It's Love I'm After (1937)

Bette Davis: Joyce Arden

Quotes 

• Marcia West : [about Basil]  I don't think there are words to describe him, do you?

  Joyce Arden : Well, there probably are, but one would have to have a very extensive vocabulary.

• Joyce Arden : You're going to have love for breakfast, love for lunch and love for dinner. Sweet, sticky, sugary worship. You're going to live on a steady diet of it till you're ready to scream - you billy goat!

• Joyce Arden : If you knew what I was thinking, you'd shrivel where you stand.

• Joyce Arden : Oh, Madeleine. I don't understand how a man I'm so crazy about can take such a delight in tormenting me!

• Basil Underwood : Joyce, I'm a desperate man. If you don't open this door I'll kill myself.

  Joyce Arden : Good! Let's have blood and destruction!

• Basil Underwood : Alright Joyce, I'm reaching for my gun.

  Joyce Arden : Wait, I believe the trigger's at the rear end.

• Joyce Arden : As you leave the theatre this evening, that distasteful blotch you will see to the left of the stage door will be all that remains of our ex-doorman! And I wish I could do the same for you, you billy-goat!

• Joyce Arden : You thing! You unutterable!

• Marcia West : What right has she to talk that way to me?

  Joyce Arden : Practically none. Wives have so few rights nowadays.

  Marcia West : Your wife?

  Basil Underwood : Yes, my wife...

  [looking at Joyce] 

  Basil Underwood : ... wonderful.

• Joyce Arden : I'm through, you hear me? I'm through.

  Basil Underwood : How modest of you to admit that, sweetheart.

  Joyce Arden : No, I mean with you.

• Joyce Arden : After all, Washington did free the slaves.

  Basil Underwood : What's that got to do with it?

• Joyce Arden : Has that tongue of yours finally fallen out of your mouth?

• Joyce Arden : Are you ego maniac enough to think that I could be jealous of you? From head to foot, I'm one quivering mass of lonely. I shall never speak to you again.

• Basil Underwood : Joyce, darling, please open the door. I'm going to show you a new side of me.

  Joyce Arden : I've seen every side of you and I'm not interested in any of this.

• Basil Underwood : Joyce!

  Joyce Arden : What?

  Basil Underwood : Sweetheart.

  Joyce Arden : Darling.

  Basil Underwood : Dearest darling.

  Joyce Arden : Sweetheart.

  Basil Underwood : I can't bear it. I forgive you.

  Joyce Arden : And I forgive you, too.

• Joyce Arden : Do you really love me so much?

  Basil Underwood : With all my heart and my soul. You're all women in one and the one woman.

  Joyce Arden : I know that's from the first act of... but darling, darling. Say it again.

• Basil Underwood : No, you say something nice to me.

  Joyce Arden : Dearest, I think you're the lowest thing that ever crawled, but as long as I can reach out and get my hands on you, no other man will ever touch me.

  Basil Underwood : Thank you. Thank you.

• Joyce Arden : I don't suppose it could be any more miserable married to you than the way I am.

• Basil Underwood : I resent the implication, Digges, as if we don't know our own minds.

  Digges : It's just that you've approached the precipice so often, sir.

  Joyce Arden : I resent that precipice, Digges.

• Joyce Arden : Basil, are you standing me up again?

  Basil Underwood : Now, now, don't get excited. You know what it does to you.

  Joyce Arden : You thing. You unutterable...

  Basil Underwood : Joyce, remember your glands.

  Joyce Arden : If I hadn't been hypnotized, I'd have known you'd do this to me again.

  Basil Underwood : You see, I, I, I've gotta go do a favor for a friend.

• Digges : [On the phone to Joyce]  Oh, Miss Joyce. You've got to help him. He's in a terrible jam.

  Joyce Arden : I hope he's wallowing in lovely, gooey jam up to his donkey head.

• Joyce Arden : You cad. You can't even be on the level about killing yourself.

• Basil Underwood : Why are you grinning like a Berkshire kitten?

  Joyce Arden : Cheshire, darling.

  Basil Underwood : Well, Cheshire then.

  Joyce Arden : And I do resent being called a cat.

  Basil Underwood : I didn't. I called you a kitten.

  Joyce Arden : Well, kittens turn into cats.

• Joyce Arden : You're going to long for a good brawl, but she won't fight.

• Joyce Arden : [to Basil as she leaves for a garden stroll with William West]  Wouldn't it be amusing if I came back as your mother-in-law?

• Aunt Ella : What Happened?

  Henry Grant, Jr. : I knocked him cold.

  Aunt Ella : Why, this is terrible.

  Joyce Arden : He dislikes being knocked out. Miss Paisley, let's have dinner.

• Joyce Arden : I think I'm going to scream!

  Basil Underwood : Now, Joyce...

  Joyce Arden : I'm sure I'm going to scream! Ahhhh!

  Basil Underwood : Now Joyce remember your glands!

  Joyce Arden : You leave my glands out of this!

• Basil Underwood : We'll be married tomorrow!

  Joyce Arden : Not to me you won't! Not tomorrow or tomorrow, or tomorrow!