Noirvember Day 6: Sunday Words of Noir (Part 1)
If you’re a film noir lover, then you’re doubtless a lover of the great lines that are threaded throughout these features. You know what I mean – those lines that make you say “Whoa!” or break into peals of appreciative laughter, or rewind the DVD because you can’t believe what you just heard. Today’s Noirvember post serves up 10 of these lines. Enjoy!
“He was a ladykiller. But don’t get no ideas – I ain’t no lady.” Myrna Dell in Nocturne (1946)
“Veronica, some people are mellowed by drink. I suggest you have another.” Alexander Scourby in Affair in Trinidad (1952)
“Do you look down on all women, or just the ones you know?” Gloria Grahame in In A Lonely Place (1950)
“If you want fresh air, don’t look for it in this town.” Anthony Caruso in The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
“I go anywhere I want, with anybody I want. I happen to be that kind of girl.” Doris Dowling in The Blue Dahlia (1946)
“Maybe I’m gonna die. You’ve got even bigger problems – you’re gonna live.” James Darren in The Brothers Rico (1957)
“She looked like a very special kind of dynamite, neatly wrapped in nylon and silk. Only I wasn’t having any. I’d been too close to an explosion already. I was powder-shy.” Robert Young in They Won’t Believe Me (1947)
“I want what she’s got. All of it. I want her house, her name, her man. And I want them now. Tonight.” Hazel Brooks in Sleep, My Love (1948)
“You work in a store, you knock down the cash register. A big boss, the income tax. A ward heeler, you sell votes. A lawyer, take bribes. I was a cop, I used a gun. But whatever I did, I did for you.” Van Heflin in The Prowler (1951)
“Life in Loyalton is like sitting in a funeral parlor waiting for the funeral to begin.” Bette Davis in Beyond the Forest (1949)
And that’s all she wrote. Join me tomorrow for Day 7 of Noirvember (and next Sunday for more words of noir)!
shadowsandsatin 
What a fantastic assembly of great lines. I’ll remember these for sure. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Wesley!
I’ll leave Wordsworth and Shelley to some other dame — give me the street poetry of noir every day of the week and twice on Sunday!
My love of this post was ramped up to a whole other level with the shout-out to NOCTURNE, one of my all-time favorite pictures. (Full disclosure: I have a soft spot for George Raft because once upon a time he winked at my grandma near the betting windows at Saratoga Racetrack.) I want to light a candle every time I hear Lynn Bari spit, “Now why don’t you hop on your scooter, sonny boy, and blow. I’ve got to emote!”
I also love these lines from NARROW MARGIN (another one of my all-time favorite pictures):
“What kind of a dish was she? The sixty-cent special- cheap, flashy, strictly poison under the gravy.”
““You make me sick to my stomach.” “Well, use your own sink. And let me know when the target practice starts!”
And this one from The Maltese Falcon, ” if you actually were as innocent as you pretend to be, we’d never get anywhere.”
The first time I heard people talking like this in the movies, I knew… I was I home.
How totally cool that George Raft winked at your grandmother! And I love, love, love that Lynn Bari quote. I’ve only seen Nocturne once — this line makes me want to rewatch it with the quickness.
I love those Narrow Margin quotes, too, and The Maltese Falcon one, with which I’m not familiar, made me laugh out loud.
“I’ve only seen Nocturne once — this line makes me want to rewatch it with the quickness.”
DO IT! You owe it to yourself (tm You).
NOCTURNE is my comeback to everyone who says George Raft never gave a performance that wasn’t as wooden as a split rail fence. The cast is stuffed to the gills with strong female performers and he’s got great chemistry with every last one of them. Myrna Dell
and Lynn Bari are both top shelf sassmouths, and I love it!
IMHO, the scenes with his mother and her true crime-obsessed bestie are especially charming, as is a brief interlude in a dancing school. This film has got everything!
I’m sold!
Some great, obscure stuff there!
Thank you, Carol! I love finding those less-traveled quotes. There are so many great ones out there.
Such great quotes! All of them winners.
Thank you, Vienna! They are just so much fun. I never tire of them.
Hazel Brooks is dynamite in Sleep, My Love. That outfit when she comes down the stairs!
It’s a shame that she didn’t have a bigger career. I liked her a lot in Body and Soul, too.
This is like a box of chocolates, awesome selection!
Thank you! I can’t get enough of these lines.
Some real gems here. I love that cynical, clever dialogue.
I love it, too — there really is nothing like the noir lines.