The Feminine Touch (1941)
Van Heflin: Elliott Morgan
Photos
Quotes
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Nellie Woods : Sorry I'm not what you were expecting.
Elliott Morgan : What makes you think I'm expecting anybody?
Nellie Woods : What makes me think that dogs like liver?
Elliott Morgan : I don't get the analogy, but I expect it's very clever. It so happens that you're wrong; there's no one coming.
Nellie Woods : You're right. She's gone out with her husband.
Elliott Morgan : [feigning confusion] Uh... who has?
Nellie Woods : The liver.
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Shelley Mason : [introducing himself to Julie] And I'm Shelley Mason, the most distinguished and hated critic in America. You may look, but you mustn't touch.
Elliott Morgan : [to Shelley Mason] These are Professor and Mrs. Hathaway.
Shelley Mason : Professor of what?
John Hathaway : Psychology.
Shelley Mason : I never use it, I live by instinct.
John Hathaway : Obviously.
[Shelley gives him a nod]
Shelley Mason : [to Julie] At the moment it tells me that you're fascinated by me and want us to be alone.
Julie Hathaway : You better switch to psychology.
Shelley Mason : I adore difficult women. Come.
John Hathaway : Go along with him, Julie. Might be fun.
Julie Hathaway : Fun? For who?
Shelley Mason : For me... and for you. A welcome relief from your husband.
Julie Hathaway : I doubt it.
[they start to walk away]
Shelley Mason : I'm a dangerous and exciting man.
Julie Hathaway : At your age?
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Elliott Morgan : [referring to Shelley Mason] Well, how did you make out with Tugboat Annie?
Julie Hathaway : Oh, he said I was mentally backward and physically forward and he asked me to have tea with him alone tomorrow.
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Elliott Morgan : [from behind a closed door] She locked me in here.
Julie Hathaway : Maybe she knew what she was doing.
Elliott Morgan : Lady, whoever you are, you sound like a woman with an understanding heart.
Julie Hathaway : That's because I'm talking through a door.
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Elliott Morgan : You've a pretty low opinion of me, haven't you Nellie.
Nellie Woods : Oddly enough, no. I formed my opinion of you a *long* time ago, before you had a phobia to hide in. I thought that you were one of the smartest, most ambitious young men I'd ever known... then you grew a beard.
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Elliott Morgan : I'm a very sick man. I'm a hopeless neurotic as far as women are concerned. I have an incurable inferiority complex about them.
John Hathaway : Mm hmm. And just how does this complex manifest itself?
Elliott Morgan : Well, the moment I become attracted to a beautiful woman belonging to someone else, I feel inferior. The result is an irresistible compulsion to take that woman away from that man.
John Hathaway : Ah, and uh, Julie compels you, hmm?
Elliott Morgan : The strongest compulsion I've ever felt.
John Hathaway : Well, it's nice of you to warn me.
Elliott Morgan : Mm, well, I try to be decent.
John Hathaway : [as he strokes his chin, looking at Elliott's beard] But you're, uh, you're in for a tough time of it. You, uh, you haven't got a chance.
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Elliott Morgan : Hathaway, I wanna be honest with you. I am terribly attracted by your wife.
John Hathaway : In the first place, you have no intention of being honest. That's just part of your routine. In the second place, I imagine most men are attracted by Julie. What of it?
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Elliott Morgan : How are you enjoying the side show?
Julie Hathaway : Well, compared to the rest of them you seem almost normal. Oh, no, no, I.. I didn't mean that that way.
Elliott Morgan : Of course you did, and you're right. You see, I'm an honest neurotic. They're all more or less fakes.
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Julie Hathaway : Literary people are the strangest people.
Elliott Morgan : I'll get you a drink. You do sell and it helps.
John Hathaway : [looking around] A room full of living examples of what the mind can come to without discipline.
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Elliott Morgan : [looking at Julie, with John and Nellie there] Say, what about just the two of us having dinner tonight to celebrate, huh?... I mean the three of us... the four of us?
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Elliott Morgan : Beat it, Bond.
