A Letter to Three Wives (1949)

Ann Sothern: Rita Phipps

Photos 

Quotes 

• Rita Phipps : People in the show business, you know what I mean, those kind of people always drink scotch.

  George Phipps : Well, I know what you mean, but I wish you wouldn't say it in radio English. "That kind", not "those kind".

  Rita Phipps : There are men who say "those kind" who earn $100,000 dollars a year.

  George Phipps : There are men who say "stick 'em up" who earn more. I don't expect to do either.

• Lora Mae Hollingsway : [amused by Sadie's maid uniform]  Sadie Dugan, what are you supposed to be, Baby Snooks?

  Sadie : Hiya Lora Mae.

  Lora Mae Hollingsway : Get a load of that cap - I can't wait to tell Ma!

  Rita Phipps : Lora Mae, would you sit there please?

  Porter Hollingsway : Come on, sit down.

  Sadie : There's a couple of things I could tell your Ma about you too.

  Mrs. Manleigh : This great situation belongs in a true-to-life drama - are you two related?

  Lora Mae Hollingsway : No we just had the same governess.

  Sadie : [laughing]  Ya kill me!

• Deborah Bishop : No. Let's wait. Why let Addie spoil our day.

  Rita Phipps : Not my day. Addie never saw the day she could spoil my day.

  [looks at Lora Mae] 

  Rita Phipps : Did I put enough days into that?

• Rita Phipps : [laying down the law to Sadie]  And lets get a couple of things straight. First, when you announce dinner...

  Sadie : I know, I'm not supposed to say "soup's on".

  Rita Phipps : How did I tell you?

  Sadie : I forgot.

  Rita Phipps : "Dinner is served"

  Sadie : [mockingly]  "Dinner is served"

  Rita Phipps : And you're not to say it as though the food were poisoned.

  Sadie : All this fancy schmanzy because two people from the city are gonna eat here.

  Rita Phipps : Mrs. Manley is a very important person; she has charge of a great many radio programs, including the one I write.

  Rita Phipps : You know what I like about your program? Even when I'm running the vacuum I can understand it.

  Rita Phipps : Thank you so much.

• Rita Phipps : Pardon my fingers.

• Lora Mae Hollingsway : [dressed to lead a group of children hiking]  Don't expected us back too soon - we kids are going after everything from sardines to wolves.

  Rita Phipps : [archly]  You'll have no trouble finding wolves, honey.

• Rita Phipps : [rising from country club dinner table to dance]  Let's get into this George - something tells me this is going to be QUITE a waltz.

• George Phipps : Come here. Sit down for a minute.

  [George and Rita sit down] 

  George Phipps : Look, Ri, let's put aside my nausea at the idea of working for the Manleighs. Let's put aside my personal likes and dislikes; they're not important. I'm willing to admit that to a majority of my fellow citizens I'm a slightly comic figure: an educated man.

  Rita Phipps : Nobody's asking you not to be. Think of the good you could do; maybe raise the standards?

  George Phipps : Of commercial radio? What's the phrase, "Wait for your laugh?"

  [Rita sighs] 

  George Phipps : I'm a schoolteacher. That's even worse than being an intellectual. Schoolteachers are not only comic they're often cold and hungry in this richest land on earth.

  Rita Phipps : And thousands are quitting every year to take jobs that pay them a decent living.

  George Phipps : That is unhappily true.

  Rita Phipps : Then why not you?

  George Phipps : Because I can't think of myself doing anything else!

  [Rita sighs again] 

  George Phipps : What would happen, do you think, if we all quit? Who'd teach the kids? Who'd open their minds and hearts to the real glories of the human spirit, past and present? Who'd help them along to the future? Radio sponsors? Comic strips? At that I've been luckier than most. Even without what you earn I've managed to keep our heads above water.

  Rita Phipps : It's quite a strain over a period of time with the water lapping at your chin.

  George Phipps : And that's where you've been a great help. You made it a lot easier for both of us. I'll admit it has upset my male ego from time to time.

  Rita Phipps : And your overdeveloped sense of taste and discrimination which is apparently equaled only by that of Addie Ross!

  George Phipps : Let's try to keep Addie out of this one.

  Rita Phipps : I am fed up with taste and discrimination!

  George Phipps : You're not making sense!

  Rita Phipps : I'm fed up with your nobility and wisdom and superiority and your contempt for me and everything I try to do!

  George Phipps : You're talking nonsense.

  Rita Phipps : Everything I say is nonsense!