Laura 1944 quotes

Laura

By stooping so low, you only degrade yourself, Waldo.

Lydecker

Did you know that he almost went to jail for passing rubber checks? That he was suspected of stealing his hostess' jewels when he was a house guest in Virginia?...

Laura

What of it? I know his faults. A man can change, can't he? People are always ready to hold out a hand to slap you down but never to pick you up. All right, I'm helping Shelby. His past is his own affair. I only care about the present.

Lydecker

Speaking of the changed Mr. Carpenter in the present tense, he's now running around with a model from your own office. Her name is Diane Redfern.

Laura

I'm closer to despising you than I thought I ever would be... I'm sorry. I should have told you before. Shelby and I are going to be married, next week.

Lydecker

I believe you presented him with a cigarette case on his last birthday. Rather valuable, isn't it?

Laura

Where did you get it?

Lydecker

From the pawn shop where Diane Redfern took it after he gave it to her.

Laura

I don't believe it. He probably needed money and was too proud to borrow.

Lydecker

Carpenter proud? Perhaps that's why the pawn ticket was in her name.

Laura

Before this goes any further, well, I'll just... [She dials the phone for Shelby at his home]

Lydecker

He isn't home. He's dining at Anne Treadwell's.

Laura

He can't be. He asked me to dinner.

Lydecker

He would have cancelled his appointment with her if you had accepted. He treats her rather badly these days. [Laura begins dialing Anne's number] I'm afraid she'll say he isn't there.

Laura

Waldo? Why are you doing this?

Lydecker

For you, Laura.

Laura

I'm not alone. [She looks back toward Lydecker]

Shelby

Oh him! I thought he's still doin' the polka.

Lydecker

Excuse me, please. Yes, Betsy Ross taught it to me.

Laura

What are you doing here?

McPherson

You're alive.

Laura

If you don't get out at once, I'm going to call the police.

McPherson

You are Laura Hunt, aren't you? Aren't you?

Laura

I'm going to call the police.

McPherson

I am the police.

Lydecker

Don't worry, darling. Let them accuse you. We'll fight them. I have every weapon. Money, connections, prestige, and my column. Every day, millions will read about you and rally to your defense.

McPherson

You talk as if you wanted to see her tried for murder.

Lydecker

Yes, rather than let you blacken her name with suspicions and rumors. Try to prove her guilty. Get on the witness stand with your poor shreds of evidence. I'll expose your cheap methods you used on her.

Lydecker

Have you ever been in love?

McPherson

A doll in Washington Heights once got a fox fur out of me.

Lydecker

Did you ever know a woman who wasn't a doll or a dame?

McPherson

Yeah, one. But she kept walking me past furniture windows to look at the parlor suites.

Lydecker

Would you mind turning that off?

McPherson

Why? Don't you like it?

Shelby

It was one of Laura's favorite. Not exactly classical but sweet.

Lydecker

Haven't you any sense of privacy?

McPherson

Murder victims have no claim to privacy.

Lydecker

Have detectives who buy portraits of murder victims a claim to privacy?...McPherson, did it ever strike you that you're acting very strangely? It's a wonder you don't come here like a suitor with roses and a box of candy - drugstore candy, of course. Have you ever dreamed of Laura as your wife, by your side at the Policeman's Ball or in the bleachers? Or listening to the heroic story of how you got a silver shinbone from a gun battle with a gangster? ...I see you have.

McPherson

Why don't you go home? I'm busy.

Lydecker

In my case, self-absorption is completely justified. I have never discovered any other subject quite so worthy of my attention.

Laura

But you write about people with such real understanding and sentiment. That's what makes your column so good.

Lydecker

The sentiment comes easy at 50 cents a word.

Laura

Well, if that's the way you really feel, you must be very lonely.

Lydecker

Will you kindly continue this character analysis elsewhere? You begin to bore me.

Laura

You're a poor man. I'm very sorry for you.

Lydecker

It still doesn't make sense to me, Laura. He's playing some sort of a game with you.

Laura

I don't think so.

Lydecker

I don't deny that he's infatuated with you in some warped way of his own. But he isn't capable of any normal, warm, human relationship. He's been dealing with criminals too long. When you were unattainable, when he thought you were dead, that's when he wanted you most.

