The Grass Is Greener (1960)

Deborah Kerr: Hilary Rhyall

Photos 

Quotes 

• Hilary Rhyall : Darling? I'm afraid I want to work on you, too.

  Victor Rhyall : Hmm, it's unlike you to warn me; but, work on me.

  Hilary Rhyall : Oh, you're so good to me.

• Victor Rhyall : [reading aloud, "Spring-Time" by William Ernest Henley]  "Oh, this gracious and thirsting and aching unrest, All life's at the bud, And my heart, full of April, Is breaking my breast."

  Victor Rhyall : Well, it's May the 9th. At least that's what I'm going to write on your check.

  Hilary Rhyall : Who said anything about a check?

  Victor Rhyall : You did: "this gracious and thirsting and aching unrest". That can only mean one thing, darling. New clothes.

• Victor Rhyall : You know something.

  Hilary Rhyall : What?

  Victor Rhyall : I wish to make a statement.

  Hilary Rhyall : What is it?

  Victor Rhyall : I adore you.

  Hilary Rhyall : Oh do you, darling. I'm so glad.

• Charles Delacro : Yes, Ma'am.

  Hilary Rhyall : Yes, and in England we only call the Queen "Ma'am".

  Charles Delacro : In the United States we try to make up for having no royalty by calling everyone Ma'am.

• Hilary Rhyall : Oh, Rose! I almost forgot. There's a hate on against milk puddings.

• Hilary Rhyall : Oh, you are clever, aren't you.

  Victor Rhyall : On the contrary, you're the one whose clever.

• Hilary Rhyall : I just wanted to ask you if I could use some of my mushroom money?

• Hilary Rhyall : Perhaps you'd like to help yourself.

  Charles Delacro : Alright, thank you.

  Hilary Rhyall : I imagine it's something you're quite used to. Helping yourself, I mean.

  Charles Delacro : Was that a crack or a compliment?

  Hilary Rhyall : Well, which do you think it is?

  Charles Delacro : Well, in my country I'd probably consider it a compliment. Here it's probably a crack.

• Charles Delacro : Would you like me to fix you a drink?

  Hilary Rhyall : Fix? You sound as if you're going to drug me or something.

• Charles Delacro : I'm an oil man.

  Hilary Rhyall : Oh, you're a millionaire!

  Charles Delacro : As a matter of fact, I am.

  Hilary Rhyall : Oh. Well. Won't you sit down?

  Charles Delacro : Thank you. Tell me, why were you so uh - why were you so sure I was a millionaire?

  Hilary Rhyall : Well, nearly all the Americans I meet seem to be. Especially the oily ones.

• Hilary Rhyall : You know by rights, you should be in the library by now. Enjoying "Portrait of a Burgermeister" by Van Dyck, "Lady Ryall and Children" by Nasmyth circa 1800 unfinished, "Henrietta Maria, the Wife of Charles I" by Rowlandson, and two mirrors by Robert Adam. Why don't you go and look at them?

  Charles Delacro : Because I'd rather look at you.

  Hilary Rhyall : Well, I'm not on exhibition.

  Charles Delacro : May I take a picture of you? "Portrait of the 20th Century Lady of Fashion" by Delacro.

• Charles Delacro : Your grandfather was probably a nobleman. Mine was a clockmaker.

  Hilary Rhyall : And now you're a millionaire, and I'm a mushroom grower. Oh well, there you are. That's the way the world wags.

• Victor Rhyall : How was the fishing?

  Charles Delacro : Well, on the whole, it was pretty fair. There were some big fish around, but I'm afraid your friend, Josh Peters, did a lot better than I did.

  Victor Rhyall : Well, and so he should. He knows that water as well as he know his own wife. Much prefers it, too.

  Hilary Rhyall : Oh, Victor, don't be vulgar.

• Victor Rhyall : Did you say you had rather a lot to do, darling?

  Hilary Rhyall : Oh! Yes, yes, I have. I must go and finish the mushrooms.

  Victor Rhyall : [reading aloud]  "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors wife, nor his ox, nor his ass..."

• Hilary Rhyall : Darling, I'm in such a muddle I don't know what I believe.

• Hilary Rhyall : Perhaps you don't understand Englishmen very well.

  Charles Delacro : Well, who does?

  Hilary Rhyall : Englishwomen.

• Hilary Rhyall : I don't trust Victor when he's genial.

  Hattie Durant : I don't trust him, period.

• Hilary Rhyall : I can give no guarantee of what I'm going to do or how I'm going to behave. Do you find that shocking?

  Hattie Durant : Well, coming from you I do, rather. Ah, surprising anyway. Of course, it's the sort of feeling I've been having ever since I was about 11.

• Hilary Rhyall : Well, you must be out of your mind. Dueling? I've never heard of anything so preposterous. You're the Earl of Rhyall, not the Count of Monte Cristo.

• Hilary Rhyall : I thought you were an intelligent, civilized person, and you behave like a barbarian.

• Victor Rhyall : If your mistress is unfaithful. She should be discarded. If your wife is - she should be befriended.

  Hilary Rhyall : Befriended? Meaning helped and patronized?

  Victor Rhyall : Meaning beloved and cherished. Unless she's a promiscuous trollop of course. Then the situation's out of control and quite hopeless.

  Hilary Rhyall : I am not a promiscuous trollop!

• Hilary Rhyall : Surely, you must see it's very tempting.

  Victor Rhyall : Oh yes, indeed. The grass is always greener on the other side of the hedge. You ought to think it over very carefully.

• Hilary Rhyall : How do I know that you're not a promiscuous - well, whatever the masculine is of trollop?

• Victor Rhyall : Who said anything about divorce? I never mentioned it. I don't like divorce. What's more, I don't think adultery is a sufficient ground for it.

  Hilary Rhyall : Oh, what a masculine attitude.

  Victor Rhyall : I don't think marriage is just a liaison to be terminated when the sexual side of it gets boring or irksome to either party.

  Hilary Rhyall : Oh, it's never been boring or irksome. Not for me, it hasn't.

• Hilary Rhyall : You can always tell how much a doll is loved by its state of dilapidation.

• Hilary Rhyall : I see. And wash that man right out of my hair. Is that the idea?

  Victor Rhyall : Mmm-hmm. I think the next line was: and send him on his way. Which I sincerely hope you'll do. The bloody tourist. Let him go sightseeing somewhere else.