Blithe Spirit (1945)

Constance Cummings: Ruth Condomine

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Quotes 

• Violet Bradman : Can you foretell the future?

  Madame Arcati : Certainly not. I disapprove of fortune-tellers most strongly.

  Violet Bradman : Oh, really - why?

  Madame Arcati : Too much guesswork and fake mixed up with it - even when the gift is genuine - and it only very occasionally is - you can't count on it.

  Ruth Condomine : Why not?

  Madame Arcati : Time again. Time is the reef upon which all our frail mystic ships are wrecked.

  Ruth Condomine : You mean because it has never yet been proved that the past and the present and the future are not one and the same thing?

  Madame Arcati : I long ago came to the conclusion that nothing has ever been definitely proved about anything.

• Charles Condomine : I haven't forgotten Elvira. I remember her very distinctly, in deed. I remember how fascinating she was and how maddening. I remember how her gay charm when she'd achieved her own way over something and her extreme acidity when she didn't. I remember her physical attractiveness, which was tremendous, and her spiritual integrity which was nil.

  Ruth Condomine : Was she more physically attractive than I am?

  Charles Condomine : That's a very tiresome question, darling. It fully deserves a wrong answer.

• Ruth Condomine : You called us back and you've done nothing but try to get rid of us ever since we came. Hasn't he, Elvira?

  Elvira Condomine : He certainly has.

  Ruth Condomine : Now, owing to your idiotic inefficiency, we find ourselves in this mortifying position. We're neither fish, flesh fowl, nor - whatever it is.

  Charles Condomine , Elvira Condomine : Good red herring.

• Charles Condomine : Anything interesting in The Times

  Ruth Condomine : Don't be silly, dear.

• Ruth Condomine : [to Charles]  Now I want you to come upstairs with me and go to bed.

  Elvira Condomine : The way that woman harps on bed.

• Ruth Condomine : Edith, you know the cocktail shaker?

  Edith : Yes 'em.

  Ruth Condomine : Well, I want you to fill two of those long stem glasses from it and bring them up here.

  Edith : Yes 'em.

  Ruth Condomine : And Edith, as you're not in the Navy, its unnecessary to do everything on the double.

  Edith : Very good, ma'am.

  Ruth Condomine : And Edith, when you're serving dinner, try to remember to do it calmly, methodically.

  Edith : Yes 'em.

  Ruth Condomine : Now, go and get the cocktails.

• Charles Condomine : You're very glacial this morning.

  Ruth Condomine : Are you surprised?

• Charles Condomine : Drunk?

  Ruth Condomine : You had two strong dry martinis before dinner. A great deal too much burgundy at dinner. Heaven knows how much port and kimmel with Dr. Bradman while I was doing my best to entertain that mad woman. And two large brandies later. I gave them to you myself. Of course you were drunk.

• Ruth Condomine : Alcohol will ruin your whole life if you allow it to get ahold on you, you know.

  Charles Condomine : Once and for all, Ruth, I'd like you to understand that what happened last night was nothing whatever to do with alcohol! I grant you it may have been some form of psychic delusion, but I was stone cold sober from first to last.

• Ruth Condomine : Madame Arcati, I'm profoundly disturbed and I want your help.

  Madame Arcati : Splendid! I thought as much. Fire away.

• Madame Arcati : You say she's visible only to your husband?

  Ruth Condomine : Yes.

  Madame Arcati : Visible only to husband. Audible too, I presume?

  Ruth Condomine : Extremely audible.

• Charles Condomine : What do you suppose induced Agnes to leave us?

  Ruth Condomine : The reason was becoming increasingly obvious, dear.

  Charles Condomine : Yes. We must keep Edith in the house more.

• Madame Arcati : Some mediums prefer Indians, of course. But, personally I've always found them unreliable.

  Ruth Condomine : In what way, unreliable?

  Madame Arcati : Well, to start with, they're frightfully lazy. Also, when faced with any sort of difficulty, they're apt to go off into their own tribal language - which is naturally unintelligible. That generally spoils everything and wastes a good deal of time.