Laura

But he was glad when I came back as if he were waiting for me.

Lydecker

Do you know what he calls women? 'Dames.' 'A dame in Washington Heights got a fox fur out of him.' His very words.

Laura

That doesn't mean anything. He isn't like that.

Lydecker

Laura, you have one tragic weakness. With you, a lean strong body is the measure of a man. And you always get hurt.

Laura

No man is ever going to hurt me again. No one. Not even you.

Lydecker

I? Hurt you? Laura - look at me. When a man has everything in the world that he wants, except what he wants most, he loses his self-respect. It makes him bitter, Laura. He wants to hurt someone as he's been hurt. You were a long time finding out about Shelby but that's over now. We'll be back together again.

Lydecker

It's the same obvious pattern, Laura. If McPherson weren't muscular and handsome in a cheap sort of way, you'd see through him in a second.

Laura

Waldo, I mean to be as kind about this as I know how. But I must tell you. You're the one who follows the same obvious pattern. First it was Jacoby, then Shelby, and now I suppose - I don't think we should see each other again.

Lydecker

You're not yourself, darling.

Laura

Yes I am. For the first time in ages, I know what I'm doing.

Lydecker

Very well. I hope you'll never regret what promises to be a disgustingly earthy relationship. My congratulations, McPherson. And listen to my broadcast in fifteen minutes. I'm discussing Great Lovers of History.

Lydecker

Laura had not definitely made up her mind to marry him. She told me so herself, last Friday when she called up to cancel our dinner engagement. As a matter of fact, she was going to the country to think it over. She was extremely kind, but I was always sure she would never have thrown her life away on a male beauty in distress.

Shelby

I suppose you've heard losers whine before, especially in your profession, eh?

Lydecker

That's the way it is, isn't it, Laura?

You have heard the voice of Waldo Lydecker by electrical transcription.

Laura

Waldo, you've taken one life. Isn't that enough?

Lydecker

The best part of myself - that's what you are. Do you think I'm going to leave it to the vulgar pawing of a second-rate detective who thinks you're a dame? Do you think I could bear the thought of him holding you in his arms, kissing you, loving you? ...There he is now. He'll find us together, Laura as we always have been and we always should be, as we always will be.

Lydecker

There are two or three things in here belong to me. This vase, for instance. And that, uh, clock of course, and antique fire screen. I only lent them to Laura, you know.

Anne

Oh really, Waldo.

Lydecker

Yes, really. This vase is the gem of my collection. I intend to have it back. And the clock and the screen too.

Shelby

They aren't yours. You gave them to Laura. I won't permit it.

Lydecker

Does an alleged fiance have any voice in this matter? I'll take the vase with me now and send someone to collect the other things this very day.

McPherson

Nothing's leaving here except you, Lydecker.

Lydecker

Well, McPherson, what does Laura's resurrection do to you?

McPherson

Too bad Diane Redfern can't be resurrected.

Lydecker

Will you please stop dawdling with that infernal puzzle? It's getting on my nerves.

McPherson

I know, but it keeps me calm.

Lydecker

Yesterday morning after Laura's body was found, I was questioned by Sergeants McAvity and Shultz. And I stated: [He reads from his typed statement] 'On Friday night, Laura had a dinner engagement with me, after which she was ostensibly going out of town. She phoned and cancelled our engagement at exactly seven o'clock. After that...

McPherson

...you ate a lonely dinner, then got into the tub to read.' Why did you write it down? Afraid you'd forget it?

Lydecker

I am the most widely mis-quoted man in America. When my friends do it, I resent it. From Sergeants McAvity and Shultz, I should find it intolerable. Hand me that washcloth please, Mr. __ , Mr. __ ?

McPherson

McPherson.

Lydecker

The Siege of Babylon, Long Island. The gangster with a machine gun killed three policemen. I told the story over the air. Wrote a column about it. Are you the one with the leg full of lead? The man who walked right in and got him.

McPherson

You have a pretty good memory, Mr. Lydecker.

Lydecker

I always liked that detective with a silver shinbone.

McPherson

Thanks. I hope you won't have any reason to change your mind about me.