Blithe Spirit (1945)
Rex Harrison: Charles Condomine
Photos
Quotes
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Charles Condomine : It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.
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Charles Condomine : If you wish to make an inventory of my sex life, dear, I think its only fair to tell you that you've missed out several episodes. I'll consult my diary and give you a complete list after lunch.
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Charles Condomine : Anything interesting in The Times
Ruth Condomine : Don't be silly, dear.
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Charles Condomine : I haven't forgotten Elvira. I remember her very distinctly, in deed. I remember how fascinating she was and how maddening. I remember how her gay charm when she'd achieved her own way over something and her extreme acidity when she didn't. I remember her physical attractiveness, which was tremendous, and her spiritual integrity which was nil.
Ruth Condomine : Was she more physically attractive than I am?
Charles Condomine : That's a very tiresome question, darling. It fully deserves a wrong answer.
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Charles Condomine : Try to see my point of view, dear. I've been married to Ruth for five years and you've been dead for seven.
Elvira Condomine : Not dead, Charles. Passed over. Its considered very vulgar to say dead where I come from.
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Ruth Condomine : You called us back and you've done nothing but try to get rid of us ever since we came. Hasn't he, Elvira?
Elvira Condomine : He certainly has.
Ruth Condomine : Now, owing to your idiotic inefficiency, we find ourselves in this mortifying position. We're neither fish, flesh fowl, nor - whatever it is.
Charles Condomine , Elvira Condomine : Good red herring.
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Charles Condomine : A woman in Cynthia Chavitz's position. would hardly wear false pearls.
Elvira Condomine : Well, they were practically all she was wearing.
Charles Condomine : As I'm pained to observe that seven years in the echoing vaults of eternity have in no way pared your native vulgarity.
Elvira Condomine : That was the remark of a pompous ass.
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Elvira Condomine : Get me to bed, Charles. Then we can talk in peace.
Charles Condomine : A thoroughly immoral suggestion. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.
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Charles Condomine : Poor Ruth.
Elvira Condomine : Nuts to Ruth.
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Charles Condomine : You're very glacial this morning.
Ruth Condomine : Are you surprised?
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Charles Condomine : Drunk?
Ruth Condomine : You had two strong dry martinis before dinner. A great deal too much burgundy at dinner. Heaven knows how much port and kimmel with Dr. Bradman while I was doing my best to entertain that mad woman. And two large brandies later. I gave them to you myself. Of course you were drunk.
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Charles Condomine : What do you suppose induced Agnes to leave us?
Ruth Condomine : The reason was becoming increasingly obvious, dear.
Charles Condomine : Yes. We must keep Edith in the house more.
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Charles Condomine : I told her how profoundly interested I was and she blossomed like a rose.
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Madame Arcati : I presume that's the gramophone?
Charles Condomine : Would you like me to start if for you? It's an electric one.
Madame Arcati : No, please stay where you are. I can manage.
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Charles Condomine : Are you a - ghost?
Elvira Condomine : I suppose I must be. Its all very confusing.
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Ruth Condomine : I gather you got some sort of plan behind all this? I'm not quite a fool.
Charles Condomine : Ruth, Elvira is here! She's standing a few yards away from you!
Ruth Condomine : Yes, dear, I can see her distinctly - under the piano with a zebra!
Charles Condomine : But, Ruth...
Ruth Condomine : I'm not going to stay here arguing any longer.
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Charles Condomine : But, listen, Ruth, please...
Ruth Condomine : I will not listen to any more of this nonsense. I'm going upstairs to bed now. I shall leave you to turn off the lights. I won't be asleep. I'm much too upset. So, you can come in and say good night to me. If you feel like it.
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Charles Condomine : Are you to be here indefinitely?
Elvira Condomine : I'm afraid I don't know that either. Why? Would you hate it so much if I was?
Charles Condomine : Well, you must admit, it'd be embarrassing.
Elvira Condomine : I don't see why, really. Its all a question of adjusting one's self.
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Elvira Condomine : Oh, I want to cry. But, I don't think I'm able to.
Charles Condomine : Well, what would you want to cry for?
Elvira Condomine : Well, at seeing you again and you being so irascible like you always used to be.