Freddie Bond : Mrs. Hathaway and I are thinking of going away together for a while.
Elliott Morgan : Bond, I am your only client. Unless you stop annoying this lady, you lose me.
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Elliott Morgan : Say, you've been very smug about your wife.
John Hathaway : You know, Julie might do you a lot of good.
Elliott Morgan : Why?
John Hathaway : A good, solid failure would help you, but, I, I think Julie might do more than that.
Elliott Morgan : Are you prescribing your wife for me?
John Hathaway : That's the general idea.
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John Hathaway : Yes, sir, you should see a lot my wife, Mr. Morgan. I can see your salvation in Julie.
Elliott Morgan : Professor Hathaway, I warn you: you're leading with your chin.
John Hathaway : [stroking his chin, again, looking at Elliott's beard] Uh, uh, not my chin... your chin.
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Brighton : May I ask, sir, were you expecting company this evening?
Elliott Morgan : Why? Most servants like an evening out occasionally.
Brighton : Begging your pardon, sir, in my case I would welcome an occasional evening in. In fact sir, I'm all in from going out.
Elliott Morgan : Well, then you won't have to go out tonight.
Brighton : Thank you, sir.
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Elliott Morgan : I thought this was a come-as-you-are party. Why haven't you a telephone in each hand and a knife in your teeth?
Nellie Woods : My knife is busy elsewhere: it's in your back.
[both chuckle menacingly]
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Elliott Morgan : Nellie, I want you to drop everything at the office and concentrate on John and the book night and day until it's finished.
John Hathaway : [to Julie] it's going to be pretty lonesome and boring for you.
Nellie Woods : Wanna bet on that?
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Elliott Morgan : Now, you said yourself she was out with her husband.
Nellie Woods : She probably pushed him in front of a taxicab just so she could be here with you. What is it you've got? Hypnotism, Yoga, or do you drop things in their coffee?
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Nellie Woods : It's probably your unalterable cheapness that gets them.
Elliott Morgan : Cheapness?
Nellie Woods : Oh, I won't elaborate on it.
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Elliott Morgan : I have been at the office.
Nellie Woods : Yes, three days ago... to cash a check.
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Julie Hathaway : [fidgeting, not paying attention to Elliott, but watching John talking with Nellie] John's just fascinated by her - she does things to him. She excites him.
Elliott Morgan : I'm... rather excited myself.
Julie Hathaway : She's got something I haven't got at all - can't even get. As a matter of fact, I wonder what John sees in her.
Elliott Morgan : I could explain if you'd only hold still a minute.
Julie Hathaway : Uh, let's go in.
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Julie Hathaway : I can't understand your not having seen it before - living in New York all your life.
Elliott Morgan : I was waiting to see the sights with you, and now we've seen 'em all, from Grant's Tomb to The Battery.
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Elliott Morgan : Why, you, you don't dare. I'd go to pieces. You know I'm neurotic.
Nellie Woods : Neurotic, my foot. There's nothing wrong with you that couldn't be cured with a good swift kick in the ego. You're no more neurotic than a pretzel.
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Elliott Morgan : [following Julie inside after failing to win her over] No feathers, no powder, no dust, no nothing - a perfect brush off.
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Julie Hathaway : How long have you known Miss Woods?
Elliott Morgan : Nellie? Forever! Why?
Julie Hathaway : She's very clever isn't she? I mean the way she practically runs your organization.
Elliott Morgan : Oh well, that's not very important.
Julie Hathaway : Well, maybe to you it isn't. You see, you're more like I am - not very clever and sort of un-mental...
Elliott Morgan : [looking insulted at first] Well, that, uh, gives us something in common.
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Elliott Morgan : Okay, I give up.
Julie Hathaway : Give up what?
Elliott Morgan : Forget it. You're a good girl, Julie. Boy, are you a good girl. And you're your husband's wife.
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Elliott Morgan : I always do what Nellie here says. She's sane and sound.
Nellie Woods : Good old Nellie here: sane and sound. One day they're going to put me out to pasture.
