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Marnie Edgar: You don't love me. I'm just something you've caught! You think I'm some sort of animal you've trapped!
Mark Rutland: That's right - you are. And I've caught something really wild this time, haven't I? I've tracked you and caught you and by God I'm going to keep you.
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Mark Rutland: Atlantic City opens for races at the end of the month. We could drive out there next Saturday...
Marnie Edgar: All right. Are you fond of horses?
Mark Rutland: No, not at all.
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Mark Rutland: Well why didn't you jump over the side?
Marnie Edgar: The idea was to kill myself, not feed the damn fish.
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Lil Mainwaring: How do you take your tea, Miss Taylor?
Marnie Edgar: Usually with a cup of hot water and a tea bag.
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Mark Rutland: Before I was drafted into Rutland's Mrs Taylor, I had notions of being a zoologist. I still try to keep up with my field.
Marnie Edgar: Zoos?
Mark Rutland: Instinctual behavior.
Marnie Edgar: Oh. Does zoology include people, Mr Rutland?
Mark Rutland: Well, in a way. It includes all the animal ancestors from whom man derived his instincts.
Marnie Edgar: A lady's instinct too?
Mark Rutland: Well, that paper deals with the instincts of predators. What you might call the criminal class of the animal world. Lady animals figure very largely as predators.
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Marnie Edgar: If you don't want to go to bed, please get out.
Mark Rutland: But I do want to go to bed, Marnie. I very much want to go to bed.
Marnie Edgar: No!
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Marnie Edgar: Are you still in the mood for killing?
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Marnie Edgar: I don't believe in luck.
Mark Rutland: What do you believe in?
Marnie Edgar: Nothing. Oh, horses, maybe. At least they're beautiful, and nothing in this world like - people.
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Mark Rutland: You're very sexy with your face clean.
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Marnie Edgar: Why don't you love me, Mama? I've always wondered why you don't.
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Marnie Edgar: The only way you can help me is to leave me alone! Can't you understand? Isn't it plain enough? I cannot bear to be handled!
Mark Rutland: By anybody? Or just me?
Marnie Edgar: You. Men!
Mark Rutland: Really? You didn't seem to mind at my office that day, or at the stables. And all this last week i've handled you. Kissed you many times. Why didn't you break out in a cold sweat and back into a corner then?
Marnie Edgar: I thought I could stand it if I had to.
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Marnie Edgar: You Freud, me Jane?
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Mark Rutland: Did you have a tough childhood, Mrs Taylor?
Marnie Edgar: Not particularly.
Mark Rutland: I think you did. I think you've had a hard, tough climb. But you're a smart girl, aren't you? The careful grammar, the quiet good manners. Where did you learn them?
Marnie Edgar: From my betters.
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Mr. Rutland: The best thing for the inside of a man or a woman is the outside of a horse.
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Lil Mainwaring: I'm queer for liars.
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Mark Rutland: Now, don't crowd me, lady! I'm fighting a powerful impulse to beat the hell out of you!
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Mark Rutland: Here we are, old bean: the homestead.
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Marnie Edgar: How did you find me?
Mark Rutland: You're here to answer the questions, old girl.
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Mark Rutland: When we get home, I'll explain that we had a lover's quarrel... That you ran away... That I went after you and brought you back. That'll please Dad. He admires action. Then I'll explain that we' re gonna be married before the week is out... That I can't bear to have you out of my sight. He also admires wholesome animal lust.
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[first lines]
Sidney Strutt: Robbed! Cleaned out! $9,967! Precisely as I told you over the telephone. And that girl did it. Marion Holland. That's the girl. Marion Holland.
First Detective: Can you describe her, Mr. Strutt?
Sidney Strutt: Certainly I can describe her: five feet five, 110 pounds, size 8 dress, blue eyes, black wavy hair, even features, good teeth.
[detectives unable to restrain laughter]
Sidney Strutt: Well what's so damn funny? There's been a grand larceny committed on these premises.
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Bernice Edgar: Oh, Marnie. You shouldn't spend all your money on me like you do.
Marnie Edgar: But that's what money's for: to spend. Like the Bible says, "Money answereth all things."
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Mark Rutland: You should try to be Marnie's friend.
Lil Mainwaring: I always thought a girl's best friend was her mother!
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Mark Rutland: Marnie, it's time to have a little compassion for yourself. When a child, a child of any age, Marnie, can't get love, it takes what it can get, any way it can get it. It's not so hard to understand.
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Marnie Edgar: Oh... it's you. Where's my mother?
Jessica 'Jessie' Cotton: She's making a pecan pie. For me.
Marnie Edgar: That figures.
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Mark Rutland: What you do need, I suspect, is a psychiatrist.
