Joan Prentice: I see you believe in signs.
Jerry Corbett: [Drunkenly] Mmmm, and all the signs point to three stars.
[THe camera pans in to a bottle of Henessey brandy]


--Fredric March (as Jerry Corbett) in Merrily We Go to Hell

Milly Stephenson: You're crazy.
Al Stephenson: No. Too sane for my own good.


--Fredric March (as Al Stephenson) in The Best Years of Our Lives

Elizabeth Barrett: Robert, have you ever thought that my strength may break down on the journey?
Robert Browning: It had occurred to me, yes.
Elizabeth Barrett: Supposing I were to die on your hands?
Robert Browning: Are you afraid, Ba?
Elizabeth Barrett: Afraid. You should know that I would rather die with you beside me than live a hundred lives without you. But how would you feel if I were to die? And what would the world say of you?
Robert Browning: I should be branded as a little better than a murderer. What I should feel... I leave you to imagine.
Elizabeth Barrett: And yet you ask me to come with you?
Robert Browning: Yes. I am prepared to risk your life, much more my own, to get you out of that dreadful house and into the sun and to have you for my wife.
Elizabeth Barrett: You love me like that?
Robert Browning: I love you like that.


--Fredric March (as Robert Browning) in The Barretts of Wimpole Street

Elizabeth Barrett: What's another disaster to one who has known little but disaster all her life? But you're a fighter. You were born for victory and triumph. Oh, and if disaster ever came to you through me...
Robert Browning: Yes, a fighter. But I'm sick of fighting alone. I need a comrade in arms to fight beside me.
Elizabeth Barrett: But not one already wounded in battle.
Robert Browning: Wounded but undaunted, unbeaten, unbroken. What finer comrade could a man ask for?


--Fredric March (as Robert Browning) in The Barretts of Wimpole Street

[Al and Fred have arrived at Al's fancy apartment building]
Fred Derry: Some barracks you got here. Hey, what are you? A retired bootlegger?
Al Stephenson: Nothing as dignified as that. I'm a banker.


--Fredric March (as Al Stephenson) in The Best Years of Our Lives

[Al is explaining to the bank president why he made the loan to Mr. Novak]
Al Stephenson: You see, Mr. Milton, in the Army I've had to be with men when they were stripped of everything in the way of property except what they carried around with them and inside them. I saw them being tested. Now some of them stood up to it and some didn't. But you got so you could tell which ones you could count on. I tell you this man Novak is okay. His 'collateral' is in his hands, in his heart and his guts. It's in his right as a citizen.


--Fredric March (as Al Stephenson) in The Best Years of Our Lives

[Al is speaking to the banquet]
Al Stephenson: I'm glad to see you've all pulled through so well. As Mr. Milton so perfectly expressed it: our country stands today... where it stands today... wherever that is. I'm sure you'll all agree with me if I said that now is the time for all of us to stop all this nonsense, face facts, get down to brass tacks, forget about the war and go fishing. But I'm not gonna say it. I'm just going to sum the whole thing up in one word.
[Milly coughs loudly to caution him - worrying that he will tell off the boss]
Al Stephenson: My wife doesn't think I'd better sum it up in that one word. I want to tell you all that the reason for my success as a Sergeant is due primarily to my previous training in the Cornbelt Loan and Trust Company. The knowledge I acquired in the good ol' bank I applied to my problems in the infantry. For instance, one day in Okinawa, a Major comes up to me and he says, "Stephenson, you see that hill?" "Yes sir, I see it." "All right," he said. "You and your platoon will attack said hill and take it." So I said to the Major, "but that operation involves considerable risk. We haven't sufficient collateral." "I'm aware of that," said the Major, "but the fact remains that there's the hill and you are the guys who are going to take it." So I said to him, "I'm sorry, Major... no collateral, no hill." So we didn't take the hill and we lost the war. I think that little story has considerable significance, but I've forgotten what it is. And now in conclusion, I'd like to tell you a humorous anecdote. I know several humorous anecdotes, but I can't think of any way to clean them up, so I'll only say this much. I love the Cornbelt Loan and Trust Company. There are some who say that the old bank is suffering from hardening of the arteries and of the heart. I refuse to listen to such radical talk. I say that our bank is alive, it's generous, it's human, and we're going to have such a line of customers seeking and GETTING small loans that people will think we're gambling with the depositors' money. And we will be. We will be gambling on the future of this country. I thank you.


--Fredric March (as Al Stephenson) in The Best Years of Our Lives

[first lines]
[the morning newspaper hits the front door]
Eleanor Hilliard: I'll get it, darling.
Dan Hilliard: Some morning I'm gonna catch up with that kid.


--Fredric March (as Dan C. Hilliard) in The Desperate Hours

[last lines]
President Jordan Lyman: [to reporters at a televised press conference] There's been abroad in this land in recent months a whisper that we have somehow lost our greatness, that we do not have the strength to win without war the struggles for liberty throughout the world. This is slander, because our country is strong, strong enough to be a peacemaker. It is proud, proud enough to be patient. The whisperers and the detractors, the violent men are wrong. We will remain strong and proud, peaceful and patient, and we will see a day when on this earth all men will walk out of the long tunnels of tyranny into the bright sunshine of freedom.
[president exits; reporters stand and applaud]
Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen, that was the President of the United States.


--Fredric March (as President Jordan Lyman) in Seven Days in May

[last lines]
Ralphie Hilliard: Dad?
Dan Hilliard: Yes, Ralph?
[Ralph whispers something in his father's ear, and the two embrace]


--Fredric March (as Dan C. Hilliard) in The Desperate Hours