The Age of Consent (1932)

John Halliday: David

Quotes 

• Prof. David Mathews : Maybe I can help you. We had our problems when I went to school, you know.

  Michael 'Mike' Harvey : Yes. But things were different in those days.

  Prof. David Mathews : Oh, I don't know. We had the same campus and automobiles. And if I remember correctly we had women also. They are quite a problem, you know.

  Michael 'Mike' Harvey : Yes. But girls are wilder than they were then.

  Prof. David Mathews : Yes, I suppose so.

  Michael 'Mike' Harvey : They can smell a good time three blocks away. If a fellow doesn't happen to be fixed so that he can give them a good time. They find it someplace else.

• Michael 'Mike' Harvey : It's all a matter of age.

  Prof. David Mathews : See here, young man. I'm beginning to dislike that word.

• Michael 'Mike' Harvey : Did they hold fraternity dances in your day?

  Prof. David Mathews : Yes indeed.

  Michael 'Mike' Harvey : I don't suppose things have chanced much at that.

  Prof. David Mathews : No, not much. Only we used to spark instead of neck.

• Prof. David Mathews : It is a terrible pity Mr Swale that things happened the way they have. But how would it make things right to force them to marry? Just because the social system ignores the natural impulses of the young.

  Mr. Swale - Dora's father : So that's it, eh? So that is what you teach them in college. Well, what about the sanctity of the home? What about the marriage laws?

• Prof. David Mathews : Mr Swale, marriage wasn't intended to ruin people's lives. It was intended to bring them happiness.

  Mr. Swale - Dora's father : What do I care about her happiness? I am thinking about what is right and what's wrong. I've tried to be decent about this thing. I don't want to drag my daughter's name in the gutter. And if you want to, we'll let the newspapers decide whether it is right for a low dog to come into a man's house and ruin his daughter's honor. And while we're about it, we'll have them print the kind of stuff being taught at the university. Boys and girls learning that morals is all wrong. That the church is all wrong and that they don't have to marry.

  Prof. David Mathews : Oh, Mr Swale, you misunderstood.

  Mr. Swale - Dora's father : Oh no, I didn't. I ain't been to college but I understand the English language.

• Prof. David Mathews : Sorry, Michael.

  Michael 'Mike' Harvey : It's alright, Prof. It's just life I guess and I got to go through with it.