Stella
The insurance company would be much happier if you'd sleep in bed at night instead of in that wheelchair...Your eyes are all bloodshot. You must have been watching out that window for hours.
Played by Thelma Ritter 
Rear Window (1954) · 36 quotes
Rear Window (1954) · 36 quotes
The New York State sentence for a Peeping Tom is six months in the work house...They got no windows in the work house. You know, in the old days, they used to put your eyes out with a red-hot poker. Any of those bikini bombshells you're always watchin' worth a red-hot poker? Oh dear, we've become a race of Peeping Toms. What people ought to do is get outside their own house and look in for a change. Yes, sir. How's that for a bit of home-spun philosophy?
More lines from Stella
2 quotes Stella
Stella
Just where do you suppose he cut her up? 'Course, the bathtub! That's the only place where he could have washed away the blood. He better get that trunk out of there before it starts to leak.
Scenes with Stella
8 scenes Stella
I was nursing a director of General Motors ... When General Motors has to go to the bathroom 10 times a day, the whole country's ready to let go.
Jeff
In economics, a kidney ailment has nothing whatsoever to do with the stock market.
Stella
You've got a hormone deficiency.
Jeff
How can you tell from a thermometer ?
Stella
Those bathing beauties you've been watching haven't raised your temperature one degree in a month.
Stella
I got a nose for trouble. I can smell it ten miles away...I can smell trouble right here in this apartment. First you smash your leg. Then you get to lookin' out the window. See things you shouldn't see. Trouble. I can see you in court now, surrounded by a bunch of lawyers in double-breasted suits. You're pleading: 'Judge, it was only a little bit of innocent fun. I love my neighbors like a father.' And the Judge says, 'Well, congratulations, you've just given birth to three years in...'
Jeff
Yeah, right now I'd welcome trouble...You know, I think you're right. I think there is going to be trouble around here.
Stella
...What kind of trouble?
Jeff
Lisa Fremont.
Stella
Are you kidding? She's a beautiful young girl and you're a reasonably healthy young man.
Jeff
She expects me to marry her.
Stella
That's normal.
Jeff
I don't want to.
Stella
That's abnormal.
Jeff
I'm just not ready for marriage.
Stella
Every man's ready for marriage when the right girl comes along. And Lisa Fremont is the right girl for any man with half a brain who can get one eye open.
Jeff
Oh, she's all right.
Stella
What did you do? Have a fight?
Jeff
No.
Stella
Her father loading up the shotgun?
Jeff
What? Please, Stella.
Stella
It's happened before you know. Some of the world's happiest marriages have, uh, started under the gun, as you might say.
Jeff
No, she's just not the girl for me.
Stella
Yeah, she's only perfect.
Jeff
She's too perfect. She's too talented, she's too beautiful. She's too sophisticated. She's too everything but what I want.
Stella
Is, um, what you want something you can discuss?
Jeff
Well, it's very simple, Stella. She belongs to that rarified atmosphere of Park Avenue, you know. Expensive restaurants, literary cocktail parties...Can you imagine her tramping around the world with a camera bum who never has more than a week's salary in the bank? If she was only ordinary.
Stella
You ever gonna get married?
Jeff
I'll probably get married one of these days, and when I do, it's gonna be to someone who thinks of life not just as a new dress, and a lobster dinner, the latest scandal. I need a woman who's willing...to go anywhere and do anything and love it. So the honest thing for me to do is just to call the whole thing off and let her find somebody else.
Stella
Yeah, I can hear you now. Get out of my life. You're a perfectly wonderful woman - you're too good for me. Look, Mr. Jefferies, I'm not an educated woman, but I can tell you one thing. When a man and a woman see each other and like each other, they ought to come together - wham! Like a couple of taxis on Broadway, not sit around analyzing each other like two specimens in a bottle.
Jeff
There's an intelligent way to approach marriage.
Stella
Intelligence! Nothing has caused the human race so much trouble as intelligence. Hah! Modern marriage!
Jeff
Now, we've progressed emotionally.
Stella
Baloney! Once, it was see somebody, get excited, get married. Now, it's read a lot of books, fence with a lot of four-syllable words, psychoanalyze each other until you can't tell the difference between a petting party and a civil service exam.
