The Women (1939)
Norma Shearer: Mrs. Stephen Haines (Mary)
Photos
Quotes
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Mary Haines : I've had two years to grow claws mother. Jungle red.
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Mary Haines : May I suggest, if you're dressing to please Stephen, not that one. He doesn't like such obvious effects.
Crystal Allen : Thanks for the tip. But when anything I wear doesn't please Stephen, I take it off.
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Mary Haines : [about Slyvia and the model arguing] Oh it's just professional jealousy, they're really very good friends!
Sylvia Fowler : Of course! She adores the Fowler family. Particularly my husband.
Countess Tamara : Are you accusing me of flirting with Howard?
Sylvia Fowler : No, my little pet, but of trying to! I'd like to see Howard bat an eye at another woman!
Countess Tamara : Well I've seen him, and she's not bad either!
Sylvia Fowler : Did you get her innuendo?
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Edith Potter : [Wiping her hands on towel] Oh, cheap Chinese embroidery! You know, I'll bet Peggy gave her these...
Sylvia Fowler : It wouldn't be so bad if only Mary's friends knew; we could keep our mouths shut.
Edith Potter : I know plenty I'd never breathe about my friend's husbands.
Sylvia Fowler : Oh, so do I!
[They both turn around and look at each other]
Edith Potter : Well, you know, I adore Mary!
Sylvia Fowler : I worship her! We're not only cousins; she's my dearest friend in the world. After all, we were raised together!
[Turns around quickly]
Sylvia Fowler : Oh Edith, I forgot to tell you...
[Whispers to Edith]
Mary Haines : Break it up, girls! Break it up!
Edith Potter : Darling!
Mary Haines : Hello!
Edith Potter : You're so slim, I could kill you.
Mary Haines : You don't have to. The diet I'm on is pure poison.
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Little Mary Haines : I saw Mrs. Potter at the zoo that day.
Mrs. Moorehead : Who was she visiting with? The snakes?
Mary Haines : Oh, Mother!
Little Mary Haines : As a matter of fact, she was!
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Sylvia Fowler : [Showing her nails to Mary] Mary, how do you like that?
Nancy Blake : Too, too adorable.
Sylvia Fowler : Ah, you have no idea how it stays on... I get it at Sydney's. You should go, Mary. A wonderful new manicurist. Olga's her name; she's marvelous. Isn't that divine? Jungle Red!
Nancy Blake : Looks like you've been tearing at somebody's throat!
Sylvia Fowler : [Smacks her hand on the table] I'll be darned, Nancy, if I'll let you ride me anymore!
Mary Haines : Oh Sylvia, Nancy's only trying to be clever, too.
Sylvia Fowler : Well, she takes a crack at everything about me... Even my nails!
Mary Haines : Well, I like them, I really do. Sydney's, Olga's, Jungle Red... I'll remember.
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Sylvia Fowler : [Last lines] Mary Haines, don't you have any pride?
Mary Haines : No pride at all. That's a luxury a woman in love can't afford.
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Mary Haines : [Introduces them] This is the Countess DeLave... Mrs. Howard Fowler.
Countess DeLave : [Same time] How do you do?
Sylvia Fowler : [Same time] How do you do?
Mary Haines : And Miriam Aarons.
Miriam Aarons : How do you do?
Sylvia Fowler : [Looks closely at Miriam's flat chest] How do *you* do?
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Mary Haines : I'll be doing the cooking so you know what he'll get.
Little Mary Haines : I know - indigestion.
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Mrs. Moorehead : Stephen is a man. He's been married ten years.
Mary Haines : Oh. You mean he's tired of me?
Mrs. Moorehead : Stephen's tired of himself. Tired of feeling the same things in himself. Time comes when a man's got to feel something new, and he's got to feel young again, just because he's growing old.
Mary Haines : Mother! Stephen isn't old!
Mrs. Moorehead : Of course not, but we women are so much more sensible. When we tire of ourselves, we change the way we do our hair, or hire a new cook, or... or decorate the house. I suppose a man could do over his office, but he never thinks of anything so simple. No, dear, a man has only one escape from his old self: to see a different self in the mirror of some woman's eyes.
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Peggy Day : [On the train] Listen to the wheels, don't they seem to be saying something?
Mary Haines : [Softly] No.
Peggy Day : Don't they seem to be saying... Go back, go back, go back, go back?
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Mary Haines : I think I got what Mrs. Fowler's friends come in for.
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Crystal Allen : You noble wives and mothers bore the brains out of me. And I bet you bore your husbands, too.
Mary Haines : You are a hard one.
Crystal Allen : I can be soft on the right occasion.
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Mary Haines : The big fish aren't always the most important, you know.
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Mary Haines : I'm afraid you don't honor my friends enough, mother dear.
Mrs. Moorehead : You mean some of them ought to cut their throats.