Laura
1944
Waldo Lydecker: How singularly innocent I look this morning.
Bessie Clary: I ain't afraid of cops. I was brought up to spit whenever I saw one. Mark McPherson: OK, go ahead and spit if that'll make you feel better.
Waldo Lydecker: Love is eternal. It has been the strongest motivation for human actions throughout history. Love is stronger than life. It reaches beyond the dark shadow of death.
Mark McPherson: Yeah, dames are always pulling a switch on you.
Mark McPherson: When a dame gets killed, she doesn't worry about how she looks. Waldo Lydecker: Will you stop calling her a dame!
Waldo Lydecker: I should be sincerely sorry to see my neighbor's children devoured by wolves.
Waldo Lydecker: I don't use a pen. I write with a goose quill dipped in venom.
Waldo Lydecker: In my case, self-absorption is completely justified. I have never discovered any other subject quite so worthy of my attention.
Shelby Carpenter: I can afford a blemish on my character, but not on my clothes.
Mark McPherson: I must say, for a charming, intelligent girl, you certainly surrounded yourself with a remarkable collection of dopes.
Waldo Lydecker: I'm not kind, I'm vicious. It's the secret of my charm.
Waldo Lydecker: I cannot stand these morons any longer. Leave with me now or I'll run amok.
Waldo Lydecker: You'd better watch out, McPherson, or you'll finish up in a psychiatric ward. I doubt they've ever had a patient who fell in love with a corpse.
Waldo Lydecker: It's lavish, but I call it home.
Waldo Lydecker: I shall never forget the weekend Laura died. A silver sun burned through the sky like a huge magnifying glass. It was the hottest Sunday in my recollection. I felt as if I were the only human being left in New York... I had just begun Laura's story when another of those detectives came to see me. I had him wait.
Mark MacPherson: When the police told you on Saturday that Layra Hunt was dead you seemed sincerly shocked Shelby Carpender: I was, I wasn't expecting that mistake. Mark MacPherson: But you had your alibi ready no matter who was dead.
Waldo Lydecker: Have you ever been in love? Mark McPherson: A dame in Washington Heights got a fox fur outta me once.