Marnie Edgar: Oh, men! You say "no thanks" to one of them and BINGO! You're a candidate for the funny farm.
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Marnie Edgar: In case you didn't recognise it, that was a rejection
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[Marnie takes a taxi back home, to a poor district by the wharf. There are girls skipping to a song]
Girls skipping: Mother, mother, I am ill. Send for the doctor over the hill. Call for the doctor. Call for the nurse. Call for the lady with the alligator purse... Mumps, said the doctor. Measles, said the nurse. Nothing, said the lady with the alligator purse. How many years will I live? One Two Three Four...
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Marnie Edgar: We don't need men, Mama. We can do very well for ourselves. You and me.
Bernice Edgar: A decent woman don't have need for any man. Look at you, Marnie. I told Miss Cotton, look at my girl Marnie. She's too smart to go gettin' herself mixed up with men - none of 'em!
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Marnie Edgar: Mark, I'd like to go freshen up a little.
Mark Rutland: Uh-uh. You're fresh enough.
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Marnie Edgar: I'm not a bit nervous, Mark.
Mark Rutland: You have no reason to be. You're unquestionably the best-looking woman here. The best-dressed. The most intelligent. And you're with me.
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Marnie Edgar: I don't need to read that muck to know that women are stupid and feeble and men are filthy pigs!
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Mark Rutland: I don't give one infinitesimal damn what Lil thought or thinks.
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Mark Rutland: Let's back up and see if you can turn that Mt. Everest of manure into a few facts.
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Marnie Edgar: I'd like to go back to sleep now.
Mark Rutland: Why? Your sleep seems even less agreeable than your waking hours.
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Sidney Strutt: Mr Rutland. I didn't know you were in town. Just had a robbery. Almost $10,000.
Mark Rutland: So I gathered. By a pretty girl with no references.
Sidney Strutt: You remember her. I pointed her out to you last time you were here. You said something about how I was improving the looks of the place.
Mark Rutland: Oh, that one! The brunette with the legs.
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Sidney Strutt: I knew she was too good to be true. Always so eager to work overtime, never made a mistake. Always pulling her skirt down over her knees as though they were a - national treasure. She seemed so nice. So efficient. So...
Mark Rutland: Resourceful?
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Marnie Edgar: Ah, there's my darling!
Mr. Garrett - Manager of Farm: That big spoiled baby of yours knew something was up. Tried to bite me twice already this morning.
Marnie Edgar: Oh, Forio, if you want to bite somebody, bite me.
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Bernice Edgar: I see that you've lighted up your hair, Marnie.
Marnie Edgar: A little. Why? Don't you like it?
Bernice Edgar: No. Too blonde hair always looks like a woman's tryin' to attract the man. Men and a good name don't go together.
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Marnie Edgar: My God! When I think of the things I've done to try to make you love me. The things I've done! What are you thinking now, Mama? About the things I've done? What do you think they are? Things that aren't *decent*, is that it? Well, you think I'm Mr Pemberton's girl. Is that why you don't want me to touch you? Is that how you think I get the money?
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Bernice Edgar: Wake up, Marnie. You're still dreaming. Get washed up. Supper's ready.
Marnie Edgar: I was having that old dream again. First the tapping and then...
Bernice Edgar: I said supper's ready.
Marnie Edgar: It's always when you come to the door. That's when the cold starts.
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Marnie Edgar: Well, Mr Ward, I have good training, but I've had very little actual experience. Kendall' s was my first real job. After I finished school, I was married. My husband was a CPA and he helped me keep up with my training. I learned a great deal more from him: accounting, cost-price, - even something about computers.
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Sam Ward: Now, why are we taking on someone without the proper references? You' re always such a stickler.
Mark Rutland: Let's just say I'm an interested spectator in the - passing parade.
Sam Ward: I don't get it.
Mark Rutland: You're not supposed to get it.
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Lil Mainwaring: Hello, Mr Sam. How's the curmudgeon business?
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Lil Mainwaring: Is Mark in there? I looking for a free lunch and somebody to cash a check for me. I thought I'd stick Mark for the lunch and you for the cash.
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Lil Mainwaring: Who's the dish?
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Mark Rutland: You seem to be terrified of some colors.
Marnie Edgar: No. No, what I'm terrified of is thunder and lightning.
Mark Rutland: You know, I wouldn't have pegged you as a woman terrified of anything.
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Marnie Edgar: Where are we going this time?
Mark Rutland: I thought it was time I brought you home to meet my old man.
Marnie Edgar: Well, you should've told me.
Mark Rutland: Oh, you're alright. Dad goes by scent. If you smell anything like a horse, you're in.
