Stage Door (1937)

Katharine Hepburn: Terry Randall

Photos 

Quotes 

• Terry Randall : [delivering her opening speech in the play within the movie]  The calla lilies are in bloom again. Such a strange flower, suitable to any occasion. I carried them on my wedding day and now I place them here in memory of something that has died.

• Terry Randall : I see that, in addition to your other charms, you have that insolence generated by an inferior upbringing.

  Jean Maitland : Hmm! Fancy clothes, fancy language and everything!

  Terry Randall : Unfortunately, I learned to speak English correctly.

  Jean Maitland : That won't be of much use to you here. We all talk pig latin.

• Terry Randall : [With a superior air, leaving the crowded living room of girls after many snappy wisecracks and lively banter among the group]  It'd be a terrific innovation if you could get your minds stretched a little further than the next wisecrack.

• Terry Randall : [giving her curtain speech at the end of a trimphant opening night performance of the play within the movie]  The person you should be applauding died a few hours ago. I hope that wherever she is, she knows and understands and forgives.

• Terry Randall : [entering the boarding house after trying the wrong door]  How many doors are there to this place?

  Jean Maitland : Well, there's the trap door, the humidor, and the cuspidor. How many doors would you like?

• Jean Maitland : Do you mind if I ask a personal question?

  Terry Randall : Another one?

  Jean Maitland : Are these trunks full of bodies?

  Terry Randall : Just those, but I don't intend to unpack them.

• Jean Maitland : We could leave the trunks here and sleep in the hall. There's no use crowding the trunks.

  Terry Randall : [meeting sarcasm with sarcasm]  I don't know what we're going to do when the wolf hounds arrive. I hope you don't mind animals.

  Jean Maitland : Oh, not at all. I roomed with a great many of them before.

• Terry Randall : The trouble with you is you're all trying to be comics. Don't you ever take anything seriously?

  Judy Canfield : After you've sat around for a year trying to get a job, you won't take anything seriously either.

  Terry Randall : Well, do you have to just sit around and do nothing about it?

  Judy Canfield : Maybe it's in the blood. My grandfather sat around until he was 80.

  Terry Randall : Well, my grandfather didn't. And if he and a lot of others hadn't crossed the country in a covered wagon, there'd still be Indians living in Wichita.

  Eve : Who do you think's living there now?

• Terry Randall : Anyhow, I wanted to show that I could act.

  Anthony Powell : You are a faker!

  Terry Randall : Oh, we're both fakers. Isn't faking the essence of acting?

  Anthony Powell : Well, it may apply to acting, but it does not apply to me.

  Terry Randall : You, you're a bigger faker than I am.

  Anthony Powell : That's libel!

  Terry Randall : Not if I can prove it.

• Kay Hamilton : Here, you sit down and I'll get you some tea.

  Terry Randall : The condemned woman drank her hearty supper.

  Kay Hamilton : I felt the same way. I felt like running and hiding from everyone. But, after that opening speech, there's a thrill you'll never forget. It's a thrill that only comes once.

  Terry Randall : Thrill? I can't make out whether it's a thrill or agony.

  Kay Hamilton : It's both.

• Terry Randall : You sound very superior. What have you ever done in the theater?

  Eve : Everything but burst out of a pie at a Rotarian banquet.

• Jean Maitland : Did you ever dance with one of those Seattle romeos?

  Terry Randall : Maybe. I don't remember.

  Jean Maitland : Well, if you did, you'd remember it all right.

  Terry Randall : Why do you go out with them?

  Jean Maitland : I'll bite, why do I? They not only jump on you but they bore you to death.

• Jean Maitland : Why don't you sell some of those clothes and live in a decent place?

  Terry Randall : Isn't this a decent place?

  Jean Maitland : No!

• Jean Maitland : Why shouldn't I go out with him? I think he's very charming.

  Terry Randall : So are snakes.

• Anthony Powell : Do you ever stop asking questions?

  Terry Randall : I just like to know why...

  Anthony Powell : You don't have to know anything. I'll do the talking.

• Terry Randall : I'm not an emotional person.

  Anthony Powell : You will be when I get through with you. I'll mold you into one.

  Terry Randall : I don't want to be molded! I believe in acting with my brain.

  Anthony Powell : Well, I'll mold you one of those also.

• Terry Randall : Tony, darling, control yourself.

  Anthony Powell : Don't Tony darling me!

• Anthony Powell : You mean you'd jeopardize your own reputation? Aren't you a kind of a Girl Scout?

  Terry Randall : Just a girl who uses her brain.

• Terry Randall : There's an old saying that you don't have to be a hen to know a bad egg.

• Anthony Powell : Miss Randall, I'll have to ask you to pay attention to the Director.

  Terry Randall : Well, what am I supposed to do? Walk around like a puppet or use my intelligence?

  Anthony Powell : You're to do what your told!

  Terry Randall : Don't yell at me!

  Anthony Powell : I am yelling at you!

• Eve : I'll never put my trust in males again.

  Terry Randall : What happened to Eve?

  Jean Maitland : She's brokenhearted. Henry's in a cat hospital.

  Terry Randall : An accident?

  Jean Maitland : He just had a litter of kittens.

  Terry Randall : Well, that's easy to solve. Change his name to Henrietta.

• Susan : Hang onto your chairs girls, we're going to get another load of Shakespeare.

  Terry Randall : Is it against the rules of the house to discuss the classics?

  Eve : No. Go right ahead. I won't take my sleeping pill tonight.

• Miss Luther : I can't tell you how interested I was in your discussion of "Twelfth Night." It was so intelligent.

  Terry Randall : Oh, thank you very much. I'm afraid that the rest of the inmates didn't share your enthusiasm.

  Miss Luther : Barbarians! They've had no training, my dear, no training!

• Terry Randall : I'm beginning to feel that there's something definitely wrong with me.

  Kay Hamilton : You're different, that's all.

  Terry Randall : Well, now, why? I eat the same food. I sleep in the same kind of bed. I've even got a crease across my back from that lumpy mattress. And I'm doing my best to pick up their slang. Though, I'm not so hot. How's that? Not so hot!