3rd most-quoted character in The Night of the Hunter (1955): in 6 of its 44 quotes
Most scenes with: 'Preacher' Harry Powell (2)
I feel clean! My whole body is a'quiver with cleanness!
Willa Harper You have all sinned. Which one of you can say, as I can say, that you drove a good man to murder because I kept a-houndin' him, for perfume, and clothes, and face paint? And he slew two human beings. And he come to me, and he said, 'Take this money, and buy yourself the clothes! And the paint!'...But brother-n, brother-n, oh that's where the Lord stepped in, that's where the Lord stepped in...He said, the Lord, to that man, 'You take that money, and you throw it in the river!'
Willa Harper John, you always make up that lie. There is no money. Why can't you get that through your head?
Willa Harper It ain't in the river, is it, Harry?...Ben never told you he throw'd it in the river, did he?...The children know where it's hid. John knows. Is that it, Harry? Then, it's still here amongst us, taintin' us. You must have known about it all along, Harry? But that ain't the reason why you married me. I know that much...He made you marry me, so you could show me the Way and the Life and the salvation for my soul. Ain't that so, Harry? So you might say that it was the money that brung us together. The rest of it don't matter.
The night before your father died, he told me what he did with that money. That money's at the bottom of the river, wrapped around a twelve-pound cobblestone.
Willa I feel clean now. My whole body's just a-quivering with cleanness.
Willa Harry?
I was praying.
Willa Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know. I--I thought...
You thought, Willa, that the moment you walked in that door, I'd start to paw at you in that abominable way that men are supposed to do on their weddin' night. Ain't that right now?
Willa No, no, no. [She crosses her hands over her breasts]
I think it's time we made one thing perfectly clear, Willa. Marriage to me represents the blending of two spirits in the sight of heaven. Get up, Willa. Get up! Now go look at yourself yonder in that mirror. Do as I say! Look at yourself! What do ya see, girl? You see the body of a woman, the temple of creation and motherhood. You see the flesh of Eve that man since Adam has profaned. That body was meant for begettin' children. It was not meant for the lust of men. Do you want more children, Willa?
Willa I-I, no.
It's the business of this marriage to mind those two you have now, not to beget more.
Willa Yes.
All right, you can get in bed now, stop shiverin'.
Willa Help me to get clean, so I can be what Harry wants me to be.
