- Gabriel Hoffman: [having just lost a fight with Mac] Is that guy blind?
- Marty: Demoralizin', ain't it?
- Hansen: Oh, you're blind sir?
- Duncan Maclain: Blind as a bat!
- Hansen: Excuse me sir I'm terribly sorry.
- Duncan Maclain: What is there to be sorry about? Plenty of great men were blind - Milton, Homer, they were blind, weren't they?
- Hansen: Yes, but they complained about it.
- Duncan Maclain: Oh, they did?
- Hansen: Yes sir. "O loss of sight, of thee I must complain! Blind among enemies, O, worse than chains, Dungeon, or beggary, or decrepit age..."
- Duncan Maclain: Any blood stains on the rug?
- Marty: The rug is like the body, there ain't any, not in front of the fireplace.
- Norma Lawry: What I really need is someone to commit a murder for me.
- Duncan Maclain: Oh, I can do that for you any time you want. Who's the victim?
- Norma Lawry: Do you remember Paul Gerente?
- Duncan Maclain: Yes, the dreariest leading man you ever had, and when you told me that you were engaged to him, I wanted to take you over my knee.
- Norma Lawry: Well, he's back. He's back in my life again. He's the leading man in that summer theater near our home, and he's making love to my step-daughter Barbara. She's 17. She's very headstrong--well, she's completely gone on him. She's Steven's only child. He adores her, and for Steven's sake as well as her own I simply had to tell her what a rotter Paul is.
- Norma Lawry: [On an empty theater stage, confronting Paul about her step-daughter.] You spoke just now of age. Barbara is only 17. Surely you could see that you could never make her happy? Don't hurt her, Paul.
- Paul Gerente: I have no intention of hurting her. Why should I hurt her?
- Norma Lawry: Because you're a vicious, self-centered man who's incapable of a decent emotion! Because...
- Norma Lawry: [wilting] I'm sorry I said that, Paul. Forgive me.
- Paul Gerente: No, you're not sorry, darling. You meant every word! I love Barbara - utterly and devotedly. If she'll have me, I'll marry her!
- Paul Gerente: [now gazing from the stage into the empty theater] All my life I've waited for someone like her: beautiful and talented! Alive, as a breath of spring! Now that I've found her, I'll never let her go.
- Norma Lawry: [clapping weakly] Brrravo! You ham!
- [walks off]