Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

Priscilla Lane: Elaine Harper

Photos 

Quotes 

• [Elaine is impatient to leave on the honeymoon] 

  Elaine Harper : But, darling - Niagara Falls.

  Mortimer Brewster : It does? Well, let it.

• Elaine Harper : But Mortimer, you're going to love me for my mind, too.

  Mortimer Brewster : One thing at a time!

• Elaine Harper : Now, wait a minute! Listen! You can't marry me one minute and throw me out of the house the next.

  Mortimer Brewster : I am not throwing you out of the house, I am not throwing you out of the house! Will you get out of here?

  [pushes her out and slams the door; Mr. Gibbs is standing on the porch holding a newspaper] 

  Elaine Harper : Mortimer!

  Mortimer Brewster : [picks up the phone]  I'm sorry, Judge. But a thing happened. Look, Judge... About Teddy... you see, he's...

  Elaine Harper : Mortimer!

  Mortimer Brewster : [into the phone]  You see, Judge, it's his bugle blowing. Yes, the neighbors have been complaining, and the police are all set to throw him into a state institution.

  Elaine Harper : How do you like that...

  Mr. Gibbs : I read an ad here about a room to rent...

  Elaine Harper : Oh, shut up!

• [to Mortimer] 

  Elaine Harper : We were married today. We were going over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Your brother tries to kill me. A taxi is waiting and now you want to sleep on a window seat. You can take the honeymoon, your wedding ring, your taxi, your window seat, and put 'em in a barrel and push 'em all over Niagara Falls!

• Elaine Harper : [Mortimer is feeling amorous in the cemetery with Elaine]  Mortimer! Right out here in the open with everyone looking?

  Mortimer Brewster : Yes, right out here in the open with everyone looking. Let everyone in Brooklyn over sixteen look!

• Mortimer Brewster : Yeah, yeah, I know that bromide. Something borrowed, something blue - old, new! Rice and old shoes, carry you over the threshold, Niagara Falls - all the silly tripe I've made fun of for years. Is this what I've come to? I can't go through with it. I won't marry you and that's that!

  Elaine Harper : [Adoring]  Yes, Mortimer.

  Mortimer Brewster : What do you mean, "Yes, Mortimer"? Aren't you insulted? Aren't you going to cry? Aren't you going to make a scene?

  Elaine Harper : [Adoring]  No, Mortimer.

  Mortimer Brewster : And don't "No, Mortimer" me either! Don't... Don't you see, marriage is a superstition, it... It's old-fashioned, it's... I... Ohhhh...

  [He kisses her and hauls her into the marriage license office] 

• Jonathan Brewster : Perhaps we'd better introduce ourselves. May I present Dr. Einstein.

  Elaine Harper : Dr. Einstein?

  Jonathan Brewster : A surgeon of great distinction... and something of a magician.

  Elaine Harper : Now, I suppose you're going to tell me that you're Boris Kar...

  Jonathan Brewster : I am Jonathan Brewster!