Forsaking All Others (1934)

Joan Crawford: Mary Clay

Photos 

Quotes 

• Mary Clay : Jeff, has it ever occurred to you that this is none of your business?

  Jeffrey 'Jeff' : It's none of my business when I see a dog being whipped, but I'll stop it every time.

• Mary Clay : Hey, Paula. What goes on at bachelor dinners?

  Aunt Paula : As I understand it, very little, goes on.

  Mary Clay : I get it.

• Jeffrey 'Jeff' : Darling, I lived in Madrid. It's like Paris.

  Aunt Paula : Oh really, I understood it's quite savage, jungles and things.

  Mary Clay : Paula's never read Ernest Hemmingway.

  Jeffrey 'Jeff' : Evidently not.

• Mary Clay : After all, Mrs. Todd, I've known Dill much longer than you have and, well, we had a few things we wanted to talk over.

  Connie Barnes Todd : Dill doesn't talk with his hands.

  Mary Clay : Really? Isn't that funny, he always used to.

• Mary Clay : Jeff, stop talking like a big noble brother! Will you get it through your head that I'm free, white and twenty-one! And if I want to, I'll keep my self-respect around until its lost! I've played according to the book from now and where am I? From now on I use my own rules!

• Aunt Paula : And this is the living room, if you can call it living.

  Shemp 'Shempy' : Cheery, isn't it dear?

  Jeffrey 'Jeff' : Yes, yes,. Truly, truly.

  Shemp 'Shempy' : Tell me, madam, how far are you from the nearest school?

  Aunt Paula : 30 miles by horse and dog sled.

  Shemp 'Shempy' : Well, that's good enough for junior.

  Jeffrey 'Jeff' : Yes, too good. Ah, darling, how many bedrooms do we need?

  Shemp 'Shempy' : Well, one for you and the nurse, and one for my mother.

  Jeffrey 'Jeff' : Yeessss.

  Shemp 'Shempy' : [to Aunt Paula]  My mother's been living with us since we were married.

  Mary Clay : [Who had been listening to all of this, from the doorway]  Oh, ho, you fools.

• Mary Clay : [Going through her mail with Jeff]  Gas bill, $35 - how'd that happen?

  Jeffrey 'Jeff' : Hmmm, any suicides in your house last month?

  Mary Clay : Only three or four, but they wouldn't have used that much gas.

• Mary Clay : There'll never by anyone else, will there?

  Dillon 'Dill' : Hah, how could there be? There's no room. There never was. There never will be.

  Mary Clay : Ah, ah - there was Connie.

  Dillon 'Dill' : [Mumbling]  ... Connie. She didn't take up much of my time.

  Mary Clay : Just six months in Paris. That's plenty.

  Dillon 'Dill' : Oh, that was under the heading of growing up, Mary. All men go through that - the Connie's, Bonnie's, Susie's... well, you know, they don't mean anything. They're experience. You're love.

  Mary Clay : Oh, my sweet, such a beautiful speech.

• Jeffrey 'Jeff' : You're not going to that party?

  Mary Clay : Oh yes, I am.

  Jeffrey 'Jeff' : Oh, Mary, you're leading with your chin. That woman just wants to humiliate you. You're not ready for a thing like that.

  Mary Clay : Ah, Jeff, how little you know what goes on in a woman's mind. Connie doesn't want me at that party. Don't you see. This is the humiliation. She pictures me crying into a pillow with the note crushed in my hand. She thinks I'm being just too miserable for words. Well, we're going to that party, Jeff Williams, and we're going to have the time of our lives.

• Mary Clay : Happy for me?

  Jeffrey 'Jeff' : If you're happy, I'm happy.

  Mary Clay : Oh, I am, terribly.

• Mary Clay : Just look at those cornflowers... When I was a kid, I said I wanted to be married in a cornflower dress. Dill remembered. Married in hundreds of cornflowers. What a perfect wedding.

  Eleanor : It's a matter of taste. I'd just soon be married in alcohol.

  Aunt Paula : Eleanor!

  Eleanor : Oh, now, don't worry, Paula. I'll be so old they'll have to pickle me in something!

• Mary Clay : Don't be silly. I'm not going to faint. I'm not the type.

• Mary Clay : Oo-ouch! Ouch! Hey, Bella, I'm going to need that leg to get married with tomorrow.

  Bella - Mary's Masseuse : What you say?

  Mary Clay : The bride was vision of beauty in black and blue spots. Now, wouldn't that be pretty?

  Bella - Mary's Masseuse : Black and blue, green or yellow, you are a sucker to get married.

  Mary Clay : Say, is that an attack on my future husband or are you just anti-wedding?

  Bella - Mary's Masseuse : Both.

  Mary Clay : Are you through?

  Bella - Mary's Masseuse : Yeah.

  Mary Clay : I wish you'd take your thumb out of my back.

• Jeffrey 'Jeff' : [Speaking to Dill's new wife, Connie]  Yes, yes, but, please hear my story. You know, I started life in the service of Mary's grandfather, one Colonel Lionel Q. Clay, of the Confederate army.

  Dillon 'Dill' : Union army.

  Jeffrey 'Jeff' : Confederate.

  Dillon 'Dill' : Union army.

  Jeffrey 'Jeff' : Confederate.

  Dillon 'Dill' : I beg your pardon, Union army.

  Jeffrey 'Jeff' : I was, at that time, a colored slave and very anxious for the South to win, so I could collect my back pay. I'm still trying to collect.

  Mary Clay : [Sarcastically]  How dare you say that! We once paid you a dollar eighty on account.

• Mary Clay : Wood chopping! That's what does the trick. The greatest exercise in the world.

  Jeffrey 'Jeff' : [Chuckles]  Yeah.

  Mary Clay : Oh, you don't believe me huh? Well feel.

  [She raises her arm for Jeff to feel, he squeezes and she slaps his hand and pulls away] 

  Aunt Paula : People from miles around come to pick up wood. They think she's crazy.