No Highway in the Sky (1951)

Marlene Dietrich: Monica Teasdale

Photos 

Quotes 

• Monica Teasdale : Why did you pick me out when you decided to save someone?

  Theodore Honey : Oh, but you ought to live. I mean, the work you do, you should keep on doing it.

  Monica Teasdale : Oh, the work. No, I don't think I'll buy that. A few cans of celluloid in a junk heap someday. Has been fun, but that's about all.

• Monica Teasdale : I would have stopped working a long time ago if I could have figured out what to do with myself.

• Marjorie Corder : I'm afraid he's got some rather odd ideas.

  Monica Teasdale : He certainly has. He told me to sit on the floor in the men's room. If that's not an odd idea I'd like to meet one.

  Marjorie Corder : I think he was just telling you the best place to be if there was an accident.

  Monica Teasdale : At this altitude?

  Marjorie Corder : I think he's right about it being the safest place.

  Monica Teasdale : If he's right about that, he may be right about the tail falling off.

• Monica Teasdale : The scientist says the plane is going to crash, the captain says it's not. Your vote doesn't count because you have to side with the captain which means it's a tie.

  [the propellers slow] 

  Monica Teasdale : What's that?

  Marjorie Corder : He seems to be saving fuel.

  Monica Teasdale : He wouldn't do that without a reason.

• Monica Teasdale : We were going to take off, only he told them they shouldn't, and the lever was right there, he just pulled it. You've never seen such a commotion in your life. I guess a thing like that has never happened before in the history of the world.

• Theodore Honey : Oh there'll really be a delay for everybody now won't there?

  Marjorie Corder : I don't think there's any doubt about that. Tell me why...

  Monica Teasdale : [enters]  He did do it, didn't he?

  Marjorie Corder : Yes I'm afraid he did.

  Monica Teasdale : If you believe in something, you believe in doing something about it, don't you?

  Theodore Honey : Well they wouldn't listen to me and the lever was right there so I just *keh* pulled it.

  Monica Teasdale : That's sticking your neck out pretty far isn't it if you just thought it was going to crash?

  Theodore Honey : I tried to get them to ground the airplane, they wouldn't listen to me and the lever was right there so I just, I...

  Monica Teasdale : You just pulled it. Don't those things cost an awful lot of money?

  Theodore Honey : Oh a tremendous amount of money! This is going to cause a good deal of trouble.

  Monica Teasdale : I should think it might.

  Theodore Honey : I don't know what they're going to do. I've never had any experience with anything like this before.

  Monica Teasdale : I should think nobody has. I think this is a kind of world record.

• Theodore Honey : It's about the condition of this airplane, I'm afraid we're in very serious danger. I'm rather afraid that the tail may drop off at any moment. Now when that happens...

  Monica Teasdale : Is that so?

  Theodore Honey : Yes. When that happens, there may be a little time to go to the men's room and sit on the floor. The partition there is very rigid because the galley stove is bolted to the floor on the other side. If you survive the first impact, try to get out of the escape hatch and get on a life raft. They may pick you up when they search for us in the morning.

• Marjorie Corder : The altitutde, Miss Teasdale, sometimes causes a highly nervous state in certain passengers. I'm sure it had that effect on Mister Honey for a while but he's quiet now.

  Monica Teasdale : That's more than I am. There's about to be another passenger on this plane in a highly nervous state.

• Monica Teasdale : Just a minute, if I'm going to meet my Maker, I'd like to know about it.

• Theodore Honey : I estimated a required speed of 420 miles per hour to bring the forces into equilebrium. This can be obtained by a dominal flight path of 27 degrees below the horizontal. That angle would keep us from plunging straight in although at that speed the impact would be rather severe, see?

  Monica Teasdale : I see, I don't see it all of course, but I do understand that when you think something out, you don't stop halfway do you?

• Marjorie Corder : Miss Tesdale, would you like your coffee in your own seat?

  Monica Teasdale : No, put it over here. Oh as a matter of fact, let's go back there where we won't wake anybody no matter how much we talk. That way i can say my prayers if I feel like it.

• Monica Teasdale : All those people there, makes you wonder which one you would pick out to save if you were God, which one would matter much?

• Monica Teasdale : But you had a chance to play God for a little while, why did you pick me out?

  Theodore Honey : Oh but you ought to live, the work you do.

• Monica Teasdale : No, the work you do, if you could've finished that, all thse people and lots more wouldn't be in the spot they are in right now. That's the kind of work that hsould be finished.

• Monica Teasdale : All the people who'll come to my funeral, that'll be quite an occasion.

  Theodore Honey : Do you have a family, Miss Teasdale?

