Lifeboat (1944)

Tallulah Bankhead: Connie Porter

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Connie Porter : Dying together's even more personal than living together.

• Connie Porter : [last lines, translating the German soldier's words]  He said "Aren't you going to kill me?"

  Stanley 'Sparks' Garrett : "Aren't you going to kill me?" What are you gonna do with people like that?

  John Kovac : I dunno. I was thinking of Mrs Higley and her baby. And Gus.

  Connie Porter : Well, maybe they can answer that.

• Connie Porter : [On the tattoos on Kovac's chest, especially the heart with the letters B.M]  Her initials are larger than the others. Was she the last or the first? What was her name?

• Willy : [fixing her diamond bracelet]  Looks like bits of ice.

  Connie Porter : I wish they were.

  Willy : They're really nothing but a few pieces of carbon crystallized under high pressure at great heat.

  Connie Porter : Quite so, if you want to be scientific about it.

  Willy : I'm a great believer in science.

  Connie Porter : Like tears, for instance. They're nothing but H2O with a trace of sodium chloride.

• John Kovac : [to Ritt]  What do you know about a ship?

  Connie Porter : Among other things, he just happens to own a shipyard, that's all.

  John Kovac : Has he ever been in it?

• John Kovac : As of now I'm skipper, and anybody who don't like it can get out and swim to Bermuda. What about that?

  Gus Smith : I'll buy it.

  Stanley 'Sparks' Garrett : Suits me. What about you, Miss?

  Alice MacKenzie : I'm for it.

  George 'Joe' Spencer : Yes, sir!

  Charles D. 'Ritt' Rittenhouse : Well, if the rest agree.

  Connie Porter : All right, Commissar, what's the course?

• Connie Porter : [Referring to using her bejeweled bracelet as fish bait]  I can reccomend the bait. I know... I bit on it myself.

• [first lines] 

  [indistinct shouting] 

  John Kovac : Ahoy there!

  [climbs into boat] 

  John Kovac : Lady, you certainly don't look like somebody that's just been shipwrecked.

  Connie Porter : Man, I certainly feel like it.

• Connie Porter : [about Willy]  He's not like us! He's made of iron, we're just flesh and blood! Hungry and thirsty flesh and blood!

  [doubles over sobbing in hunger] 

• [while Kovac and Ritt are playing poker, Connie inspects the numerous tattoos on Kovac's chest and arms] 

  Connie Porter : What are those letters on your diaphragm?

  John Kovac : Love letters.

  Connie Porter : Oh, you believe in advertising.

  John Kovac : Open.

  Connie Porter : Never could understand this quaint habit of making a billboard out of one's torso.

  Charles D. 'Ritt' Rittenhouse : Stay.

  John Kovac : Three cards.

  Connie Porter : I must say you've shown the most commendable delicacy in just tattooing the initial... not printing the names, addresses and telephone numbers.

  John Kovac : Open.

  Charles D. 'Ritt' Rittenhouse : Nines?

  John Kovac : Queens.

  Connie Porter : See, how many are there? One, two, three, four, five.

  John Kovac : Remind me to show you the rest of them sometime.

• Charles D. 'Ritt' Rittenhouse : I thought everybody was killed. I never expected to see you alive.

  Connie Porter : You know I'm practically immortal, Ritt.

• Gus Smith : Hi ya, babe.

  Connie Porter : Hi, Toots.

  Gus Smith : Give us a kiss, ma'am.

• Connie Porter : [speaking of the disaster]  Reminds me of an air raid once that hit me in Chunking.

  John Kovac : Reminds me of a slaughterhouse I once worked in in Chicago. Those Nazi buzzards - a tin fish ain't enough. They've got to shell us too!

• Connie Porter : What part of the ship are you from, darling?

  John Kovac : Engine Room. I was off duty in the Wash Room, thanks, caught with my - I was washing my hands when the torpedo snagged us.

• Gus Smith : [sees someone in the water with the hands on the side of the lifeboat]  Hey, look. Another customer.

  [lifeboat passengers pull him aboard] 

  Charles D. 'Ritt' Rittenhouse : Where did he come from?

  Connie Porter : Is he a crew member?

  John Kovac : I never saw him before.

  George 'Joe' Spencer : Not off our boat.

  Willy : [he speaks]  Danke schoen.

• Mrs. Higley : Where's Johnny? Where's my baby? What have you done with him? What did you do with my baby?

  Connie Porter : You're baby's dead. Don't you remember?

• Charles D. 'Ritt' Rittenhouse : Connie, will you keep the ship's log?

  Connie Porter : Righto, Ritto. Providing I control the copyrighting and all publication rights - including the Scandinavian.

• Connie Porter : Kovac, you know something about machinery, don't you?

  John Kovac : I little.

  Connie Porter : [shows him her bracelet]  See if you can fix this clasp.

• Charles D. 'Ritt' Rittenhouse : Now children, let's keep our shirts on.

  John Kovac : I haven't got a shirt. Or, a mink coat either.

  Connie Porter : Oh, I get it. A fellow traveler. I thought the Comintern was dissolved.

• Connie Porter : Darling, you want to live, don't you?

  Gus Smith : Not with one leg.

  John Kovac : Don't be a sap, Gus.

  Gus Smith : You don't understand.

  John Kovac : Sure I do: Rosie.

  Connie Porter : What's Rosie got to do with it?

  Gus Smith : Everything. If I lose my leg, I lose Rosie.

  Connie Porter : Of course, I don't know Rosie.

  Gus Smith : She loves to dance. It's her hobby. It's her whole life. Put yourself in her place. Do you like to dance?

  Connie Porter : Mad about it.

  Gus Smith : Well, then, what's good a hep-cat with one gam missin'?

• Connie Porter : Now, you listen to me. I don't know Rosie. But, I know women. Some of my best friends are women. And one of them's - that kind of a...

  Gus Smith : What kind of a?

  Connie Porter : Well, a independent creature who lives her own life.

  Gus Smith : That's Rosie all over.

  Connie Porter : With a heart of gold! And she gives it away.

• Alice MacKenzie : I wasn't particularly anxious to get to London.

  Connie Porter : What are you afraid of in London?

  Alice MacKenzie : Myself. I mean, it's a personal problem. In other words, I...

  Connie Porter : I know, darling. I know. Genus Homo. Male.

  Alice MacKenzie : And married. But, not to me.

  Connie Porter : You call that a problem?

  Alice MacKenzie : It is to me.

  Connie Porter : Fiddlesticks.

• Connie Porter : You may call me Connie. You did once, during the storm, remember? You said, "We might as well go down together, eh, Connie." I liked the way you said Connie. Was like a sock in the jaw.

• Connie Porter : You're a low person, darling. Obviously, out of the gutter. Maybe that's why I'm attracted to you. Maybe that's why you're attracted to me.

  John Kovac : Quit slumming.

  Connie Porter : The funny part of it is, I'm from the same gutter.

• Connie Porter : In a word: wow!

• Connie Porter : You may be skipper of this lifeboat, but you're not dictator. Or, are you?

• Connie Porter : I don't want to pry into your personal affairs, darling. But, do you know what's the matter with you? You've been reading Kipling: "The sins ye do by two and two, we must pay for one by one."

• Connie Porter : That was a dead give away, you know, darling. Wanting us to - die together like that. Dying together's even more personal than living together.

• Connie Porter : And what now, little men?