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Mark Rutland: [to Marnie] Here we are, old bean. The homestead.
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Mark Rutland: Mary, this is my father.
Marnie Edgar: How do you do, Mr Rutland?
Mr. Rutland: A girl, is it?
Mark Rutland: It's alright, Dad. She's not really a girl, she's a horse-fancier.
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Mark Rutland: Strong with a dash of rum for me.
Mr. Rutland: Spinster's tea. Mucking up tea with strong drink. Something sneaky about it, eh?
Lil Mainwaring: What's your opinion, Miss Taylor? Do you think old Mark here is a sneaky one?
Marnie Edgar: Possibly.
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Lil Mainwaring: I can't!
Mark Rutland: "When duty whispers low, thou must. Then youth replies, I can."
Lil Mainwaring: Ratfink! And you misquoted!
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Mark Rutland: Is Edgar your real name? And you're blonde. You'll save a good deal of time and make for better feeling all around if you just tell me the truth. Is Edgar your real name?
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Mark Rutland: I wouldn't be a bit surprised to hear that the rest of the haul is with your late husband, Mr Taylor. Somewhere around these parts I expect to find him happily reincarnated and the pockets of his good blue burial suit bulging with Rutland money.
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Mark Rutland: Now you're working with this naughty cousin Jessie.
Marnie Edgar: Nobody's working with me!
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Mark Rutland: You're a cold-practised, method-actress of a liar.
Marnie Edgar: I can't help it.
Mark Rutland: It would appear not.
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Mark Rutland: Now, suppose you just begin at the beginning.
Marnie Edgar: It's just like I told you. I was born in Richmond. We were poor. We were grindingly poor.
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Mark Rutland: our dates are all wrong. Previously you were employed by the firm of Strutt and Company. I saw you there once. Mr Strutt is the tax consultant for Rutland and Company. He pointed you out to me. You were a brunette then.
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Mark Rutland: We've established that you're a thief and a liar. Now, what is the degree? Are you a compulsive thief? A pathological liar?
Marnie Edgar: Oh, what difference does it make?
Mark Rutland: Some! It makes some difference - to me.
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Mark Rutland: The chronic use of an alias is not consistent with your story of - sudden temptation and unpremeditated impulse.
Marnie Edgar: What if you'd stolen almost $10,000, wouldn't you change your name?
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Marnie Edgar: Oh, God, Mark, if you let me go, I swear I'll...
Mark Rutland: I *can't* let you go, Marnie. Somebody's got to take care of you and help you. I can't turn you loose. If I let you go, I'm criminally and morally responsible.
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Mark Rutland: I phoned Marston and asked him if there was anyone around there that had horses for hire. He gave me the names of three. Yesterday, I drove up to The Plains, checked out the stables. No luck. But at the last place, the man said why didn't I try Garrod's over by Middleburg?
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Marnie Edgar: [emphastically] I told you I've never been married.
Mark Rutland: Near misses?
Marnie Edgar: No! And no lovers, no steadies, no beaus, no gentlemen callers, nothing!
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Mark Rutland: We'll just have to marry you off as Mary Taylor. It's perfectly legal. You can sign yourself 'Minnie Q Mouse' on a marriage licence, you're still legally married.
Marnie Edgar: But you know what I am. I'm 'Minnie Q Thief'! I'm - I'm a thief and a liar!
Mark Rutland: It seems to be my misfortune to have fallen in love with a thief and a liar.
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Marnie Edgar: Oh, Mark, if you love me, you'll let me go. Just let me go, Mark, please. Mark, you don't know me. Oh, listen to me, Mark. I am not like other people. I know what I am!
Mark Rutland: I doubt that you do, Marnie. In any event, we'll just have to deal with whatever it is that you are.
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Mark Rutland: Somebody's gotta take on the responsibility for you, Marnie. And it narrows down to a choice of me or the police, ol' girl.
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Mark Rutland: [after Lil gives Mark a long kiss] Take care, Lil. We'll send you a noble savage.
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Mark Rutland: [knocks on bathroom door] Would you like some bourbon to brush your teeth?
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Mark Rutland: Contrary to the movies and the Ladies Home Journal, the battleground of marriage is not, I repeat, not, the - bedroom. The real field of battle is the bath. It is in the bath and for the bath, that the lines are drawn and no quarter given. It seems to me, we are getting off to a dangerously poor start, darling. You've been in the bathroom exactly 47 minutes.
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Mark Rutland: What happened to you?
Marnie Edgar: Happened? Nothing. Nothing happened to me. I just never wanted anybody to touch me!
Mark Rutland: You ever tried to talk about it, to a doctor or somebody who could help you?