  Monica Teasdale : No, not even a husband at the moment, but there's my agent. oh he'll be so sad, he had five more years at 10%. Then there's Lorene Calvart, oh she'll cry the most. She'll give a beautiful performance, and then she'll try to get the part in the picture I was going to make. I suppose that's why I don't feel the way I thought I would.

• Monica Teasdale : Maybe Providence is trying to tell me something. Maybe it took a first-class high dive into the middle of the Atlantic to make me quit. But maybe I'd rather it ended with a big splash.

  Theodore Honey : No. No. You make people happy you've never even met. Like my wife Mary. You know she took me to see one of your pictures that last night before the bomb came. She talked about it a lot w hen we got home. You made that last night very happy for her. That's worth doing, Miss Teasdale. You know when we used to go to pictures, we used to walk right out when Mary didn't like them. We never walked out on one of your pictures.

  Monica Teasdale : Mister Honey, this is not really the best compliment I've ever had, maybe it's the nicest.

  Theodore Honey : That's why I had to tell you what I did. I have to do everything I can for you.

  Monica Teasdale : You mean it too, don't you?

  [cries] 

  Monica Teasdale : You scientists are always so busy figuring out things, why don't you figure out a mascara that won't run?

• Monica Teasdale : I've learned quite a lot about Mr. Honey and I know he isn't crazy like they're saying out there. That funny little man is brave and kind and on the level, and he believed what he was telling me. But even I can see it's going to be awfully easy to settle a lot of things by throwing him to the wolves, to say he's crazy and let it go at that. That's why I wanted to meet the people he worked for, to see if they're going to stand behind him, somebody has to.

• Airline Passenger : The one I like is where you kill your husband. That was just smashing!

  Monica Teasdale : Oh yes, I like that one too.

• Theodore Honey : I think we're quite near to the point of no return anyway.

  Monica Teasdale : The point of no return?

  Theodore Honey : That's where it's as short to go on as it is to turn back.

  Monica Teasdale : Oh, I thought you meant something else.

• Theodore Honey : I've always felt I owed you a great deal. Your pictures meant a lot to my wife and I - that's why I want to talk to you.

  Monica Teasdale : You're very kind.

• Monica Teasdale : Some more minutes - and each one is like kind of a present, isn't it?

• Monica Teasdale : Funny. I would have thought I'd feel quite differently being right up against it like this. My mind is going twice as fast, as though it were trying to catch up with all the thinking it didn't get around to.

• Monica Teasdale : I don't know much about mathematics, but I know when a man knows what he's talking about.

• Marjorie Corder : It looks as though he wears one suit and goes to sleep in the other. I don't know how long it can be since he bought something for himself.

  Monica Teasdale : I thought you were the one who thought a man shouldn't have things done for him.

  Marjorie Corder : That goes for his character, but not necessarily his trousers.

  Monica Teasdale : That's very domestic. You're full of surprises.

• Sir John - Director : I don't know whether Mr. Honey's right or wrong. Neither does Mr. Scott, any more than you do. There's no way of knowing. But that certainly doesn't mean we're going to back up Mr. Honey blindly. There's a matter called the truth which has to be served. It's a difficult thing, the truth, in a case like this. And the most I can promise you is we'll do our utmost to get at it. And we hope it's going to be on Mr. Honey's side.

  Monica Teasdale : Well, the truth is a good deal, anyway.

• Monica Teasdale : Don't you look pretty?

  Elspeth Honey : Am I really all right?

  Monica Teasdale : I've never seen an apple blossom look quite as sweet.

• Monica Teasdale : That's one thing you learn in my business - how to get off.

• Elspeth Honey : Hello, Miss Teasdale.

  Monica Teasdale : Look who's here. Sugar plum.

• Monica Teasdale : What got me was his being so anxious to save me for posterity. I've never had anything do my self-esteem so much good. So, I'd better go back and give posterity another break.

• Marjorie Corder : I wish you wouldn't go.

  Monica Teasdale : Maybe I'll be back. Never can tell.

• Monica Teasdale : I guess a thing like that has never happened before in the history of the world.

  Sir John - Director : Fortunately, no. Have you known Mr. Honey long?

  Monica Teasdale : No. I just met him last night, right after we took off. He came to tell me that he thought we were in trouble.

  Sir John - Director : But why should he want to alarm you when there was nothing you could do about it?

  Monica Teasdale : He thought there was something I could do. He gave me his reasons, and they were good enough for me.

  Sir John - Director : Did you believe him? What did he do? Explain his theory?

  Monica Teasdale : He did. And I believed him.

  Sir John - Director : Did you understand it?

  Monica Teasdale : Not a word.

  Sir John - Director : Then I don't understand.

  Monica Teasdale : Oh, it isn't so hard, Sir John. I don't know much about mathematics, but I know when a man knows what he's talking about.