Strangers May Kiss (1931)

Norma Shearer: Lisbeth

Photos 

Quotes 

• Lisbeth Corbin : I'm in an orgy, wallowing, and I love it.

• Steve : Ooh, what I heard about you in Paris, ooh.

  Lisbeth Corbin : And of course, like a true knight, you refused to believe it.

  Steve : Well, the first six or seven hundred times I did.

• De Bazan : I'm wild for you but I am a gentleman.

  Lisbeth Corbin : That's a wonderful combination.

• Alan : And now for the wicked city.

  Lisbeth Corbin : And a struggle for life, liberty and elbow room.

  Alan : Ha-ha. With 8 million slaves. Gosh, how I hate it.

  Lisbeth Corbin : We're the only free ones! Us two.

  Alan : And thus we'll stay.

  Lisbeth Corbin : Yes sir!

• Lisbeth Corbin : Come on, be the big broad-minded type, let's take Stevie along. What do you say?

• Geneva : Have a grand time?

  Lisbeth Corbin : Oh, seventh heaven... eighth, if there is one...

• Geneva : So, you still love him?

  Lisbeth Corbin : Oh, more than the earth, the sun, the moon or the stars - with the Milky Way thrown in for good measure.

  Geneva : My dear child, if you feel that way, why don't you marry him? Well, why don't you?

  Lisbeth Corbin : We don't believe in the awful necessity of marriage.

  Geneva : You mean, he doesn't.

  Lisbeth Corbin : I mean what I said.

• Lisbeth Corbin : And, by the way, when did you go conventional?

  Geneva : When I got sense. At present I'm carrying on a purely plutonic affair with a very rich man. Plutonic.

  Lisbeth Corbin : You're funny.

  Geneva : No, clever. I'll marry him someday. Unless he's smarter than I am.

  Lisbeth Corbin : Ha-ha. He isn't.

• Celia : Steve will be like that after you two have been married a year or so.

  Steve : Us married? Haven' t you heard? There's a goof named Alan.

  Celia : Who is he?

  Steve : He's the fly in the ointment. In fact, the ointment is practically all flies.

  Celia : Well, what is he?

  Lisbeth Corbin : Well, your honor, it's this way. You see, he writes.

  Steve : A foreign correspondent.

  Lisbeth Corbin : In a big way!

  Steve : One of those guys who's always horning in on revolutions. Having breakfast with Mussolini.

  Lisbeth Corbin : Wherever there's trouble in the world, he goes sits among it.

  Steve : And no more home ties than a floating kidney.

• Celia : Oh, but, seriously, I don't mean to be prying, but if your mother was still alive.

  Lisbeth Corbin : Dear Aunt Celia, I'm free, white and twenty-one.

  Steve : Sound in wind and limb.

  Lisbeth Corbin : Shut up. And I know my own mind.

  Steve : Oh, New York's ruined her. She has a mind of her own.

• Steve : Does he love you?

  Lisbeth Corbin : Well, if he doesn't, I'm just out of luck.

  Steve : I think I better kidnap you. You sound a little mad.

  Lisbeth Corbin : Ha-ha. Well, it's nice to be a little mad about someone.

• Lisbeth Corbin : [singing]  And all the world is gay but me.

• Lisbeth Corbin : [Picks up the phone]  Yes, hello. Hello.

  [to Geneva] 

  Lisbeth Corbin : Long distance, Boston.

  Geneva : Steve? Tell him you'll marry him. It will help him over the holidays.

  Lisbeth Corbin : Ha-ha. Merry Christmas.

  Geneva : Merry Christmas.

• Lisbeth Corbin : [Talking on the phone to a drunk Steve]  Marry you? If you were here now and could stand up, I might. I said, I might.

  Steve : I'll be there tomorrow. Sober as a judge.

  Lisbeth Corbin : Oh. And try to take me back to Boston? Pack me in mothballs? So you could come to New York with a bucket of red paint?

• Lisbeth Corbin : Alan! Is Santa Claus doing tricks or are you real?

• Alan : I'd hate terribly to hurt you.

  Lisbeth Corbin : Why, haven't you heard? Nowadays a girl may kiss - and ride on. Just as well as any man ever could.

  Alan : Let's see.

  Lisbeth Corbin : No-no. You came to explain, not to make love.

• Alan : Lisbeth, you're the darling of the world.

  Lisbeth Corbin : Ha-ha. And that's from an expert.

• Alan : Gosh, you're lovely!

  Lisbeth Corbin : Ha-ha. And we can always be good friends?

  Alan : Oh, yes.

• Lisbeth Corbin : It sounds like, fare-the-well.

  Alan : It's wrong to end so sweet a chapter like this. I'm going to a charming spot. Where the sun is warm, no noise, no hurry. Lazy people play funny music in the moonlight.

  Lisbeth Corbin : No wonder you love your job.

