Summer and Smoke (1961)

Geraldine Page: Alma Winemiller

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Alma Winemiller : The gulf wind has failed us this year, disappointed us dreadfully this summer.

• Alma Winemiller : Bacteriology. Isn't that something you do with a - microscope?

• John Buchanan, Jr : You have a doppelganger, Miss Alma, and that doppelganger is *badly* irritated.

  Alma Winemiller : I have an irritated doppelganger? Oh, my goodness. How awful that sounds. What is it?

  John Buchanan, Jr : Oh, it's none of my business. You're not my patient.

  Alma Winemiller : Oh, now that's downright wicked of you to tell me I have something as awful-sounding as that and then not tell me what it is.

  John Buchanan, Jr : It means there's another person trapped inside you, Miss Alma, Another self. And that self is crying out to be freed.

• Alma Winemiller : To be a doctor - oh, my - and deal with those mysteries. I think it's almost religious.

• Alma Winemiller : I'd really begun to think you'd forgotten me.

  John Buchanan, Jr : Oh, I could never do that, Miss Alma.

  Alma Winemiller : I promised to write and keep you abreast of the events here at home. I did. You never answered.

• Alma Winemiller : She smiled at you. I hope that you have a strong character.

• John Buchanan, Jr : Wear a hat with a plume!

  Alma Winemiller : But, I haven't got a hat with a plume!

  John Buchanan, Jr : Well, get one!

• Alma Winemiller : I'm not angry. I'm just - mystified and amazed, as I always am, by unprovoked malice in people.

• Mrs. Winemiller : Look whose there. The boy you spy on.

  Alma Winemiller : Mother, hush.

• John Buchanan, Jr : What are you trying to say, Miss Alma?

  Alma Winemiller : Why, I'm just reprimanding you, sir. Castigating you verbally, as it were.

• Alma Winemiller : You act like a child, but you have a devil in you. And God will punish you! And I will punish you, too. I will take your cigarettes away from you and I will give you no more. And I will give you no more ice cream, either. Because, I am tired of your malice. I am tired of your malice and your self-indulgence!

• Alma Winemiller : You seem unusually laconic. Or, perhaps I should say, more than usually laconic.

• Alma Winemiller : I feel drowsy. I'm beginning to feel like - like a water lily on a Chinese lagoon.

• John Buchanan, Jr : Unbutton your blouse.

  Alma Winemiller : Unbutton?

  John Buchanan, Jr : Your blouse. Here. Let me. Little pearl buttons.

• Alma Winemiller : Have you ever seen or looked at the picture of a gothic cathedral?

  John Buchanan, Jr : What about it?

  Alma Winemiller : How everything reaches up. How everything seems to be - straining for something out of the reach of stone or human fingers. Have you ever thought to look up, John? Look up. Who was it who said that beautiful thing: All of us are in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars?

  John Buchanan, Jr : Mr. Oscar Wilde.

  Alma Winemiller : Well, regardless of who said it, it's still true.

• John Buchanan, Jr : I'm hunting an elusive bird, Miss Alma. The bluebird of satisfaction.

  Alma Winemiller : Self-satisfaction?

  John Buchanan, Jr : Well, what other kind is there?

• John Buchanan, Jr : Miss Alma, did you know that time is one side of the four-dimensional continuum we're caught in?

  Alma Winemiller : What?

  John Buchanan, Jr : Did you know that the Magellanic clouds are 100,000 light years away from the earth? No? Well, that's something to think about when you start worrying about your heart, Miss Alma. That little red fist that keeps knocking, knocking against that big black door. Stop worrying about your heart, Miss Alma.

• Roger Doremus : She found father.

  Alma Winemiller : She met your father on an Oriental tour?

  Roger Doremus : On the boat coming back from India. He had dysentery and she had the mumps and they were introduced in the infirmary.

  Alma Winemiller : Oh. Oh, how wildly romantic.

• John Buchanan, Jr : Some women are cold. Some women are what is called frigid.

  Alma Winemiller : Do I give that impression?

  John Buchanan, Jr : Yes. But under the surface, you have a lot of excitement - a great deal more than any other woman I've ever met. So much that you have to carry those sleepin' tablets with you. The question is why?

  [removes her hat] 

  John Buchanan, Jr : Miss Alma, Miss Alma, Miss Alma.

  [kiss] 

  Alma Winemiller : Not "Miss" anymore. Just Alma.

  John Buchanan, Jr : "Miss" suits you better, Miss Alma.

  [kiss] 

• Alma Winemiller : A minister's daughter is no different from any other young lady - who wishes to remember that she is a lady.

