Lady L (1965)

Sophia Loren: Louise

Photos 

Quotes 

• Lord Dicky Lendale : Life is sometime exquisite in its choice of punishments. And what better punishment for you, that your son should one day be a Duke.

  Armand Denis : A Duke! Never!

  Louise : Thank you. It's a good career for a boy.

• Louise : You can't write my story, Percy, precisely because it's too moral to be accepted by society.

• Louise : The more she wants to win, the more she pretends she doesn't mind losing. That's England, too.

  Sir Percy : Ah, you wicked foreigner. You discovered one of our best kept secrets.

• Louise : Give into it Percy. It's cheap and vulgar. Don't resist it.

• Louise : My people came to Paris when I was a baby. They were very poor. I worked from my earliest youth delivering laundry, much of it to a house.

  Sir Percy : Laundry is usually delivered to houses, if I'm not mistaken.

  Louise : This was not so much a house - as a *house*.

  Sir Percy : I don't follow you?

  Louise : A house full of girls or all shapes and sizes and of every nationality.

  Sir Percy : Oh, I see. A kind of finishing school.

  Louise : Oh, is that what they call them in England?

• Madam : You're very young Louise. I'm sure you still believe in the right man.

  Louise : Oh, yes, I do.

  Madam : There is no right man! There are only right men and wrong men.

  Louise : You only say that because you never had the courage to wait.

• Louise : Is this by you?

  Lord Dicky Lendale : No, that is a Rembrandt. Not a very good one; so, your mistake is understandable... Now, this - this is a Boucher!

  [shows a painting of bare bottomed woman laying on a bed] 

  Lord Dicky Lendale : A minor master painting, but, a major master of the erotic. Just look at that glorious - I don't know, it has something!

  Louise : We had many such paintings in our - house in Paris.

• Lord Dicky Lendale : Now, these - these are very interesting. These are Egyptian scarabs of the third millennium. My late father stole them from various temples while he was liberating Egypt from the Turks. Their size makes them very easy to steal.

  Louise : Why do you say that?

  Lord Dicky Lendale : Because my father stole them.

• Louise : How can you afford it?

  Lord Dicky Lendale : Well, how can I put this, I have - independent means.

  Louise : And no wife? I thought you said...

  Lord Dicky Lendale : I had, alas, I had a wife. A magnificent figure of a woman. But, I couldn't take her home. Her Majesty wouldn't hear of a gypsy at the Court of St. James. Maybe she was right. England would have killed Dolores. All that soap and chlorinated water and no rhythm in the whole wretched country - except for the snoring in the clubs.

• Lord Dicky Lendale : I think you're exactly what you thought I was: a liar, a confidence trickster, a thief.

  Louise : [stands up]  How dare you!

  [faints] 

  Louise : Oh, my God.

  Lord Dicky Lendale : You're pregnant, are you? My dear, Countess, you simply must marry me.

• Lord Dicky Lendale : He may come back.

  Louise : Who?

  Lord Dicky Lendale : Oh, that good-looking, incompetent, muddle-headed, jackass. He may.

• Ambroise Gérôme : Mademoiselle, I fought a duel this morning.

  Louise : Indeed?

  Ambroise Gérôme : Because my wife's lover insulted my mistress, who happens to be his wife. You can see that I will stop at nothing to satisfy honor.

  Ambroise Gérôme : [sneezes]  If Lacoueur should hurt your feelings after I have gone, do not hesitate to communicate with me at -at this address. In fact, do not hesitate to communicate with me even if Lacoeur *fails* to hurt your feelings.

• Inspector Mercier : If you really are the Minister, "Your Excellency," can you explain why your coat reeks of gunpowder?

  Louise : His Excellency fought a duel at dawn this morning.

  Policeman : The Prime Minister, five o'clock, in the woods.

  Inspector Mercier : The Prime Minis - Again?

  Policeman : Every week, at least once. It's a coalition government.

• Louise : Duke, are you telling me the truth?

  Lord Dicky Lendale : Countess, would you recognize the truth if you heard it?

• Louise : Are you a professional painter?

  Lord Dicky Lendale : No, I'm a professional Duke. Which means that I'm an amateur at everything else. Lendale's the name, Dicky Lendale.

  Louise : Enchanted. I am the Countess of Camõens.

  Lord Dicky Lendale : Camõens! Ah, the great Portuguese poet!

  Louise : He was my husband.

  Lord Dicky Lendale : And you're still in mourning? What devotion. He died in 1580.

• Louise : Armand, I was so frightened you might kill someone.

  Armand Denis : Oh, so was I.

• Louise : How long haven't you seen your mother, Dicky?

  Lord Dicky Lendale : Oh, eighteen years?

  Louise : And you don't kiss her?

• British Nanny : Bath time, my Lord.

  Louise : [playing with her son]  Another five minutes, Nanny.

  British Nanny : If we break the routine, Your Grace, it may have incalculable affects on his Lordship in later life. A rolling stone gathers no moss, remember, Your Grace. Come, sir.

  Louise : Don't you think you bathe him too often?

  British Nanny : There's nothing like cold water to harden the lad. After all, we don't want him a faint heart, do we?

  Louise : In France, we don't take a bath every day.

  British Nanny : That explains a great deal, if you don't mind my saying so.

  Louise : What do you mean?

  British Nanny : India, Africa, Canada! Come on, my Lord, mind over matter. Grin and bear it. Grin and bear it!

• Louise : It's a lovely party, isn't it Dicky.

• Louise : I'm sorry, Dicky. I'm not feeling very well.

• Louise : Come, my dear, the car will be here presently to take us into London. I had tickets for a new play about the gunpowder plot. The critics have hailed as "explosive"!