Effie Quotes in Dream Wife (1953)

Effie: Clem...

Clemson Reade: [softly] What?

Effie: I am afraid that we'll have to postpone the wedding till after the oil deal is signed.

Clemson Reade: [alarmed] What?

Effie: I don't see any other way. Truly I don't. There are so many things to get done. Meetings, conferences, reports, and all of them so urgent.

Clemson Reade: So is our wedding.

Effie: But I mean *really* urgent.

Clemson Reade: We haven't been able to make a definite plan since we met.

Effie: Well, we went to Vermont for two weeks.

Clemson Reade: Yes. Yes, that's right. To her grandfather's farm. For two wonderful relaxing weeks in glorious Vermont.

Walter McBride: Tim'll be there in September.

Clemson Reade: We spent *one* day there. She had to leave to take care of the crisis in Sahara; some of the sand was missing.

Effie: Well, you stayed on.

Clemson Reade: With grandfather. It wasn't the same thing.

Effie: [Pointing at a globe] Here is Bukistan.

Clemson Reade: [mumbling] Oh, I know, I have been there.

Effie: Here is the United States.

Clemson Reade: [mumbling] Yes, yes, I have been there too.

Effie: We have just *one* thing in common. Oil! Every plan we make for peace or war depends on that oil.

Clemson Reade: 'That so?

Effie: I don't have to tell you what happened in Iran. Half the free world had to learn how to pronounce the name Mosadegh.

Clemson Reade: I still can't.

Effie: The same thing is happening again, only this time there will a lot of new names to learn. And the only way to get that oil is to get those names on the dotted line.

Clemson Reade: Oh, I didn't mean that. What you are doing *is* important.

Effie: But not as important as cooking your breakfast. You don't need me for that. You can buy it for a dollar an hour. We've been emancipated, Mr. Reade. Have you heard of Susan B. Anthony?

Clemson Reade: Can she cook?

Effie: [recites love poem to Clem] The night is filled with muted sounds / The air is still, but in the hush / The whispers of a thousand lovers. // You and I together here, to dream a thousand wonders / The night is still, we kiss, / And in my heart a thousand thunders.

Effie: [Effie comes in and hears a hallway door close] Delores? Is that you?

Delores: Yeah, Mama.

[coming in the front room with a suitcase]

Effie: Where you going?

Delores: I'm leaving, Mama.

Effie: You're leaving for where?

Delores: I'm leaving and I'm going away.

Effie: What do you mean?

Delores: I mean... I can't live like this anymore, Mama. I gotta find another way.

Effie: Well, whatever troubles you got here

[crossing to the living room and taking off her coat]

Effie: are going right with you and that suitcase.

[she sits on the couch ]

Delores: You don't understand, Mama.

[sets down her suitcase]

Delores: Like, there's education like there never was before. Mama, we don't have to slaves to the white establishment anymore.

[Effie gets up and starts straightening up the room]

Delores: We don't have to live off what the white man throws our way. Thanking him for his chicken-shit pay and chicken-shit jobs. We don't have to run around shining his shoes and driving his cars and cleaning his floors and being his ma - ...

Effie: [facing Delores] Go on, now, say it. Being their maid. Hmm?

Delores: Yeah, Mama. Being their maid.

[near tears]

Delores: Mama, I seen you, ever since I was a little kid, getting up in the middle of the night to take the subway to ride for two hours to go to their house, to do their cooking and to do their ironing and do their cleaning and wash the shit out of their toilet. And for what, Mama? For WHAT?

[Delores picks up her suitcase and heads for the door]

Delores: Bye.

Delores: We're old enough to iron for ourselves. You ain't our maid.

Effie: I always iron clothes for the ones that I love.

Delores: I suppose you love them crackers that you work for?

Effie: You watch your mouth. Now, go get your homework before I give you a sign in a place you won't forget.