Charles Condomine : Well, I don't mean to be irascible, Elvira.
Elvira Condomine : Darling, I don't mind. really. I never did.
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Charles Condomine : Was I ever unkind to you when you were alive?
Elvira Condomine : Often.
Charles Condomine : Oh, how can you? I'm sure you're exaggerating.
Elvira Condomine : Not at all. You were an absolute pig that time we went to Cornwall and stayed in that awful hotel. You hit me with a billiard cue.
Charles Condomine : Only very, very gently.
Elvira Condomine : I loved you very much.
Charles Condomine : I loved you too.
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Charles Condomine : A good morning. A tremendously good morning! There isn't a cloud in the sky and everything looks newly washed.
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Charles Condomine : Its extraordinary about daylight, isn't it?
Ruth Condomine : How do you mean?
Charles Condomine : Oh, it introduces everything to normal.
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Ruth Condomine : Now look here, Charles, this display of roguish flippancy might have been alluring. In a middle-aged novelist it's nauseating.
Charles Condomine : I don't see what I've done that's so awful?
Ruth Condomine : You behaved abominably last night. You wounded me and insulted me.
Charles Condomine : I was a victim of an aberration.
Ruth Condomine : Nonsense. You were drunk.
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Charles Condomine : I know I wasn't drunk. If I'd been all that drunk, I should have a dreadful hangover, shouldn't I?
Ruth Condomine : I'm not at all sure that you haven't.
Charles Condomine : Well, I haven't the trace of a headache. My tongues not coated. Look at it.
Ruth Condomine : I haven't the least desire to look at your tongue. Kindly put it in again.
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Ruth Condomine : Will you be in for lunch, Charles?
Charles Condomine : Please don't worry about me. I shall be perfectly happy with a bottle of gin in my bedroom.
Ruth Condomine : Don't be silly dear.
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Ruth Condomine : Alcohol will ruin your whole life if you allow it to get ahold on you, you know.
Charles Condomine : Once and for all, Ruth, I'd like you to understand that what happened last night was nothing whatever to do with alcohol! I grant you it may have been some form of psychic delusion, but I was stone cold sober from first to last.
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Ruth Condomine : You called me a guttersnipe. You told me to shut up. And when I quietly suggested we should go upstairs to bed, you said, with the most disgusting leer, it was an immoral suggestion.
Charles Condomine : I was talking to Elvira.
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Ruth Condomine : Charles, dear, if you weren't drunk, how do account for it?
Charles Condomine : I can't account for it. That's what's so awful.
Ruth Condomine : What did you have for lunch?
Charles Condomine : You ought to know, you had it with me.
Ruth Condomine : Let me see. It was lemon sole - and that cheese thing.
Charles Condomine : Why should having a cheese thing for lunch make me see my deceased wife after dinner?
Ruth Condomine : You never know, it was rather rich.
Charles Condomine : Well, why didn't you see your dead husband then? You had just as much of it as I did.
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Charles Condomine : Promise you'll do what I ask.
Elvira Condomine : Well, that depends on what it is.
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Charles Condomine : This whole business is very difficult for Ruth. We must be fair.
Elvira Condomine : Well, she should learn to be more adaptable.
Charles Condomine : She probably will in time.
Elvira Condomine : I doubt it, Charles. She's got a hard mouth. Its her mouth that gives her away.
Charles Condomine : Her mouth's got nothing to do with it. I resent you discussing Ruth as though she were a horse.
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Charles Condomine : If only you'd make an effort to be a little more friendly to Elvira, we might all have quite a jolly time.
Ruth Condomine : I have no wish to have a jolly time with Elvira!
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Charles Condomine : Captain Brayscone? I might have known it. What a fool I was. What a blind fool. Did he make love to you?
Elvira Condomine : Of course.
Charles Condomine : Oh, Elvira.
Elvira Condomine : Only very discretely. He was in the calvary, you know.
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Ruth Condomine : It's clouding over.
Charles Condomine : You have a genius for under statement.
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Madame Arcati : [after several failed exorcisms] Are they still here?
Charles Condomine : Yeah.
[clock chimes]
Charles Condomine : End of round six.