Walk a Crooked Path (1969)

Tenniel Evans: John Hemming

Quotes 

• Elizabeth Hemming : That girl must go.

  John Hemming : Oh, why?

  Elizabeth Hemming : Isn't it obvious?

  John Hemming : Seems perfectly adequate.

  Elizabeth Hemming : Hm Perfectly - for a brothel. Happens to be a boys' boarding school. Mildred should never have engaged her while I was away.

  John Hemming : Mildred's been with us for years. We can hardly dismiss her niece without a good reason.

  Elizabeth Hemming : Reason? Girl's a menace. This hotbed of masculine puberty.

  John Hemming : I'm sure Mildred meant well.

  Elizabeth Hemming : I asked her to get me a housemaid, not a budding sex symbol.

  John Hemming : Is that really why you want to get rid of her?

  Elizabeth Hemming : What other reason would I have?

  John Hemming : The reason that she looked upon me with a moment's kindness.

  Elizabeth Hemming : That's a rotten thing to say.

• John Hemming : I have to mark these exercise books. Better do it upstairs, my study's in chaos.

  Elizabeth Hemming : Stank of stale tobacco and mildewed books.

  John Hemming : Is that why you put the painters in? Or was it to deprive me of my only refuge?

  Elizabeth Hemming : Your refuge?

  [scoffs] 

  Elizabeth Hemming : Alright, go on. Scuttle! Dodge the truth, as you always do.

  John Hemming : What truth?

  Elizabeth Hemming : Your failure! Seventeen years we've been at this school. Now we're trapped here for the rest of our lives and you don't even care. You've given up.

  John Hemming : So that's it. That's what this is all about. You've heard.

  Elizabeth Hemming : You've been passed over again. They're bringing in a headmaster from the outside and the first I hear about it is from others, in public.

  John Hemming : I'm sorry.

  Elizabeth Hemming : I was so sure you'd get it this time and everyone knew I was sure. And then you let me hear the news from them - junior masters' wives.

  John Hemming : I'm sorry.

  Elizabeth Hemming : Sorry? Sorry? Is that all you can say? My God! What kind of a creature are you?

  John Hemming : Elizabeth, may I go and mark my books now?

  Elizabeth Hemming : Oooh, mark your bloody books. It's about all you're good for.

  [the phone starts ringing]