Titanic (1953)

Barbara Stanwyck: Julia Sturges

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Quotes 

• Richard Sturges : [after Richard and Julia have been quarreling over who will have custody of their son]  My dear Julia, I've been around enough bridge tables to recognize someone who's holding a high trump - play it now if you will.

  Julia Sturges : We'll discuss it later.

  Richard Sturges : Now!

  Julia Sturges : All right, Richard. One question first?

  Richard Sturges : If it's about Norman, you know the answer. No court in the world, no power in the heavens can force me to give up my son.

  Julia Sturges : He is not your son.

• Annette Sturges : Mama, you should have protested. It's a really bad table. There's not a person we know at the end of this room.

  Julia Sturges : Be brave Annette. These tragedies happen sometimes in life.

• Richard Sturges : [after Richard has rejected his son Norman when Richard discovers that he is not Norman's true father]  As you pointed out, Norman and I began as strangers. So be it.

  Julia Sturges : Oh, my poor Richard. How you hate me, and for the wrong reasons. Not because I committed an offense against common decency, but because Norman isn't an elegant extension of Richard Ward Sturges. For you what happened isn't a mortal sin, it's an inexcusable breach of etiquette.

  Richard Sturges : Thank you, Julia. I stand reproved.

• Richard Sturges : I wonder if you'd tell me, Julia. Have I been the laughing stock of our friends all these years? Does everybody know?

  Julia Sturges : No one except you and me.

  Richard Sturges : Aren't you forgetting at least one other person?

  Julia Sturges : Not even he. I never saw him again.

  Richard Sturges : What very good manners.

  Julia Sturges : There's no way for me to make it seem right. It happened after one of those endless rows and private humiliations, in the days before you made me over into your image. One of the summers we had the beach house. I'd left a party because I knew I'd cry if there was one more reference made to my gaucherie, to the... to the dress I had chosen to wear. On the beach by our cottage a young man was skipping stones across the water. He assured me he was not a burglar, and we began to talk. He said something admiring to me when I needed it most, a pure, sweet, unsolicited compliment. I... I took his face in my hands, and kissed him out of gratitude. You... you needn't trouble yourself as to who he was, except that he was a much nicer person than you or I.

• Julia Sturges : Oh Richard, where did we miss out on each other? I beg your pardon, Sir. I put you down as a useless man, someone to lead a cotillion.

  Richard Sturges : After all, it was my major talent.

  Julia Sturges : I'm sorry, sorry about everything.

  Richard Sturges : We have no time to catalog our regrets. All we can do is pretend 20 years didn't happen. It's June again. You were walking under some elm trees in a white muslin dress, the loveliest creature I ever laid eyes on. That summer, when I asked you to marry me, I pledged my eternal devotion. I would take it as a very great favor, Julia, if you would accept a restatement of that pledge.

  [They embrace passionately] 

• Richard Sturges : Finish your coffee, Julia. Then, we'll take a little walk around the deck while I tell you what I think of you.

  Julia Sturges : I have no interest in what you have to say, and I'm in no hurry to finish my coffee.

• Julia Sturges : [after losing the argument with Richard, when their daughter decides not to stay with her mother in Michigan but to return to Europe with her father on the next boat]  Thank you, Richard. You were most helpful. Now you see why I wanted to steal a little more time.

  Richard Sturges : Please, Julia. Let's not bicker, since there's no love lost between us.

  Julia Sturges : That's the tragic part, Richard. There's been so much love lost between us.

• Rev. Headley : [after Julia has escorted the inebriated Rev. Headley back to his cabin]  I want to thank you for not mentioning my strange luggage.

  Julia Sturges : Are you a minister?

  Rev. Headley : Priest. Or, rather, I was until last week. At three o'clock on April the eighth, my duties, my privileges, as a servant of God were formally terminated. It was this.

  [indicating a bottle] 

  Rev. Headley : You know why I started, at least the reason I gave myself? A priest in a slum parish knows all the sadness of the world. He needs support. I used to lean on a little Hennessey's. Just a little at first. People said, "Well, that's only natural. Young Father has a bad cold." But it got so I used to have those colds in the middle of July. Lots of 'em. I can hear the bishop's voice now: "You prefer that stuff to your God?" Well, God and I knew better, but I couldn't stop because I had a private devil all my own. In Rome, they were very kind, but they were very final. I was sacked, and prayed for, and sent off in the morning. How do you cover that in ten words, in a wireless, to a family that loved you and sacrificed for you?

  [pause] 

  Rev. Headley : You see, my dear lady, you're not the only one who walks in trouble.

  Julia Sturges : [after a pause, understandingly]  Good night.

• Richard Sturges : You crazy woman. You're talking about the most important thing in my life. I have plans for Norman.

  Julia Sturges : What plans? That he should grow up to be you?

  Richard Sturges : Possibly. I'm satisfied. Is it so extraordinary that I should want to have some hint, some portion of myself survive?

  Julia Sturges : Some portion of... Oh yes, I forgot, the best dressed man of his day. That's what they're going to put on your tombstone. Well, that may be all right for you, but I won't have it for Norman. He stays with me!

• Julia Sturges : Before you go down and eat and drink, you'd better know how things are going to be. I've given up on Annette. Her standards will always be the chic club, the best table, the royal enclosure, and that's her decision. She's almost of age. But, Norman is still a child. I'm not taking any chances with him. He stays in America.

  Richard Sturges : Now wait a minute, Julia. What is this all about?

  Julia Sturges : I should think it would be perfectly clear. I'm not going to see Norman thrown away. He stays with me. And if you try to interfere, I'll be as common as you think I am! I'll fight you tooth and nail! I'll take you to the courts!

  Richard Sturges : [closing the cabin door]  Could you be common in a slightly lower voice.

  Julia Sturges : I'll say it in any tone you want! I'll whisper it. I'll write it down, but that's the way it's going to be! He stays with me!

• Julia Sturges : Where's Norman? Norman? Norman!

  Undetermined Role : He gave a woman up front his seat.

  Julia Sturges : Norman! Norman!

• Richard Sturges : They're loading your lifeboat. I'd better go to my own. It's on the other side.

  Julia Sturges : It will be a long walk, Richard, but thank you for lying. I know you're trying to make it easy for us.

  Richard Sturges : This way is easier for me, too.

• Julia Sturges : Richard, please try to see this sanely. We're Americans, we belong in America. And yet for years, we've been galloping all over Europe to be at the proper places at the proper time: winter in St. Moritz, Deauville in season, summer in... oh, what's the use, the same silly calendar year after year. Look at Annette!

  Richard Sturges : I have, with great pride. She's entertaining, she's discriminating, she has grace and style.

  Julia Sturges : She's an arrogant little prig.

  Richard Sturges : So, you've chosen to bring her back to the glories of Mackinac, Michigan.

  [Pronounces it "Mackinack" instead of the correct pronunciation of "Mackinaw"] 

  Julia Sturges : Any town in any state becomes comic on your lips. But comic or not, that's where she's going.