Favourite Film Noir Quotes

[Andrew666]

What are your favourite film noir quotes? I have hundreds - but here are a few to get you started - can you tell me which movies they are from?

“I want you to do something. I want you to get yourself out of the bed, and get over to the window and scream as loud as you can. Otherwise you only have another three minutes to live.”



“She was a tramp.”
“She was a human being. Let me remind you that even the most unworthy of us has a right to life and the pursuit of happiness.”
“From what I hear she pursued it in all directions.”

"You're never around when I need you."
"You never need me when I'm around."



"Do you fall in love with all of your clients?”
“Only the ones in skirts.”

"A woman doesn't care how a guy makes a living, just how he makes love."



"You know you don't look like a man who'd be interested in first editions."
"Well I collect blondes and bottles as well."

"You're dumber than you think I think you are."

[Al Roberts]

He Walked By Night (1948)

Police Officer: "Look lad. I've got to see some identification."
Roy Morgan: "How bout my army discharge. I got it right here."

[Movie Memories]

Sooo many good quotes and so little time! From D.O.A.

Desk Sgt.: "Can I help you?"

Edmund O'Brien as Frank Bigelow: "I want to report a murder."

Desk Sgt.: "Where was this murder committed?"

Bigelow: "San Francisco, last night."

Desk Sgt.: "Who was murdered?"

Bigelow: "I was."

[JCharles]

I have some favorites, all from Out Of The Past:
Meta Carson: You know, for a man who appears to be clever, you can sure act like an idiot.
Jeff Bailey: That's one way to be clever, look like an idiot.
Carson: You are an idiot.
Bailey: (about Leonard Eels) So is he.
Carson: You think so?
Bailey: Why not? He's in love with you.

Bailey: (about gambling) That isn't the way to play.
Kathie Moffett: Why not?
Bailey: 'Cause it isn't the way to win.
Moffett: Is there a better way to win?
Bailey: There's a way to lose more slowly.

[JCharles]

More from Out Of The Past:
Bailey: (to man at parcel counter after handing him a briefcase with incriminating materials) You know, sometimes a bad memory is like what they call an ill wind, it can blow somebody luck.
Man: I always say everybody's right.

Bailey: It was the bottom of the barrel and I scraped it.

Bailey to Moffett: You can't help anything you do, you're like a leaf that blows from one gutter to another.

Fisher: Ya know, a dame with a rod is like a guy with a knitting needle.

[JCharles]

A quote from The Enforcer:
Joseph Rico: If you're smart, you can be a hero, If you're dumb, you can be dead.

[Nauga]

Off the top pf my head, from Deadline at Dawn, which I watched fairly recently. Some great lines that make up for a little soapiness between the lovebirds.

"If she cut off her head, she'd be very pretty."

"The Divine Being made many loathsome creatures but none so low as a woman with a cold heart."

"A blind man can see how many boyfriends she had. Evidently the water tasted good, so she jumped down the well."

[Adam Lounsbery]

"Night Editor," from 1946, is chock-full of nasty sweet talk between the two leads (man and woman in a love-hate relationship):

"You're worse than blood poisoning."

"You're rotten. Pure, no-good, first-rate, high-grade, A-number-one rotten."

"You're like me. There's an illness inside of you that has to hurt or be hurt. We were meant for each other."

[David Boxwell]

I wonder how this got by the Breen Office:

"You make me sick to my stomach."

"Well, use your own sink."

(McGraw and Windsor in THE NARROW MARGIN).

[David Boxwell]

Film Noir in just 4 sequential sentences (Windsor to McGraw in THE NARROW MARGIN):

"Oh, wake up Brown. This train's headed straight for the cemetery. But there's another coming along: a gravy train. Let's get on it."

[David Boxwell]

The most cruel, best ever dying words in film noir:

"It isn't fair. I never had anybody but you. Not a real husband. Not even a man. Just a bad joke [death rattle] without a punch line."

(Windsor in THE KILLING).

[Little Mac]

"In my opinion there's no greater degenerate than a wife-beater. I mean really, who--"

"--Are you married?"

"No."

"Then skip it."

-Glenn Ford and police officer in Mr. Soft Touch


________



"He was some kind of a man. What does it matter what you say about people?"

-Marlene Dietrich in Touch of Evil

[Anne H]

Pretty much all the dialog from Laura but especially, "I must say, for a charming, intelligent girl, you certainly surrounded yourself with a remarkable collection of dopes."

And probably my all time fave line from any noir, John Payne's immortal lines from 99 River Street, “It’s dangerous to cross the street. Or to park your cab in front of a florist shop.” That one you do have to hear in context.