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Elliott Morgan : [after Nellie says she's quitting] Nellie, you, you can't do this to me.
Nellie Woods : To me, to me! I'm not doing it to anybody. I'm doing it for myself.
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Elliott Morgan : The fireflies won't parade for John.
Julie Hathaway : Maybe they will for Nellie.
Elliott Morgan : Julie, you're inhibiting me.
Julie Hathaway : Oh, I wouldn't inhibit you, even if I was sure what that meant. It's just that I'm not coming to your apartment tonight.
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Elliott Morgan : What did you do that for?
Julie Hathaway : To make him jealous. To test his love.
Elliott Morgan : Get your clothes on - this is a private home, not a testing ground.
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Nellie Woods : Elliott, will you get out of that bathroom?
Elliott Morgan : [yelling] Not till everybody calms down.
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Elliott Morgan : Nobody understands the truth. Everybody's too hysterical.
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Julie Hathaway : [the lights going out in a thunderstorm] What happened?
Elliott Morgan : I have just fallen down stairs.
Julie Hathaway : That was a silly thing to do.
Elliott Morgan : I always fall down stairs. It's fun.
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Julie Hathaway : [knocking on Elliott's bedroom door] Elliott?
Elliott Morgan : [from his bathroom] Whaddaya want?
Julie Hathaway : Where'd you put the sugar?
Elliott Morgan : Not in my bedroom. Get out!
[Julie sniffles and sits down on his bed with her coffee cup on a tray]
Elliott Morgan : What's that noise? Is there a dog in there?
Julie Hathaway : No, it's just me.
Elliott Morgan : Stop making noises. Get out of my bedroom.
Julie Hathaway : I'm crying, you big ape.
Elliott Morgan : Well, stop it!
Julie Hathaway : [sobbing and taking a sip of coffee] Wait'll John gets here and we'll all have a good cry.
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Julie Hathaway : Oh, darling, I'm so glad you're here. I can explain everything.
John Hathaway : I'm sure you can, besides your being here isn't important. Come out of there Elliott. I wanna talk to you.
Julie Hathaway : It isn't important?
Elliott Morgan : [yelling] I'm not coming out until everybody calms down. Everybody's being too hysterical.
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Elliott Morgan : [yelling from his bathroom] Get out of my bedroom.
Julie Hathaway : What do we care what Nellie thinks? She's the least of my troubles.
Nellie Woods , John Hathaway : [to John as she walks in with John behind her] Someday we'll sit down and have a nice long talk about your troubles.
Julie Hathaway : [running to hug him after the statement] John, you've come.
John Hathaway : Where's Elliott?
Nellie Woods : [pointing at the bathroom door and walking up to it] Come out you worm, and come out talking.
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Nellie Woods : [as John gets out of bed after his near drowning] Oh John, don't. What are you doing?
John Hathaway : I'm gonna beat Morgan.
Nellie Woods : Oh no.
John Hathaway : I'm gonna beat his face to a pulp.
Nellie Woods : [holding him back] No, John
Elliott Morgan : Nellie, stop him. He's gone mad.
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Elliott Morgan : I saw what has become of me. Here was a married, honest young woman in love with her husband, and here was a fake sophisticate who needed a beard like he needed a carbuncle. Trying to develop some fake charm - for what?
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John Hathaway : Where is your beard?
Elliott Morgan : What?
John Hathaway : What have you done with your beard?
Elliott Morgan : My beard? Oh, I shaved it off.
John Hathaway : Why?
Elliott Morgan : I got burned.
John Hathaway : Playing with fire no doubt.
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Elliott Morgan : Haven't I got a right to shave?
John Hathaway : Not under these circumstances.
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John Hathaway : [to Julie and Elliott] In the meantime, why don't the two of you take a nice long walk in the park?
Elliott Morgan : I'm allergic to grass.
Nellie Woods : And fresh air... and me.
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John Hathaway : Tell me, have you ever known a woman who trusted you?
Elliott Morgan : Yes, my mother. She...
Elliott Morgan : [as he stops in realizing his mother didn't] No, she never trusted me either.