Ship of Fools (1965)

Vivien Leigh: Mary Treadwell

Photos 

Quotes 

• Mary Treadwell : If you can't get what you want, you damn well better settle for what you can get.

• Bill Tenny : What do they got against the Jews? Back home we don't have anything against the Jews. Hell I never even saw a Jew until I was fifteen.

  Mary Treadwell : Maybe you were too busy lynching negros to take time out for the Jews.

• Bill Tenny : I was in Vercaruz trying to teach them greasers to play ball. Man, they tried to poison me. You know, I had the runs for three weeks.

  Mary Treadwell : How interesting. I'd like to hear more about it.

• Mary Treadwell : Everybody on this ship is in love. Love me whether or not I love you. Love me whether I am fit to love. Love me whether I am able to love. Even if there is no such thing as love. Love me.

• Mary Treadwell : Tell me. Wouldn't it unnverve you to have an affair with me?

• Jenny Brown : David's an artist. A wonderful one. He's caught up with social conscience right now, but he'll get over that.

  Mary Treadwell : Is it serious?

  Jenny Brown : I never felt about anybody the way I do about David. Only that David thinks a woman should follow three paces behind - with slippers.

  Mary Treadwell : Men usually do. My husband certainly did.

• Mary Treadwell : You are not young Mrs. Treadwell. You have not been young

  [strikes match] 

  Mary Treadwell : for years.

  [lights cigarette] 

  Mary Treadwell : Behind those old eyes, you hide a sixteen year old heart. Poor fool.

  [puts cigarette out] 

  Mary Treadwell : Is that what men really find attractive?

  [tweaks hair and poorly applies makeup] 

  Mary Treadwell : Baby, you just haven't managed to grow up, Mrs. Treadwell - of Murray Hill, Virginia.

  [puts down makeup] 

  Mary Treadwell : Now,

  [spritzes on perfume] 

  Mary Treadwell : you can paint your toenails gooey

  [looks distressed] 

  Mary Treadwell : ... you know how it ends don't you - alone, sitting in a cafe, with a paid escort.

  [starts to cry] 

• Mary Treadwell : Oh, we put up a wonderful front in public. We were everybody's favorite couple, but, in private, it was something else again. He was jealous of me. So jealous of me, that he hit me. He hit me till I bled at the nose.

  Jenny Brown : I wonder whether David would beat me.

• Mary Treadwell : Forty-six. Me! Forty-six. I can't believe it. Forty-six.

  Lt. Huebner : Well, we Europeans are not as conscious of age as you are. Besides, when one looks as you do and arouses in people the feeling you do, does it really matter?

  Mary Treadwell : You're very kind, but it's the time when hearts grow cold and hard. Women lose their grace and become shrill. They run to fat or turn to beanpole. Take to secret drinking. They marry men too young for them and get just what they deserve. It's enough to scare anyone waiting for fear and loneliness to do their work.

  Lt. Huebner : Mrs. Treadwell, you are a very exciting woman, and you know it.

  Mary Treadwell : Tell me, would it unnerve you to have an affair with me?

• Mary Treadwell : What a wonderful sky. I'm sure you and your wife watch clouds together. I wish there was someone to watch clouds with me.

• Mary Treadwell : My God, he stalks them like a mountain lion. Did you see the make up on those girls? Do men really find that attractive?

  Lt. Huebner : Some, apparently do.

  Mary Treadwell : Hmmm. I would think that men would like to know what they were kissing.

• Lt. Huebner : Mrs. Treadwell, I am only a third grade officer on a second rate ship. It has given me the opportunity to observe people. I have seen women like you before. Forty-six year old women who are still coquettes. They travel on boats often, always searching for something. You know where that searching ends, Mrs. Treadwell? It ends by sitting in a nightclub with a paid escort who tells you the lies you must hear.

  Mary Treadwell : You are a most mundane, ordinary man. How extraordinary that a man like you is saying things like this to me. Probably true. I think this evenings festivities have come to an end.

• Mary Treadwell : What a hard trying race they are. English-style for breakfast, French-style for dinner. And every now and again a comfortable lapse back to sauerbraten, sauerkraut, and beans.

• Mary Treadwell : Did you see the makeup on those girls? Do men really find that attractive?

  Lt. Huebner : Some apparently do.

  Mary Treadwell : Hmmm. I would think that men would like to know what they were gettin'

• Lt. Huebner : Then why did you lead me on during this trip? You never considered my feelings at all, did you?

  Mary Treadwell : No. And I'm sorry for that.