More Than a Secretary (1936)

Jean Arthur: Carol Baldwin

Photos 

Quotes 

• Carol Baldwin : You see that? It's meat. Ah, but, it's bad for you. You lose your teeth, your eyesight, your brain cells. It's slow death. Steak! Mmm, come kill Mama.

• Carol Baldwin : Slash. Dash. Crash. Mash. Bash. Relax, girls. Relax! Don't attack your machines. Remember the typewriter's an instrument, not a man.

• Carol Baldwin : What's this? Are you typing in code?

  Maizie West : Oh, eh, the keys got mixed up.

  Carol Baldwin : Looks like a Chinese laundry ticket.

• Helen Davis : You mean to tell me you're giving a second thought to what that little nitwit said? What have we got to worry about? We have this school, we're free. Independent!

  Carol Baldwin : We certainly are. That's just the trouble.

  Helen Davis : Now don't tell me you're getting Spring fever too?

• Carol Baldwin : Oh, wait. Wait!

  Helen Davis : Let nature take its course, deary.

  Carol Baldwin : Oh, she can't even spell.

  Helen Davis : She can spell what he wants in capital letters.

• Carol Baldwin : He's fired another one of our girls. He's fired half his office force. He wants to know what's wrong with the modern woman.

  Helen Davis : The modern man.

• Carol Baldwin : I'm going down there and talk to him. I just want to know what he expects from a secretary.

• Carol Baldwin : I'm Miss Baldwin from the Supreme Secretarial School and I...

  Fred Gilbert : Oh, you are, huh. Mmm. Well, offhand I can't tell a thing about you. I will say though, there's some suggestion of modesty. The other girls trooped in here looking like a lot of chorus girls!

• Helen Davis : You've got the school, a business of your own, and you want to give that up for a twenty-five dollar a week job?

  Carol Baldwin : But, Helen, you don't understand. He's young. He's very good looking. He's healthy. He's intelligent. And he's not married!

• Fred Gilbert : Oh, you want some raw carrot?

  Carol Baldwin : Eh, no thank you.

  Fred Gilbert : Good for you. Builds brain cells.

  Carol Baldwin : Oh really, you know I always thought that fish...

  Fred Gilbert : Fish? Fish! Popular fallacy.

  [Back to dictating his letter] 

  Fred Gilbert : What did I say last?

  Carol Baldwin : Poppycock.

• Carol Baldwin : I wait for years, finally, I pick my man. And what is he? A slave driver. A calisthenics expert. A guy that lives on mattress stuffing!

• Carol Baldwin : He looks into your eyes to find out the condition of your liver. There's nothing human about him. He's a total loss. And that's what I picked.

• Carol Baldwin : Oh, what a pity. What a pity. He looks so nice. And when he smiles. He smiled twice today. I tell you, it warms you right down to your toes.

  [sighs] 

  Carol Baldwin : Where are you going?

  Helen Davis : To get you a big dose of sulfur and molasses.

• Fred Gilbert : Oh, you mean, make sort of a racket out of it, I suppose.

  Carol Baldwin : Sure. Why not? Everybody else does it. You buy toothpaste because a couple of blackface comics make you laugh. Coffee isn't coffee anymore, it's an amateur hour. Soap? Why soap is the road to love! Ballyhoo, that's what gets 'em.

• Carol Baldwin : Now, take your covers. Who wants to look at a man with great bulging muscles? Everybody likes to look at a beautiful woman. Put her in one of those bathing suits you could thread a needle with and everybody will stop and look. The women will try to figure how they can wear themselves down to the size...

  Fred Gilbert : Hey, Just, just, just a minute. Just a minute, Miss Baldwin. I'm not putting out a sex magazine. Body and Brain is a dignified publication.

  Carol Baldwin : But, it doesn't have to be dull!

• Carol Baldwin : Its beginning to rain!

  Fred Gilbert : That's fine, I love rain.

  Carol Baldwin : So do I, on the roof.

  Fred Gilbert : Oh, you're spoiled and soft!

  Carol Baldwin : I"m cold and wet!

• Carol Baldwin : You know, you really ought to smile all the time.

• Ernest : What's happened to the chief?

  Carol Baldwin : I don't know. Why, what's the matter?

  Ernest : Oh, keep your blouse on, he's alright.

• Carol Baldwin : Are you going to dictate?

• Ernest : What a worm. What a worm!

  Carol Baldwin : No, Ernest, I'm the worm!

• Carol Baldwin : You are so satisfied with yourself and you keep on making one mistake right after the other. First, you act like a fussy old maid. Next, you're sillier than a college boy out on a spree. You haven't any sense at all!