• Madame Arcati : We might contact a poltergeist - which would be extremely destructive and noisy.

  Ruth Condomine : In what way destructive?

  Madame Arcati : They throw things, you know.

  Ruth Condomine : No. I didn't know.

• Ruth Condomine : There's no need to be aggressive, Charles. I'm doing my best to help you.

• Ruth Condomine : Oh, to blazes with Elvira!

• Ruth Condomine : I gather you got some sort of plan behind all this? I'm not quite a fool.

  Charles Condomine : Ruth, Elvira is here! She's standing a few yards away from you!

  Ruth Condomine : Yes, dear, I can see her distinctly - under the piano with a zebra!

  Charles Condomine : But, Ruth...

  Ruth Condomine : I'm not going to stay here arguing any longer.

• Charles Condomine : But, listen, Ruth, please...

  Ruth Condomine : I will not listen to any more of this nonsense. I'm going upstairs to bed now. I shall leave you to turn off the lights. I won't be asleep. I'm much too upset. So, you can come in and say good night to me. If you feel like it.

• Charles Condomine : Its extraordinary about daylight, isn't it?

  Ruth Condomine : How do you mean?

  Charles Condomine : Oh, it introduces everything to normal.

• Ruth Condomine : Now look here, Charles, this display of roguish flippancy might have been alluring. In a middle-aged novelist it's nauseating.

  Charles Condomine : I don't see what I've done that's so awful?

  Ruth Condomine : You behaved abominably last night. You wounded me and insulted me.

  Charles Condomine : I was a victim of an aberration.

  Ruth Condomine : Nonsense. You were drunk.

• Charles Condomine : I know I wasn't drunk. If I'd been all that drunk, I should have a dreadful hangover, shouldn't I?

  Ruth Condomine : I'm not at all sure that you haven't.

  Charles Condomine : Well, I haven't the trace of a headache. My tongues not coated. Look at it.

  Ruth Condomine : I haven't the least desire to look at your tongue. Kindly put it in again.

• Ruth Condomine : Will you be in for lunch, Charles?

  Charles Condomine : Please don't worry about me. I shall be perfectly happy with a bottle of gin in my bedroom.

  Ruth Condomine : Don't be silly dear.

• Ruth Condomine : You called me a guttersnipe. You told me to shut up. And when I quietly suggested we should go upstairs to bed, you said, with the most disgusting leer, it was an immoral suggestion.

  Charles Condomine : I was talking to Elvira.

• Ruth Condomine : Charles, dear, if you weren't drunk, how do account for it?

  Charles Condomine : I can't account for it. That's what's so awful.

  Ruth Condomine : What did you have for lunch?

  Charles Condomine : You ought to know, you had it with me.

  Ruth Condomine : Let me see. It was lemon sole - and that cheese thing.

  Charles Condomine : Why should having a cheese thing for lunch make me see my deceased wife after dinner?

  Ruth Condomine : You never know, it was rather rich.

  Charles Condomine : Well, why didn't you see your dead husband then? You had just as much of it as I did.

• Madame Arcati : You're just in time for a cup of tea. That's if you don't mind China?

  Ruth Condomine : Not at all.

  Madame Arcati : I never touch Indian. It upsets my vibrations.

• Charles Condomine : If only you'd make an effort to be a little more friendly to Elvira, we might all have quite a jolly time.

  Ruth Condomine : I have no wish to have a jolly time with Elvira!

• Ruth Condomine : For heaven's sake, stop looking like a wounded spaniel and concentrate. This is serious.

• Madame Arcati : Insufferable! I've never been so insulted in my life! I feel we have nothing more to say to one another, Mrs. Condomine.

  Ruth Condomine : But Madam Arcati, please.

  Madame Arcati : Your attitude from the outset has been most unpleasant.

• Ruth Condomine : This is definitely one of the most frustrating nights I've ever spent.

  Elvira Condomine : The reply to that is pretty obvious.

  Ruth Condomine : I'm sure I don't know what you mean.

• Ruth Condomine : It's clouding over.

  Charles Condomine : You have a genius for under statement.