Toys in the Attic (1963)

Wendy Hiller: Anna Berniers, Julian's sister

Quotes 

• Anna Berniers : How is the shoe factory?

  Julian Berniers : What shoe factory?

  Anna Berniers : The shoe factory that you bought in Chicago.

  Julian Berniers : Oh, that shoe factory. It's gone.

  Anna Berniers : Don't be flip with me, Julian.

  Carrie Berniers : He's not. He's just trying to explain.

  Julian Berniers : No, I'm not. I'm trying to explain anything. I was being flip. I forget. You worry about the money I lose.

• Carrie Berniers : [Upset]  You were all I ever had. I don't love you anymore.

  Anna Berniers : That was the chance I took.

• Carrie Berniers : You will be lonely.

  Anna Berniers : That's all right. I always have been.

• Carrie Berniers : What are you doing?

  Anna Berniers : Trying to understand.

  Carrie Berniers : Is it really...?

  Anna Berniers : Yes, it really says we own this house.

  Carrie Berniers : This house - this awful, awful house! Doesn't he know that we always hated it? Just always, always, always, always.

  Anna Berniers : You used to tell him how much we liked it.

  Carrie Berniers : Well, you know that was only to keep him from being ashamed of the house and what we didn't have.

  Anna Berniers : Well... we've been rewarded.

• Anna Berniers : Don't you know what's the matter? Don't you know? You want to sleep with him. You always have. Years ago, I used to be frightened that you would try and I would watch you and suffer for you.

• Carrie Berniers : [Confused]  Where are you going?

  Julian Berniers : [Referring to his wife, Lily]  To find her.

  [to Anna] 

  Julian Berniers : Yes?

  Anna Berniers : [Smiles]  Yes.

  Julian Berniers : I'll be leaving now, big sister. You understand?

  Anna Berniers : I understand.

  Julian Berniers : You're crying.

  Anna Berniers : I'm happy.

• Anna Berniers : Is that you, Carrie?

  Carrie Berniers : Yes, I just got home. Oh, it's hot.

  Anna Berniers : Did you have a hard day?

  Carrie Berniers : Well, he let me leave the office right after lunch. He said, "You're looking a little peaked, Miss Berniers, from the heat." Well, I said, "I have been looking a little...

  [sighs] 

  Carrie Berniers : ... peaked from the heat for years. You just mean you're hot and you want to go home, you old faker." I said - only I said it to myself.

  Anna Berniers : We had a private sale at the store - winter coats on a day like this.

  Carrie Berniers : So, anyway, I left early, and I took some flowers to the cemetery.

  Anna Berniers : Everybody still there?

  Carrie Berniers : Oh, nobody goes to see anybody in the summer. Yet those we have passed away must be just as lonely in the summer as they are in the winter. Sometimes, I think we shouldn't have put mama and papa out at Mount Olive Cemetery, maybe it would have been nicer for them out at Mount Great Hope with the new rich people. What do you think if we don't get buried at Mount Olive with mama and papa?

  Anna Berniers : Any place that's cool.

• Anna Berniers : Julian, let the police help.

  Julian Berniers : What for? They'd only laugh at me. Julian Berniers with a $150,000 in his pocket - you think they'd swallow that?

• [last lines] 

  Carrie Berniers : You can't go, Julian. Not now. You're - you're sick. Let us put you back on your feet just for a little while.

  Julian Berniers : I'm on my feet now.

  Carrie Berniers : Oh, what are you gonna do? Go to her mother and live off her?

  Julian Berniers : That wouldn't be much different from living off of you, would it?

  Carrie Berniers : You need us. How far have you ever gotten without us? How far do you think you're gonna get now?

  Julian Berniers : I'll get as far as my wife and then as far as a hospital where there's a woman who needs my help a hell of a lot more than I need yours. After that, I don't know, but I can't go any lower, so it's bound to be up.

  Carrie Berniers : [to Julian tauntingly as he leaves the house]  Ha. Ha. Ha! Big, brave man. How long do you think that's going to last? Well, go on. Go on back to your crazy wife. You'll come crawling back here, you'll see. 'Cause you always have, you hear me? You've been a failure all your life. What makes you think it's going to change now? You hear me? You've been a failure. You have been a no account and a failure and you'll never be anything else. Julian! Julian! Julian!

  [Breaks down and cries] 

  Carrie Berniers : Oh, Julian, don't go, please, don't go. Julian!

  [Runs to Anna] 

  Carrie Berniers : Oh, Anna, he's gone. But he'll come back. Won't he? won't he?

  Anna Berniers : [Leaving the house]  Goodbye, Carrie.

  Carrie Berniers : But he'll want you here when he comes back. He'll want us both the way it was.

  [Anna walks away] 

  Carrie Berniers : Ha! Ha! You'll be back too. You don't fool me.

  [She goes back into the house] 

  Carrie Berniers : And he'll be back too. I know he will be back. Because he always does comes back. Always. And when he does, we'll all just pretend that none of this ever happened. None of it. And then he'll take me in his arms and he'll say 'Carrie-pie, I'm sorry... I'm sorry. I'm sorry... I'm sorry."

  [She cries and collapses on the staircase]