Beware, My Lovely (1952)

Robert Ryan: Howard Wilton

Photos 

Quotes 

• Howard Wilton : [after Ruth has deliberately sprinkled debris on the floor he's just been cleaning, on his hands and knees]  You think I'm funny?

  Ruth Williams : Not particularly.

  Howard Wilton : I don't like being laughed at.

  Ruth Williams : Well, aren't *you* the bundle of nerves! Listen, you. I don't see many men around polishing floors. It's a woman's job. Who do you think you are? Seems to me there's better ways for a *man* to make a living.

• Howard Wilton : Mrs. Gordon...

  Mrs. Helen Gordon : Yes?

  Howard Wilton : Have I done anything to hurt you?

  Mrs. Helen Gordon : No. Of course you haven't.

  Howard Wilton : I'm glad. Because I wouldn't want to hurt you. But I might, you know.

  Mrs. Helen Gordon : I don't believe that. You're just not feeling well, that's all.

  Howard Wilton : [haltingly]  You don't know what it means... like I do... to find myself in the... middle of a room... the middle of a busy street... or in some house I'm working in. A thing like that happens, I wonder where I am... what I'm doing. And sometimes I'm... I'm looking down at someone... somebody that's been hurt. And they've been hurt very badly. And I wonder if *I've* done it, if what I'm looking at is real or, it's only in my mind. Then I begin to run. I hide. But I don't know what I'm hiding from. It's bad enough to hide, but... not to know what you're hiding from. There are days when I pick up a newspaper, and I see that somebody's been murdered. And I ask myself... could I have been there at that time? Could I have done this thing? Where was I yesterday? What causes these blank spaces? What causes them?

  Mrs. Helen Gordon : [frightened]  I don't know... I don't know... I don't know. Perhaps if we get a doctor...

  [makes a run for the door to get away]