Midnight (1939)

Claudette Colbert: Eve Peabody

Photos 

Quotes 

• Eve Peabody : From the moment you looked at me, I had an idea you had an idea.

• Eve Peabody : [Discussing her career as a gold-digger]  I landed a lord, almost.

  Tibor Czerny : Almost?

  Eve Peabody : Well, the family came between us. His mother came to my hotel and offered me a bribe.

  Tibor Czerny : You threw her out, I hope!

  Eve Peabody : How could I, with my hands full of money?

• Eve Peabody : Well. So this, as they say, is Paris, huh?

  Train guard : Yes, madame.

  Eve Peabody : Well, from here it looks an awful lot like a rainy night in Kokomo, Indiana.

• Eve Peabody : [at the ball]  Don't forget, every Cinderella has her midnight.

• Eve Peabody : Oh, I think it's a dream on you. You know, it... it does something for your face: it gives you a chin.

• Jacques Picot : You're wonderful.

  Eve Peabody : You're magnificent.

  Helene Flammarion : You're talking across the board.

• Eve Peabody : When I married, I didn't realize that in the Czerny family there was a streak of... shall we say, eccentricity? And yet, I had warning. Why else should his grandfather have sent me, as an engagement present, one roller skate - covered with Thousand Island dressing?

  Jacques Picot : [Shocked]  What?

  Georges Flammarion : Of course, of course I'd forgotten! The Czerny's are all like that. You know, I met an old aunt - the Countess Antonia. I thought she was an Indian. It turned out, that she used paprika instead of face powder.

• Georges Flammarion : The ground has just opened under our feet.

  Eve Peabody : Well... and me all set to jump for that tub of butter.

  Georges Flammarion : We've landed in something, all right, but it's not butter.

  Eve Peabody : Here they come.

  Georges Flammarion : I'll stand by you as best I can.

  Helene Flammarion : Ladies and gentlemen, may I have a word, please. I want to tell you something which I think will both interest and amuse you. Under our roof tonight, we have, as a guest, a person claiming one of the oldest names in the Almanach de Gotha.

  [Crowd mutters] 

  Helene Flammarion : I don't know how many of you are familiar with the Hungarian aristocracy, but let me assure you that in all middle Europe there is no family...

  Servant : Baron Tibor Czerny.

  [Crowd gasps and mutters loudly] 

  Stephanie : Well.

• Tibor Czerny : Remember our honeymoon in Copenhagen, darling? That Danish officer?

  Eve Peabody : Oh... oh, Olaf. Oh, I never even looked at him.

  Tibor Czerny : Poor fellow. He's dead now. Heaven forgive me.

  Helene Flammarion : Oh, you're that kind of man. How wonderful.

• Eve Peabody : [Pretending to talk to her fictitious mother-in-law in Budapest]  Oh, yes, mama. How's Francie? What did the doctor say? Oh, good. The baby's temperature has gone down. The spots have practically disappeared. What did you say, mother? It isn't measles at all.

  Georges Flammarion : [Pretending to be Tibor's mother]  No, dear. It's just a plain case of alcohol poisoning. The baby must have had one high ball too many.

  Eve Peabody : Oh!

  Georges Flammarion : She was out all night. We picked her up in the gutter.

  Eve Peabody : [Warm laughter]  Oh ho ho! How cute of her. Oh, she loves it so.

• Eve Peabody : Listen. Back in New York, whenever I managed to crash a party full of luscious big-hearted millionaires, there was always sure to be some snub-faced kid in the orchestra playing traps. And so at four in the morning, when the wise girls were skipping off to Connecticut to marry those millionaires, I'd be with him in some nightspot learning tricks on the kettledrum. And he always had a nose like yours.

• Marcel : Madame? A word with you.

  Eve Peabody : With me?

  Marcel : Yes, with you.

  Eve Peabody : I thought so. Well, all right, let's get it over with.

• Jacques Picot : I'm terribly sorry. It's difficult to concentrate on cards... sometimes.

  Eve Peabody : [Referring to Jacques' dislike of Helene's feathered hat]  Naturally, when you're worrying about the future of the ostrich plume.

  Helene Flammarion : I don't think that's very funny.

  Jacques Picot : I do.

  Eve Peabody : Well, thanks.

• Jacques Picot : [Trying to describe Helene's hat]  Well, it's...

  Eve Peabody : Oh, I think it's a dream on you. You know, it does something for your face. It gives you a chin.

• Eve Peabody : I need a taxi to find myself a job and I need a job to pay for the taxi. No taxi, no job. No job, no soap.

• Eve Peabody : I guess mine is strictly a bath tub voice.

• Eve Peabody : Oh, I know. This is the pumpkin coach, and you're the fairy godmother.

  Tibor Czerny : Cut that stuff out. It's raining. Come on.

• Eve Peabody : Oh no. I wouldn't have much of an appetite with Ferdinand dead in a puddle.

• Helene Flammarion : We put you in here.

  Tibor Czerny : Oh what a delightful room.

  Helene Flammarion : It's the bridal suite of the chateau.

  Tibor Czerny : Well, in a way this is very like a honeymoon. Isn't it, darling?

  Eve Peabody : [Chuckles uncomfortably]  In a way. I feel if I'd been hit on the head with an old shoe.

• Eve Peabody : Oh, listen, skipper. You better think it over.

  Tibor Czerny : I have thought it over.

  Eve Peabody : I won't promise to manage on 40 francs a day.

  Tibor Czerny : Who said 40? With you around, I'll make as much as we want. Anything is possible!