In Which We Serve (1942)

Celia Johnson: Mrs. Alix Kinross

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Quotes 

• Mrs. Alix Kinross : [Christmas dinner toast]  Ladies and gentlemen. I'll begin by taking my husband's advice and wishing you all a very happy Christmas. I'm sure Elizabeth and June will back me up when I say I'd like to deliver, on behalf of all wretched naval wives, a word of warning to Maureen who's been unwise enough to decide to join our ranks. Dear Maureen: we all wish you every possible happiness, but I think it only fair to tell you in advance exactly what you are in for. Speaking from bitter experience I can only say that the wife of a sailor is most profoundly to be pitied. To begin with, her home life, what there is of it, hath no stability whatever. She can never really settle down. She moves through a succession of other people's houses, flats, and furnished rooms. She finds herself having to grapple with domestic problems in Bermuda, Malta, or Weymouth. We will not deal with the question of pay as that is altogether too painful. But we will deal with is the most important disillusionment of all, and that is that wherever she goes there is always in her life a permanently undefeated rival: her husband's ship. Whether it be a battleship or a sloop, a submarine or a destroyer, it holds first place in his heart. It comes before wife, home, children, everything. Some of us try to fight this and get badly mauled in the process. Others, like myself, resolve themselves to the inevitable. That is what you will have to do, my poor Maureen. That is what we all have to do if we want any peace of mind at all. Ladies and gentlemen I give you my rival. It is extraordinary that anyone could be so fond and so proud of their most implacable enemy - this ship. God bless this ship and all who sail in her.

• Mrs. Alix Kinross : [to Flags and Maureen a Christmas dinner]  Stop whispering, you two. You know, Robin, you really oughtn't to have put them next to each other.

  Captain Edward V. Kinross : We ought to drink to them. Come on, everybody. To the newly betrothed.

  Captain Edward V. Kinross , Mrs. Alix Kinross , Bobby Kinross , Lavinia Kinross : The newly betrothed.

  Bobby Kinross : What's betrothed, Daddy?

  Captain Edward V. Kinross : The beginning of the end, my boy.

• Captain Edward V. Kinross : Is that a new dress?

  Mrs. Alix Kinross : No. Oh, no, darling. I've had it for ages.

  Captain Edward V. Kinross : I swear I've never clapped eyes on it before.

  Mrs. Alix Kinross : Only about 20 times, my love.

  Captain Edward V. Kinross : Perhaps it's you that looked new. As good as new, anyway.

  Mrs. Alix Kinross : Is there going to be a war, do you think?

• Captain Edward V. Kinross : That first quarrel we had, do you remember? When you went stamping off to listen to the band all by yourself and came back in tears a half an hour later.

  Mrs. Alix Kinross : It was only because they were playing "The Blue Danube". You know that always makes me feel sort of pent-up and emotional.

  Captain Edward V. Kinross : That wasn't why you were in tears and there's no use pretending it was.

  Mrs. Alix Kinross : If I was in tears at all, which I hotly deny, it was probably because that was the very first time I discovered what a horrible, disagreeable character you have.

  Captain Edward V. Kinross : Still, it was a good honeymoon, as honeymoons go.

  Mrs. Alix Kinross : It went awfully quickly.

  [Capt. Kinross whistles "The Blue Danube"] 

  Mrs. Alix Kinross : Oh, stop it, Teddy. I refuse to be made sentimental in the middle of a Great Western lunch. Eat up your delicious piece of railway fish and behave yourself.

• Bobby Kinross : Mummy, Trafalgar won't eat sausage roll.

  Mrs. Alix Kinross : That's because you spoil him so dreadfully.

• Captain Edward V. Kinross : We're living in strange times, darling. It's as well to be prepared.

  Mrs. Alix Kinross : Yes, I suppose it is.

• Mrs. Alix Kinross : Darling, you must be exhausted. I'll get you a drink. What would you like? Whisky and soda or a cocktail?

  Captain Edward V. Kinross : Well, seeing as it's a gala evening, let's have a Kinross special.

  Mrs. Alix Kinross : I guessed it. It's all ready, only wants the ice.

  Captain Edward V. Kinross : I made a private bet that you'd forget the Cointreau.

  Mrs. Alix Kinross : Wrong again. I had a sort of feeling this was an occasion.

• Mrs. Alix Kinross : However busy you are, and however quickly you've got to get your commissioning done, I should like to come on board just once before you go to sea to give the ship my love.

• Captain Edward V. Kinross : Just you begin as you intend to go on, Mrs Blake. Keep him in order. My wife rules me with a rod of iron. It's been quite successful so far, hasn't it, darling?

  Mrs. Alix Kinross : Don't talk such nonsense. I'm never allowed to have my own way over anything.