The Spiral Staircase (1975)

Christopher Plummer: Dr. Sherman

Quotes 

• Blanche : Do you know that we have four hundred and eighty-five applications for next year's course already?

  Dr. Sherman : You know, I swear if I propose to you, you'd file it under "applications".

  Blanche : [pulling a book from the shelf and clearing her throat before she starts to read aloud]  On page eighteen, chapter three, rule four: "Many a good secretary has married her boss. No good boss has ever married his secretary." Quote, unquote.

  Dr. Sherman : [pointing to the now closed book in her hands]  I wrote that before you came in.

  Blanche : Why don't we go have a drink to that.

• Blanche : I thought we were testing management skills, Professor Sherman.

  Dr. Sherman : Well, blackmail is a management skill.

• Blanche : Fifty men, every three weeks, and they are all so boring. You know, I get asked the same two questions, five times a day, every day. Number one: Miss Blanche, how am I doin' on this course? And number two: Eh, would you like to slip up to my room after dinner?

  Dr. Sherman : And, eh, what do you tell them?

  Blanche : I tell them that they are here to have their potential as executives measured and that questions like that do not get asked by the President of General Motors.

• Dr. Sherman : There's a distinction between being dumb and being stupid. Except, in the vernacular.

• Dr. Sherman : Sibling rivalry has an honorable history, you know. Cain was *awful* mean to Able.

• Dr. Sherman : Blanche, have you decided where you're going to take your vacation?

  Oates : She's going to an island off Trinidad. It's called Tobago. We will be there for eight weeks.

  [sings] 

  Oates : Sun and sand, A sarong and you...

• Dr. Sherman : Little mouthless Helen.