Marnie Edgar: No, why should I? I didn't want to get married. It's - degrading. It's animal!
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Mark Rutland: If I hadn't caught you, you'd have gone on stealing.
Marnie Edgar: No. No I wouldn't!
Mark Rutland: Yes, you would, again and again. Eventually, you would've got caught by somebody. You're such a tempting little thing. Some other sexual blackmailer would've got his hands on you. The chances of it being someone as permissive as me are pretty remote. Sooner or later, you'd have gone to jail. Or been cornered in an office by some angry old bull of a businessman who was out to take what he figured was coming to him. You'd probably have got him and jail. So I wouldn't say you were doing alright, Marnie.
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Mark Rutland: We'll talk this out tomorrow.
Marnie Edgar: There's nothing to talk out. I've told you how I feel. I'll feel the same way tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that!
Mark Rutland: Alright, Marnie. We won't talk about it until you want to. But we're gonna be on this damn boat for many days and nights. Let's just drop the whole thing for the present and try to get through this bloody honeymoon cruise with as much grace as possible. Let's try at least to be - kind to each other.
Marnie Edgar: Oh. Kind!
Mark Rutland: Alright, if that's too much, I'll be kind to you - and you'll be polite to me.
Marnie Edgar: You won't?
Mark Rutland: I won't. I give you my word. Now, let's try to get some rest, hm? How 'bout it? You in your little bed over there, and me, light years away in mine here.
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Mark Rutland: You've been an absolute darling about my sitting up reading so late. I'm boning up on marine life.
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Mark Rutland: Look, Marnie, for the present all we've got is the facade and we've got to live it.
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Mark Rutland: This is the drill, dear. Wife follows husband to front door. Gives and or gets kiss. Stands pensively as he drives away. Oh, a wistful little wave is optional.
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Marnie Edgar: Mark, are you - are you going to the office?
Mark Rutland: On the first day back after our honeymoon? How indelicate. No, I'm going down the road on a little errand.
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Lil Mainwaring: Mark, listen. I'm a good fighter if you need me. I mean, if you are in some kind of trouble. I have absolutely no scruples.
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Lil Mainwaring: Don't patronise me, Mark! That Mary-Marnie, brown-haired blonde you married so fast and sneaky and tried to hustle off to the South Pacific, for Pete's sake! I didn't have to overhear stuff about your not intending to go to jail too, to know that you're in some sort of fix.
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Lil Mainwaring: I always thought that a girl's best friend was her mother. Poor old Mark. Is her mother that ghastly? I mean, when the in-laws are so grim, you don't dare have them to the wedding. The usual excuse is poor health or the strain of the trip, you know? But to claim they're dead, now, come on!
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Mark Rutland: Lil, what is it you're up to? Out with it.
Lil Mainwaring: Me? I'm just offering you my services. Guerrilla fighter, perjurer, intelligence agent.
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Mark Rutland: She's having you on, Lil. It's some sort of gag. You've been ratty. She's set out to teach you some manners. You're being had, Lil.
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Mark Rutland: If I give you some books, will you read them?
Marnie Edgar: Your new homework? Frigidity In Women? The Psychopathic Delinquent and Criminal?
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Marnie Edgar: Why can't you just leave me alone?
Mark Rutland: Because I think you're sick, ol' dear.
Marnie Edgar: I'm sick? Well, take a look at yourself, ol' dear. You're so hot to play Mental Health Week, what about you? Talk about dream worlds! You've got a pathological fix on a woman, who's not only an admitted criminal but who screams if you come near her! So what about your dreams, Daddy dear?
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Marnie Edgar: Well, come on! I thought you wanted to play doctor, so let's play!
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Marnie Edgar: Okay, I'm a big movie fan. I know the games. Come on. Let's play. Shall I start with dreams or should we free-associate? Oh, Doctor, I'll bet you're just dying to free-associate. Alright now, you give me a word and I'll give you an association. You know, like: needles, pins; when a man marries, trouble begins.
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Marnie Edgar: You stare and blare and say you care, but you're unfair, you want a pair.
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Mark Rutland: Sex:
Marnie Edgar: Masculine, Feminine. Adam and Eve. Jack and Jill. I'll slap your filthy face if you come near me again, Jack!
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Mark Rutland: Strutt may be throbbing away out there in the night with vengeful fantasies, but the fact is he's a businessman! That means he's in the business of doing business.
Marnie Edgar: So?
Mark Rutland: So we try to do business.
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Bernice Edgar: Get out of my house. You get out! I don't need any filthy man comin' in my house no more!
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Bernice Edgar: You go on back to sleep, sugarpop.
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Sailor: Your old captain's gonna be here all through the night.
Marnie Quotes
Extended Reading