Jeff
People have different emotional levels.
Stella
When I married Miles, we were both a couple of maladjusted misfits. We are still maladjusted misfits, and we have loved every minute of it.
Jeff
Well, that's fine, Stella. Now would you fix me a sandwich please?
Stella
Yes, I will. And I'll spread a little common sense on the bread. Lisa's loaded to her fingertips with love for you - I got two words of advice for you - Marry her!
Jeff
Did she pay you much?
Stella
Musta splattered alot. Well why not, that's what we're all thinkin'. He killed her in there. He has to clean up those stains before he leaves.
Lisa
Oh Stella, your choice of words.
Stella
Nobody ever invented a polite word for a killin' yet.
Stella
I got a nose for trouble. I can smell it ten miles away...I can smell trouble right here in this apartment. First you smash your leg. Then you get to lookin' out the window. See things you shouldn't see. Trouble. I can see you in court now, surrounded by a bunch of lawyers in double-breasted suits. You're pleading: 'Judge, it was only a little bit of innocent fun. I love my neighbors like a father.' And the Judge says, 'Well, congratulations, you've just given birth to three years in Dannemora.'
Jeff
Yeah, right now I'd welcome trouble...You know, I think you're right. I think there is going to be trouble around here.
Stella
...What kind of trouble?
Jeff
Lisa Fremont.
Stella
Are you kidding? She's a beautiful young girl and you're a reasonably healthy young man.
Jeff
She expects me to marry her.
Stella
That's normal.
Jeff
I don't want to.
Stella
That's abnormal.
Jeff
I'm just not ready for marriage.
Stella
Every man's ready for marriage when the right girl comes along. And Lisa Fremont is the right girl for any man with half a brain who can get one eye open.
Jeff
Oh, she's all right.
Stella
What did you do? Have a fight?
Jeff
No.
Stella
Her father loading up the shotgun?
Jeff
What? Please, Stella.
Stella
It's happened before you know. Some of the world's happiest marriages have, uh, started under the gun, as you might say.
Jeff
No, she's just not the girl for me.
Stella
Yeah, she's only perfect.
Jeff
She's too perfect. She's too talented, she's too beautiful. She's too sophisticated. She's too everything but what I want.
Stella
Is, um, what you want something you can discuss?
Jeff
Well, it's very simple, Stella. She belongs to that rarified atmosphere of Park Avenue, you know. Expensive restaurants, literary cocktail parties...Can you imagine her tramping around the world with a camera bum who never has more than a week's salary in the bank? If she was only ordinary.
Stella
You ever gonna get married?
Jeff
I'll probably get married one of these days, and when I do, it's gonna be to someone who thinks of life not just as a new dress, and a lobster dinner, the latest scandal. I need a woman who's willing...to go anywhere and do anything and love it. So the honest thing for me to do is just to call the whole thing off and let her find somebody else.
Stella
Yeah, I can hear you now. Get out of my life. You're a perfectly wonderful woman - you're too good for me. Look, Mr. Jefferies, I'm not an educated woman, but I can tell you one thing. When a man and a woman see each other and like each other they ought to come together - wham! Like a couple of taxis on Broadway, not sit around analyzing each other like two specimens in a bottle.
Jeff
There's an intelligent way to approach marriage.
Stella
Intelligence! Nothing has caused the human race so much trouble as intelligence. Hah! Modern marriage!
Lisa
What's he doing? Cleaning house?
Jeff
He's washing and scrubbing down the bathroom walls.
Stella
Must've splattered a lot.
Stella
[both Jeff and Lisa look at Stella with disgust]
Come on, that's what were all thinkin'. He killed her in there, now he has to clean up those stains before he leaves.
Lisa
Stella... your choice of words!
Stella
Nobody ever invented a polite word for a killin' yet.
Lisa
The last thing Mrs. Thorwald would leave behind would be her wedding ring. Stella, do you ever leave yours at home?
Stella
The only way somebody would get that would be to chop off my - finger. Let's go down to the garden and find out what's buried there.
Lisa
Why not? I always wanted to meet Mrs. Thorwald.
