Mildred Natwick credited as playing...
Ethel Banks
- Ethel: I had to park the car three blocks away. Then it started to rain so I ran the last two blocks. Then my heel got caught in a subway grating. When I pulled my foot out, I stepped in a puddle. Then a cab went by and splashed my stockings. If the hardware store downstairs was open, I was going to buy a knife and kill myself.
- Ethel: Make him feel important. If you do that, you'll have a happy and wonderful marriage - like two out of every ten couples.
- Ethel: [to Corie, after just climbing up the stairs to Paul and Corie's top-floor apartment] I remember when you were a little girl, you said you wanted to live on the moon... I thought you were kidding.
- Corie Bratter: Hey!
- [rattling a box]
- Corie Bratter: what's in here, that sounds expensive?
- Ethel: Now I think it's a broken clock.
- Corie Bratter: [opening another box] Does this pot come with instructions?
- Ethel: If I'd known about this apartment it would have come with hot coffee.
- Corie Bratter: Mother. Oh, I love everything. But you've got to stop sending me presents. You should start spending your money on yourself.
- Ethel: Oh... myself. What does a woman like me need living alone way out in New Jersey?
- Corie Bratter: You could travel...
- Ethel: Oh, travel. Alone. I read a story in the times. A middle-aged woman travelling alone fell off the deck of a ship. they never even discovered it 'til they got to france.
- Corie Bratter: Mother, I promise you, if you ever fell off the deck of a ship, someone would know about it.
- Corie Bratter: [Looking arond Mr. Velasco's Apt] Isn't this wild? What do you think, Mother?
- Ethel: I think I've broken some straps!