  John Buchanan, Jr : There are other things between a man and a woman besides respect. Did you know that, Miss Alma?

  Alma Winemiller : Yes.

  John Buchanan, Jr : There's such a thing as - conjugal relations.

  Alma Winemiller : Thank you for telling me that so frankly.

  John Buchanan, Jr : Some women surrender to the desires of their husbands - out of a sense of duty. Sheer duty. Go through life never knowing what a - what a beautiful, wonderful, exciting thing it can be.

  [kiss] 

  Alma Winemiller : But love is what you bring to it. There are some people who just bring their bodies. But there are some people - there are some women, John, who can bring their hearts to it, also. Who can bring their souls to it.

  [John lays Alma down and moves on top of her] 

  John Buchanan, Jr : Souls again? Your name is Alma. Alma is Spanish for soul.

  [kisses her forehead] 

  John Buchanan, Jr : Sometime, I'd like to show you. A chart of the human anatomy.

  [kisses her cheek] 

  John Buchanan, Jr : And maybe you can show me where that beautiful soul is located.

  [long kiss on her lips] 

  John Buchanan, Jr : You're trembling.

  Alma Winemiller : I can't help it.

• Alma Winemiller : I hope you're not waiting up on my account.

  Rev. Winemiller : Who could sleep with that Roman orgy going on next door?

• John Buchanan, Jr : I'm glad you ran away from me that night at the casino.

  Alma Winemiller : What?

  John Buchanan, Jr : If I'd have made love to you, I'd have felt guilty - guilty of desecration. Yes, isn't that funny? I'm more afraid of your soul. than you're afraid of my body.

• John Buchanan, Jr : Quiet! Now, listen to the anatomy lecture. This is the brain - which is hungry for something called truth. And doesn't get much, but keeps on feeling hungry. This middle is the belly - which is hungry for food.

  [points to the crotch] 

  John Buchanan, Jr : And here - hungry for love. Because it is sometimes lonesome. I've fed all three, As much of all three as I wanted or as much as I could. You've fed none! Nothing! Well, maybe your belly a little, But love or truth - nothing but hand-me-down notions, attitudes, poses! You can go now. The anatomy lecture's over.

  Alma Winemiller : So that is your high conception of human desires? What you have here is not the anatomy of a beast, but a man. And I reject your opinion of what love is and the kind of truth you believe the brain to be seeking. There's something not on that chart.

  John Buchanan, Jr : You mean the part that Alma's Spanish for, do you?

  Alma Winemiller : Yes - the soul. It's not shown on the anatomy chart, But it's there just the same. It's somewhere - not seen, but there. And it is *that* that I loved you with, John.

• Alma Winemiller : Sometimes it takes a tragedy like this to make a weak person strong.

  John Buchanan, Jr : More platitudes. You white-blooded spinster. You so-right people. Pious, pompous mumblers. Preachers and preachers' daughters. All muffled up in worn-out magic!

• Alma Winemiller : I made the beds. I washed the breakfast dishes. I phoned the market, sent the laundry out, peeled the potatoes, shelled the peas, and set the table for lunch. What more do you want?

• Rev. Winemiller : What am I gonna tell people who ask about you?

  Alma Winemiller : Tell them that I have changed - and you're waiting to see in what way.

  Rev. Winemiller : Are you going to stay like this indefinitely?

  Alma Winemiller : No, not indefinitely, But you may wish that I had!

• Alma Winemiller : The wind is penetrating this afternoon.

• John Buchanan, Jr : I've settled with life on fairly acceptable terms. Isn't that all a reasonable person can ask?

  Alma Winemiller : No. I think he can ask for much more. I think he can ask for the coming true of his most improbable dreams.

  John Buchanan, Jr : It's best not to ask for too much.

  Alma Winemiller : Oh, I disagree. I say ask for all. And, of course, be prepared to get nothing.

• Alma Winemiller : Forget about pride - whenever it stands between you and what you must have.

• Alma Winemiller : Oh, the tables have turned. Yes. The tables have turned with a vengeance.

• Alma Winemiller : I don't suppose its character has changed much.

  Archie Kramer : Just what was its character?

  Alma Winemiller : Gay, very gay, Mr. Kramer.

• Alma Winemiller : Yes. It had begun that early, this affliction of love, And it's never let go of me since, but it kept on growing until at last, tt's overwhelmed, possessed me. And tell me, how did I fail? Why didn't it happen between us? How can two people come so close and no closer?

• Alma Winemiller : I once said no. You may remember the time, with all that demented howling from the cockfight. But the girl who said no, she doesn't exist anymore.