The Cobweb (1955)

Gloria Grahame: Karen McIver

Photos 

Quotes 

• Steven Holte : Artists are better off dead.

  Karen McIver : Why?

  Steven Holte : People pay more attention to them when they're dead. That's what's so troublesome.

  Karen McIver : Is that what you are, a painter?

  Steven Holte : They said Van Gogh was crazy because he killed himself. He couldn't sell a painting while he was alive, and now they're worth thirty million dollars. They weren't that bad then and they're not that good now, so who's crazy?

• [first lines] 

  Karen McIver : Can I give you a ride?

• Steven Holte : Red and green. Derain died last fall in a hospital. You wouldn't know who he was.

  Karen McIver : It happens I do.

  Steven Holte : Who?

  Karen McIver : A French painter. One of les Fauves.

  Steven Holte : He died in a hospital in a white bed in a white room, doctors in white standing around. The last thing he said was, "Some red, show me some red. Before dying, I want to see some red with some green."

• Steven Holte : Everybody's tilted here. That's why you didn't know who I was. You can't tell the patients from the doctors.

  Karen McIver : Oh, but I can.

  Steven Holte : How?

  Karen McIver : The patients get better!

• Karen McIver : What am I supposed to be doing?

  Dr. Stewart 'Mac' McIver : You're not supposed to be showing yourself off to my patients!

  Karen McIver : Give me one ounce of the attention you give them day and night!

  Dr. Stewart 'Mac' McIver : Now, what does that mean?

  Karen McIver : Just what you think it means!

• Dr. Stewart 'Mac' McIver : Oh, I see. You've been encouraging Dev by weeping on his shoulder.

  Karen McIver : I don't weep.

• Dr. Stewart 'Mac' McIver : What does that mean - that I'm neglecting the kids, too?

  Karen McIver : Yes, the only ones who get anything real from you are those professional children out at the clinic. Yesterday in school, they asked Rosie what she wanted to be when she grew up. Would you like to know what she answered? A patient!

• Karen McIver : Will you stop knowing everything about everything!

• Steven Holte : You talk a lot, don't you?

  Karen McIver : Don't you, ever?

  Steven Holte : I could talk your eyes out of your head.

• Steven Holte : I get out here.

  Karen McIver : You're from the clinic?

  Steven Holte : That's right. I'm - out of touch with reality.

• Dr. Stewart 'Mac' McIver : I'd be home more, Karen, if there were more to come home to.

  Karen McIver : What, for instance?

  Dr. Stewart 'Mac' McIver : A real woman.

  Karen McIver : You don't make me feel like a woman. What do you think I've been trying to tell you for months? I am a woman. I want to be one, but I - I have to feel I - I'm desired!

  Dr. Stewart 'Mac' McIver : Everyone thinks you're desirable.

  Karen McIver : Do you? Do you!

• Karen McIver : We've covered a lot of ground, for two people who have forgotten how to talk to each other. What do we do now?