Well, if you could read maybe just one. To know if someone cooks well, you do not need to eat a whole dinner.

  Florence Dana Moorhead : You're very persuasive. Why didn't your daughter come herself?

  Martha 'Mama' Hanson : Well, she was too unhappy... and too scared of you. You are celebrity. But I see your picture in the paper.

  Florence Dana Moorhead : That frightful picture!

  Martha 'Mama' Hanson : Well, is a picture of woman who like to eat good.

  Florence Dana Moorhead : [amused]  It certainly is. Now tell me about the koettbullar.

  Martha 'Mama' Hanson : Yeah. When you make the meatballs, you drop them in boiling stock. Not water. That is one of the secrets. And the cream sauce is another secret. Is half sour cream, added at the last.

  Florence Dana Moorhead : Oh, that sounds marvelous!

  Martha 'Mama' Hanson : You have to grind the meat six times... and then you... Well, I could write this out for you.

• Martha 'Mama' Hanson : Maybe you don't have things to do, I have!

  Papa : What you have to do that is so important?

  Martha 'Mama' Hanson : I have to choloform a cat!