Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

Marjorie Main: Katie (Maid)

Photos 

Quotes 

• Agnes Smith : Katie? Katie, where's my cat? Where is she?

  Katie (Maid) : I don't know. A little while ago, she got in my way and I kicked her down the cellar steps. I could hear her spine hitting on every step.

  Agnes Smith : Oh, if you killed her, I'll kill you! I'll stab you to death in your sleep, then I'll tie your body to two wild horses until you're pulled apart.

  Katie (Maid) : Oh, won't that be terrible, now? There's your cat.

• Esther Smith : Oh, Katie, they were just little white lies.

  Katie (Maid) : A lie's a lie. Dressin' it in white don't help it. And just why was I lying this time? Why must we have dinner an hour early?

  Esther Smith : Because Rose is expecting...

  Katie (Maid) : Now don't go blaming your sister.

  Esther Smith : Blaming her? Why, we're doing this for her. You know Rose's problem. Warren Sheffield has been writing to her for six months without one word that even smells like a proposal.

  Katie (Maid) : What's that got to do with having dinner an hour early?

  Esther Smith : Warren is telephoning Rose long-distance from New York at half-past six.

  Katie (Maid) : Long-distance?

  Esther Smith : Yes, and if the whole family is sitting here drinking in every word, she may be loathe to say the things a girl's compelled to say to get a proposal out of a man. If that man, unfortunately, is Warren Sheffield.

  Katie (Maid) : Personally, I wouldn't marry a man who proposed to me over an invention.

  Esther Smith : Well, we can't be too particular. While we love Rose, the brutal fact is that, well, she isn't getting any younger.

  Katie (Maid) : There's the poor old maid now!

• Agnes Smith : I can't get hungry till it gets dark.

  Katie (Maid) : Dinner's at five-thirty. You can eat blind-folded!

  Mrs. Anna Smith : We have to be out of the dining room by six-thirty. Warren Sheffield is telephoning Rose, long distance from New York. And Rose, if I were you, I wouldn't committ myself one way or another. After all...

  Rose Smith : Mama, for goodness sakes!

  Mrs. Anna Smith : After all, we know very little about him. Why, we haven't even met his folks.

  Rose Smith : It seems to me. It seems to me that one little phone call is causing an awful lot of excitement in this family!

  Mrs. Anna Smith : Besides, you're entirely too young and I don't think your father will allow it.

  Katie (Maid) : Mrs. Smith, if I have to keep lying to your daughters, I'll have to had more money.

  Mrs. Anna Smith : Now remember, you two: not a word of this to your papa. You know how he plagues the girls about their beaus.

  Agnes Smith : Everybody knows but Papa?

  Grandpa : Your papa's not supposed to know. It's enough we're letting him work hard every day to support the whole flock of us. He can't have everything.

• Katie (Maid) : Mrs. Smith, who are these boys?

  Agnes Smith : It's me, Katie, it's Agnes!

  Katie (Maid) : Saints preserve us, it is! You had me fooled!

  'Tootie' Smith : Mama, we fooled her!

  Mrs. Anna Smith : Well, if you can fool our Katie, you can fool anyone.

  Katie (Maid) : Agnes, I thought you were a drunken ghost.

  Agnes Smith : But I am. Tootie's a horrible ghost, and I'm a terrible drunken ghost.

  'Tootie' Smith : She was murdered in a den of thieves, and I died of a broken heart. I've never even been buried because everyone's scared to come near me.

• Grandpa : [moaning]  Ohhhhhhh.

  Katie (Maid) : What was that?

  Grandpa : Here are your sacks of flour.

  [Hand them to Tootie and Agnes] 

  Grandpa : You couldn't get me out on a night like this for a million dollars!

  Agnes Smith : Did anyone here a noise just now?

  Grandpa : Did it sound like this?

  [moans again] 

  Grandpa : Ohhhhhh?

  Agnes Smith : Uh-huh.

  Grandpa : [Shakes his head]  I didn't hear it.

  Grandpa : If you wet the flour before you throw it, it makes it harder for the victim to remove it.

• Mr. Alonzo Smith : Ah, corn beef and cabbage. Katie, I could smell that cabbage when I got off the trolley.

  Katie (Maid) : Cabbage has a cabbage smell.

• Katie (Maid) : Would it start a minor revolution in this household if dinner was served an hour early today?

  Mrs. Anna Smith : Mr. Smith hates to eat early on a hot day.

  Katie (Maid) : Eating early on a hot day gives you more time to digest your food before retiring. Besides, I'm due at my sister's at seven o'clock on a family matter.

  Mrs. Anna Smith : Is there something wrong with your sister?

  Katie (Maid) : She's having trouble with her husband. Him bein' a man.

  Mrs. Anna Smith : Well, eating early is all right with me, but you'll have to explain it to Mr. Smith.

  Katie (Maid) : Oh, he won't mind, seein' as how tonight's corn beef night.

• Katie (Maid) : Anybody want dessert?

  Mr. Alonzo Smith : Dessert? What happened to dinner?

  Katie (Maid) : I didn't think anybody could eat meat on a hot day like this!

• [first lines] 

  Mrs. Anna Smith : [tastes ketchup]  Best ketchup we ever made, Katie.

  Katie (Maid) : [tastes ketchup]  Too sweet.

  Mrs. Anna Smith : Mr. Smith likes it all the sweet side.

  Katie (Maid) : All men like it on the sweet side. Too sweet, Mrs. Smith.