Erika von Schluetow Quotes in A Foreign Affair (1948)

Erika von Schluetow: Let's go up to my apartment. It's only a few ruins away from here.

Erika von Schluetow: We've all become animals with exactly one instinct left. Self-preservation. Now take me, Miss Frost. Bombed out a dozen times, everything caved in and pulled out from under me. My country, my possessions, my beliefs... yet somehow I kept going. Months and months in air raid shelters, crammed in with five thousand other people. I kept going. What do you think it was like to be a woman in this town when the Russians first swept in? I kept going.

Erika von Schluetow: So you fly off back home. Wash your hands. Wash your lips. You've got so much soap in the United States.

Erika von Schluetow: [singing] Want to buy some illusions? Slightly used, just like new. Such romantic illusions, and they're all about you. I sell them all for a penny, they make pretty souvenirs. Take my lovely illusions, some for laughs, some for tears.

Erika von Schluetow: Want to buy an illusion?

Erika von Schluetow: Give me that mattress.

Captain John Pringle: No mattress will help you sleep. What you Germans need is a better conscience.

Erika von Schluetow: I have a good conscience! I have a new Führer now. You! Heil Johnny.

Erika von Schluetow: [Knock at the door] Who's that?

Captain John Pringle: With my luck, it's Eisenhower.

Erika von Schluetow: [singing] Want to buy some illusions, Slightly used, second hand? They were lovely illusions, Reaching high, built on sand.

Erika von Schluetow: [singing] Amidst the ruins of Berlin, Trees are in bloom as they have never been. Sometimes at night you feel in all your sorrow, A perfume as of a sweet tomorrow! That's when you realize at last. They won't return - the phantoms of the past. A brand new spring is to begin, Out of the ruins of Berlin!

Captain John Pringle: [after Erika's been spotted in German newsreels, associating with high-ranking members of the Nazi Party] Having your hand kissed by Hitler. I hope you had it sterilized. Looked as if he had rat poison in that moustache.

Erika von Schluetow: Don't talk like that.

Captain John Pringle: Why not? How much of a Nazi were you, anyway?

Erika von Schluetow: Johnny, what does it matter, a woman's politics? Women pick out whatever's in fashion and change it like a spring hat.

Captain John Pringle: Yeah. Last year it was a little number with a swastika on it. This year it's ostrich feathers, red, white and blue. Next year a hammer, maybe, and a sickle.

Erika von Schluetow: Oh, Johnny, we must not say mean words to each other.

Erika von Schluetow: When you say you are engaged, that is only until her plane leaves, huh?

Captain John Pringle: What else?

Erika von Schluetow: I love you so very much.

Captain John Pringle: You do?

Erika von Schluetow: You're the only man I ever wanted to marry.

Captain John Pringle: That's mighty white of you.

Erika von Schluetow: I want to go with you to America. I want to climb up the Statue of Liberty.

Captain John Pringle: You want to get down that basement at Fort Knox.

Erika von Schluetow: I want to be where you are.

Captain John Pringle: Yeah, I can just imagine you in Iowa in blue jeans, going on a hay ride to the old mill.

Erika von Schluetow: I would love that.

Erika von Schluetow: You're hurting me Johnny! You're always hurting me. Why are you so mean to me?

Erika von Schluetow: Johnny, for 15 years we haven't slept in Germany. First it was Hitler screaming on the radio. Then, the war of nerves. Then, the victory celebrations. And the bombing. All the furniture burnt.

Captain John Pringle: [Playfully] You heil me once more and I'll knock your teeth in.

Erika von Schluetow: I'll bruise your lips.

Captain John Pringle: Why don't I choke you a little. Break you in two. Build a fire under you - you blonde witch.

Erika von Schluetow: [singing] Black Market, Eggs for statuettes, Smiles for cigarettes, Got some broken down ideals? Like wedding rings?

Erika von Schluetow: [singing] I'll trade you for your candy, Some gorgeous merchandise, My camera - it's a dandy! Six by nine - just your size. You want my porcelain figure? A watch? A submarine? A Rembrandt? Salami? Black lingerie from Wien?

Erika von Schluetow: [singing] Black Market. Laces for the misses. Chewing gum for kisses! Black Market. Cuckoo clocks and bangles! Thousand little angles!

Erika von Schluetow: [singing] Come, and see my little musicbox today! Price? Only six cartons! Want to hear it play?

Erika von Schluetow: [singing] Black Market. Milk and microscope for liverwurst and soap. Browse around! I've got so many toys! Don't be bashful. Step up, boys!

Erika von Schluetow: [singing] I'm selling out! Take all I've got! Ambitions! Convictions! The works! Why not? Enjoy these goods. For boy, these goods, Are hot!

Erika von Schluetow: [Referring to Miss Frost] I see you do not believe in lipstick. And what a curious way to to do your hair or rather not to do it.

Captain John Pringle: Now, wait a minute! Do you know who you're talking to?

Erika von Schluetow: An American woman. And I'm a little disappointed, to tell you the truth. We apparently have a false idea about the chic American woman. Oh, I suppose that's publicity in Hollywood.

Erika von Schluetow: [singing] They had a touch of paradise, A spell you can't explain: For in this crazy paradise, You are in love with pain.

Erika von Schluetow: It's give and take if we are to survive.

Phoebe Frost: What have I to give? And what do you want to take?

Phoebe Frost: Exactly what is it you want from me Fräulein von Schluetow?

Erika von Schluetow: Let's go up to my apartment. It's only a few ruins away from here.

Erika von Schluetow: [Looking at a photograph] This how he looked when i met him first. He was a Lieutenant then. He sat at his desk, interrogating me. He had such a grime, business-like face. But, fortunately, I was wearing my last pair of silk stockings.

Erika von Schluetow: I have a paper which says I'm on the white list.

MP Lieutenant: Yeah and we know how you got it and it wasn't, if you'll pardon the non-Aryan expression, kosher.

Erika von Schluetow: Come on, boys. Has it stopped raining?

[Lifts her dress up above her knees]

Erika von Schluetow: If there are any puddles. You carry me. Won't you, boys?