Change of Habit (1969)

Elvis Presley: Dr. John Carpenter

Photos 

Quotes 

• Dr. John Carpenter : [after she reveals herself to be a nun, Dr. Carpenter is shocked]  You've got to be kiddin'.

  Dr. John Carpenter : I'm a member of the Order of the Little Sisters of Mary. We were only going to be here for two months. John, please say something.

  Dr. John Carpenter : I'll be damned.

• Dr. John Carpenter : You got to learn to start loving people. I'm gonna hold you till you get rid of all your hate. Get as mad as you can. Then you can start to give love and take love. Try to get away from me, baby. Try and get away.

• Sister Michelle : You certainly have a way with a compliment, doctor.

  Dr. John Carpenter : It's Southern charm, we call it.

• Sister Irene : I have used my vocation to get away from all the things I've ever known. Doctor, do you know what it is to be really poor? I mean, hungry? Frightened? To be black?

  Dr. John Carpenter : I've been all those things except black.

• Sister Michelle : You're the doctor?

  Sister Barbara : You don't look like a doctor.

  Dr. John Carpenter : Well, man doesn't live by bread alone, especially the kind of bread you make in a free clinic. John Carpenter, M.D.

• Sister Michelle : Doctor, we were sent here by the Catholic Action Committee.

  Dr. John Carpenter : Look, don't try to con me, honey.

  Sister Michelle : We were given to understand that you were desperately in need of nurses.

  Dr. John Carpenter : Well, that's my problem. It's got nothing to do with you chicks.

  Sister Michelle : We are the nurses they sent!

• Dr. John Carpenter : Great. Just great. I ask for three hard-nosed nurses and they send me Park Avenue debutantes.

  Sister Irene : Which end of Park Avenue do you figure I'm from, Doctor?

• Dr. John Carpenter : Honey, diplomacy starts and ends here at the point of a switchblade knife.

• Dr. John Carpenter : The last three nurses who worked here couldn't take it. Two of them got raped. One even against her will.

  Sister Michelle : We are very hard-nosed. Cute. But not hard enough.

  Dr. John Carpenter : [touches Michelle's nose]  Cute. But not hard enough.

• Dr. John Carpenter : Which one of you is in trouble?

  Sister Michelle : I beg your pardon?

  Dr. John Carpenter : Look, I know the whole story. You don't want to go to your family doctor uptown, so you figure you'd come here and get everything straightened out, right?

  Sister Michelle : We were sent here.

  Dr. John Carpenter : You came to the wrong place. 'Cause I won't do any more for you than I would any other kid who finds herself in the same fix. Whichever one of you is the lucky girl, follow me. I'll give you some vitamin pills and a diet sheet. Just try not to gain too much weight, especially in the first three months. All three of you? Uh, just out of curiosity, was it the same guy?

• Dr. John Carpenter : We celebrate by having a drink.

  Sister Michelle : Oh, we don't drink.

  Dr. John Carpenter : We don't drink?

  Sister Michelle : Well, uh, what I mean is - a little wine, occasionally.

• Sister Irene : Do you think there'll be trouble?

  Dr. John Carpenter : Trouble?

  Sister Irene : At the fiesta?

  Dr. John Carpenter : You know how it is on a Saturday night down here. You get everybody together, blown out their skulls, and all the old hates come out. And you just may wind up with World War III on your hands.

• Dr. John Carpenter : [singing]  Stop, look and listen, baby, That's my philosophy, It's called rubberneckin', baby, But that's all right with me. Some people say I'm wastin' time, They don't really know, I like what I see, I see what I like, yeah, Give me such a oh, hey, hey, hey...

• Dr. John Carpenter : Forcing yourself to like misery? That's her bag, huh?

• Desiree : Oh, Doc. I have such a pain in my left chest.

  Dr. John Carpenter : Your left chest? Now wait a minute.

  Desiree : Mm-hmm. A construction.

  Dr. John Carpenter : A what?

  Desiree : A construction. I swear it on my mother's grave.

  Dr. John Carpenter : Your mother's alive!

  Desiree : So, it could be something serious. All right. I better not take any chances. There? Um... yeah, right here.

  Dr. John Carpenter : All right. I better not take any chances.

  [places the stethoscope on her upper chest] 

  Dr. John Carpenter : There?

  Desiree : [moves it lower]  Um, yeah, right here.

• Sister Barbara : Tell me, as a doctor would you diagnose what's happening today, the riots, the student unrest, as not really the death throes of an old order but the birth pains of a new one?

  Dr. John Carpenter : I didn't know I was making a house call.

  Sister Barbara : Oh, well, I mean, don't we all, each in our own way, have to man the barricades?

  Dr. John Carpenter : At the Ajax Market?

• Dr. John Carpenter : If you really want to get to know some of the kids around here, why don't you come down to the park on a Saturday afternoon when we play touch football?

• Dr. John Carpenter : What do you know? We're finally alone.

  [moves closer] 

  Sister Michelle : John, uh, please don't.

  Sister Michelle : I get the feeling there's a message here. Like maybe there's somebody else?

  Sister Michelle : You - could say that, yes.

• Dr. John Carpenter : Irene, it's not my place to tell anybody when to fish or cut bait. But let's hope it doesn't turn out to be fish or get your throat cut.