House of Women (1962)

Margaret Hayes: Zoe Stoughton

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Quotes 

• Warden Frank Cole : [discussing cutting prison expenses]  There are other expenses that can be cut, too. Electricity- from now on all radios and lights off a half hour earlier.

  Zoe Stoughton : But the inmates would consider that a disciplinary measure, warden.

  Warden Frank Cole : Good. It'll wake 'em up to a change that's going to happen around here.

  Dr. F.M. Conrad : Well, Mr. Lathrop, the last warden, had a different...

  Warden Frank Cole : [interrupts]  That's why he's no longer here.

  Dr. F.M. Conrad : He felt the welfare of the inmates was more important than a few dollars.

  Warden Frank Cole : The welfare of the inmates? Pickpockets, check kiters, blackmailers, drunks, prostitutes, hopheads... coming in and out of here as through a revolving door. I'm sorry, but I have no use for any of them.

  Dr. F.M. Conrad : I still think they're human beings.

  Warden Frank Cole : I'm not even sure of that. That's all.

  [meeting ends] 

• Candy Kane : [after telling the parole board she doesn't want to be paroled]  You see, I've been in and out of jail ever since I was 11 years old, which proves that I didn't have much of a mind to begin with. And do you know why I've done so much time? The paroles kept bringing me back to each and every joint.

  Mrs. Leighton : There must be *some* good about parole.

  Candy Kane : Only it's got so many "don'ts" attached to it... you're licked before you start.

  Mrs. Bartlett : Uh, just what do you mean, Candy?

  Candy Kane : Well, to begin with, Mrs. Bartlett, you got a parole officer checkin' up on everything you do. *Everything*. How would you like to have another woman keeping cases on you? So's you have to get her permission even to go to the powder room. You ladies can buy yourselves a drink any time you want to. You can get swacked if you want to. Me, I'm out on parole. I'm afraid to buy myself a can of beer, 'cause they might arrest me and throw me back in the cooler. If I get a job, I gotta tell my parole officer, and she tells the man who wants to hire me that I'm an ex-con, so he don't want any part of me. I'm not allowed to mingle with ex-cons. Who's gonna take me out? The Vanderbilts, or the Rockefellas? I gotta get permission to marry or to die. And even then they're liable to turn me down. Without meaning any disrespect, I would suggest that you take your parole and sh...

  Zoe Stoughton : [shocked]  Candy!

  Candy Kane : Give it to somebody who really wants it. Me, I've had it. And believe me, it stinks.