Robert Montgomery: Elyot Chae

Private Lives

Elyot Chae

Amanda: [continuing to talk about travelling] Then the most thrilling thing of all - arriving at strange places, seeing strange people, and eating strange food.
Elyot: Yes, and making strange noises afterward.
[Said when Amanda is drinking coffee, she laughs and then starts choking]

Elyot: I broke my heart on that trip around the world. I saw such lovely things, darling. Moonlight shining on old temples. Strange barbaric dances in jungle villages. Scarlet flamingoes flying over deep, deep blue water. Breathlessly lovely. And somehow completely unexciting, because you weren't there to see them with me.
Amanda: Oh, take me now. Take me at once and let's make up for lost time.

Amanda: I was brought up to believe it was beyond the pale for a man to strike a woman.
Elyot: A very poor tradition. Certain women should be struck regularly, like gongs.

Elyot Chase: You're looking very lovely in this infernal moonlight, Amanda. Your skin is clear and cool. And your eyes are shining and you're growing lovelier and lovelier every second as I look at you. You don't hold any mystery for me darling; do you mind? There isn't a particle of you that I don't know, remember - and want.
Amanda: I'm glad, my sweet.
Elyot Chase: More than any desire in the world, deep down in my deepest heart, I want you back again. Please.
Amanda: Don't say any more. You're making me cry, so dreadfully.
[Kiss]

Elyot: What exactly were you remembering at that moment?
Amanda: The Palace Hotel skating rink in the morning. Bright, strong sunlight and everybody whirling around in vivid colors. Then, you leaning down to put on my skates for me.
Elyot: You'd fallen down a few moments before.
Amanda: Oh, it was horrid of you to laugh at me. I felt so humiliated.
Elyot: Poor darling.
Amanda: Do you remember waking up in the morning and standing on the balcony, looking out across the valley?
Elyot: Blue shadows on white snow. Cleanness, beyond belief. High above everything in the world. How beautiful it was.
Amanda: Yes. Nice to think we had a few marvelous moments, isn't it?
Elyot: A few? Why we had heaps, really! Only they slipped into the background and all we remember is the bad ones.
Amanda: What fools we were to ruin it all! What utter, utter fools!

Amanda: What have you been doing lately?
Elyot: Traveling about - I went around the world, you know.
Amanda: Yes, I know. How was it?
Elyot: The world?
Amanda: Yes.
Elyot: Highly enjoyable.
Amanda: China must be very interesting?
Elyot: Very big, China.
Amanda: And Japan?
Elyot: Very small.
Amanda: And did you eat shark's fins and take off your shoes and use chopsticks and everything?
Elyot: Practically everything...

Elyot: You know, I believe you're even more ruthless than I am.
Amanda: [Sleepily] Well, I don't believe in crying over my bridge until I've eaten it.
Elyot: Very sensible.

Elyot: Well, we never really discovered what delightful people we were, until after we lost each other.
Amanda: We are rather nice, aren't we.

Amanda: Poor, dear Victor. He certainly did love me!
Elyot: [Sarcastically] Splendid.
Amanda: When I met him, I was so lonely and depressed. I felt I was getting old and crumbling away, unwanted.
Elyot: It certainly is horrid when one begins to crumble.
Amanda: He used to look at me hopelessly, like a lovely spaniel. I sort of melted like snow in the sunlight.
Elyot: That must have been an edifying spectacle!