The Farmer's Daughter (1947)

Loretta Young: Katrin Holstrom

Photos 

Quotes 

• [wildly cheering crowd on the political convention floor] 

  Katrin Holstrom : What are they yelling about?

  Joseph Clancy : These days they yell for anything.

  Katrin Holstrom : Anything?

  Joseph Clancy : Sure, they'll scream if you yell "Fish for sale!"

  Katrin Holstrom : Aw, no.

  Joseph Clancy : [Stands up and yells]  Fish for sale!

  [the crowds roars] 

• Katrin Holstrom : Ladies and Gentlemen, tonight I want to ask you for the most precious thing you own: your vote.

• Ward C. Hughes : Tell us what kind of a representative you'd like.

  Katrin Holstrom : Someone who'd represent. No, no, I mean represent all of us. To me, once a person is elected to office, he has a great duty to all the people. He shouldn't just represent the men who, who gave money to his advertisements and campaign, and he shouldn't be in office just to serve just the politicians. He should serve the people. He should know what the people want, and vote for what they want.

• Glenn Morley : She doesn't know anything about politics. How can she, I ask you, be expected to give of such things as the minimum wage bill, the full employment bill, the Missouri Valley, the Columbia Valley authorities amendments, the permanent MBPC, atomic bomb control, poll tax, national... , well a hundred other things.

  Katrin Holstrom : Can you?

  Glenn Morley : That's beside the point. I am already a congressman.

• Katrin Holstrom : [Clearing her throat, then reading]  Mr. President: Today I don't want to make a speech. I want to tell you a story about a doctor named Sorenson, who lived in a small town. He was a good doctor, but the rich people in this town didn't like him because he told them the truth a little too often about their imaginary sicknesses.

  [She looks up at Clancy, who smiles and motions her to go on] 

  Katrin Holstrom : Things got bad for Dr. Sorenson, and he moved across the tracks to the poor section of town where people needed him, but didn't have the money to pay.

  [Clancy listens carefully. Katrin takes a deep breath and continues] 

  Katrin Holstrom : He worked for them, anyhow. They would give him a bottle of milk when he cured a sore throat, or a loaf of bread when be set a broken leg. Dr. Sorenson couldn't afford a regular office. He practiced in the room he lived in, upstairs over a livery stable. The shingle outside was a simple little sign that read: "DR. SORENSON UPSTAIRS."

  [She smiles. The U.L.C. doors open, and Mrs. Morley appears. Motioning Clancy to stay seated, she indicates for Katrin to go on as she listens from the doorway] 

  Katrin Holstrom : Well, even doctors get sick. And after working years with these poor people, Dr. Sorenson got sick and he died, and all those people who loved him, and whom he loved, buried him. They wanted to put up a big, marble monument, but they just couldn't afford it. So they took the sign from the stable, and put it over the doctor's grave. There it stood, and that was his monument.

  [pause] 

  Katrin Holstrom : "DR. SORENSON-UPSTAIRS."

  [She smiles tenderly] 

  Katrin Holstrom : Today a President has died. Only a short time ago his dream, the League of Nations, was killed by people who couldn't stand the truth. But his dream shall not perish from the earth. It will live in the hearts of good, common people. For over the President's grave the people have placed their everlasting monument which-like the doctor's-reads simply; "WOODROW WILSON-UPSTAIRS."

  [Mere is silence for a moment, then Mrs. Morley applauds. Clancy, standing up, joins her. Katrin is pleased, but embarrassed. She bows her thanks] 

• Agatha Morley : What do you do, Katrin?

  Katrin Holstrom : Well, at home I do everything. Make six beds every morning. Do washing, ironing for mama, papa, my three brothers, myself. Clean all seven rooms and do dishes of course. And, I help mama with the canning. I preserve meat, candle eggs, dill pickles, smoke ham and bacon. I wait on tables - 40 hands at harvest time. And I make glogg.

  Agatha Morley : You do?

  Katrin Holstrom : Yah, at Christmas time, with a hot poker. You want to know what I do outside?

  Glenn Morley : I don't know about my mother, but I'd be fascinated.

  Katrin Holstrom : Well, I plow with horse and tractor. I hoe potatoes, shock wheat, milk cows, bed horses, butcher pigs, kill and dress chickens, and I cut wood for mill and stove.

  Agatha Morley : You've got a job, Katrin.

• Van : [to Katrin]  Your friend Schmiztlap was strictly second rate.

  Katrin Holstrom : Oh no sir. Mr Schmiztlap was not second rate. He was first rate with a second rate party.

  Van : Boing.