  Alan : Are you saying no?

• Alan : Do you know you haven't kissed me?

  Lisbeth Corbin : Ha-ha. Why, so I haven't, have I?

  Alan : You did, once or twice, you know.

  Lisbeth Corbin : Yes, but, I realize now we were - almost strangers.

  Alan : And I didn't half know how marvelous you are.

• Lisbeth Corbin : Well, this is a swell time to come in. Eight o'clock in the morning.

  Geneva : That's exactly the way I feel. Been up to Harlem for ham and eggs.

  Lisbeth Corbin : Oh, don't they serve them locally, anymore?

• Geneva : Any use in my telling you that you're making a mistake? No, I didn't think there was.

  Lisbeth Corbin : No power on earth can stop me.

  Geneva : Thank goodness your laundry came back yesterday. I knew a girl who forgot all of her best underclothes. It practically ruined Niagara Falls.

• Andrew : Now my dear girl, Steve is a good lad. And you know, after all, marriage still is the natural...

  Lisbeth Corbin : Oh, quit will you! You make me sick! You think women should all be shoved into a coop - like hens. That is, good women! The only important thing you don't mention at all. You can't tell me anything! Women aren't human things to you! They're either wives or sweethearts! Get a house - and some furniture and some rugs and a wife!

• Lisbeth Corbin : I wish we'd been born here. If we had, I wonder what would have happened?

  Alan : Well, some Saturday night I should probably have put on my best pair of velveteen panties, sneaked up under your window, sung a serenade and then said...

  [Goat bleats] 

  Alan : Ha-ha. Or, words to that effect.

• Lisbeth Corbin : We're not talking of the same things. You, with your revolutions!

• Steve : Gee whiz, Lisbeth. Talk about shocks.

  Lisbeth Corbin : Oh, but what a relief. Now you don't have to pack me in mothballs.

  Steve : Oh, darling.

  Lisbeth Corbin : Because I've seen life murmur and heard it glisten. I'm no longer the good woman in your life, Stevie.

  Steve : There are no good women.

  Lisbeth Corbin : Sorry to hear you say that.

• Steve : Do you know I've followed you from London to Berlin, from Berlin to Monte Carlo...

  Lisbeth Corbin : Ha-ha. And here I am. So get your little surprise dance all calmed down. Let's celebrate.

  Steve : Right-o. Lets.

• Steve : You look awful good to me.

  Lisbeth Corbin : Ha-ha. It's simply gorgeous, Stevie, you bobbing up like this. Really, thrilling.

  Steve : Oh, you're lying. But, I like it. I never gave you a thrill in your life.

  Lisbeth Corbin : I'm not lying. I try to find one kick for every 24 hours. You saved the day!

  Steve : Well, that's something.

  Lisbeth Corbin : [Toast]  Happy days!

  Steve : Here's mud in your eye.

• Steve : What have they done to you, buddy?

  Lisbeth Corbin : Who wants to know?

  Steve : Oh, come on now, come clean. It's your ol' pal.

  Lisbeth Corbin : Ha-ha. Don't worry about me. You see, I had a little bluebird, but no cage. Bluebird got away. Just a little gal who lost a bluebird.

• De Bazan : What an afternoon you have missed. There are six bulls. Each one, each one the most vicious. And you wouldn't come. Game, unexciting roulette you like better than bullfighting. Six bulls. Scaritto, he scratches three. Three! Himself, nearly killed. How thrilling. Its too bad. Too bad.

  Lisbeth Corbin : Sounds like a lot of bull, eh, Steve?

  Steve : Oh, yeah, you said it.

• De Bazan : This dance is to educate you. How you should arouse a man.

  Lisbeth Corbin : Ha-ha. A man shouldn't need it.

• Lisbeth Corbin : Oh, look here Steve, what's the matter with you? You've been out for fun all your life. Ha-ha. All you men are. I found that out. The sweet grand things that a girl dreams about, don't interest men at all. They're just a nuisance.

• Lisbeth Corbin : Did you ever think that a two-fisted drinker wasn't the answer to my maiden's prayer?

• Lisbeth Corbin : Ha-ha. Come on, it's all a grand hoot and we're buddies, aren't we. Free as wildcats!

• Steve : I was about to say something new. Deep and startling. Its the same old world it always was and it always will be.

  Lisbeth Corbin : Ha-ha. And life's like that.

  Steve : Ain't it just.

• Lisbeth Corbin : You don't mind, do you Steve? I'd like to be alone. Just a little while.

  Steve : Sure. If you want me, I'll be at Harry's Bar. After midnight, Zellies.

• Harry : Oh, it's nice enough, but, I'm getting fed up on musical shows.

  Lisbeth Corbin : Oh, they're great for us tired business women.

  Geneva : Don't believe him. If legs were mathematics, he'd be a second Einstein.