Merrily We Go to Hell (1932)

Fredric March: Jerry Corbett

Photos 

Quotes 

• Vi : Here's something to clean up the floor.

  [hands a hand towel to Jerry] 

  Buck : Is there anything I can do Joan?

  Jerry Corbett : Yeah, you can clean up the floor.

• Jerry Corbett : If you love me, you'll lock that door so that I can't get out.

  [Joan opens the door] 

  Jerry Corbett : You mean that?

  Joan Prentice : I'm no jailer.

• Jerry Corbett : I always said you were swell.

  Joan Prentice : Perhaps you won't think so much longer because if being a modern husband gives you privileges, then being a modern wife gives me privileges.

• Claire Hempstead : Dear, why are you treating me with this devotion?

  Jerry Corbett : Devotion?

  Claire Hempstead : Well, about as much devotion as I'd show to a boa constrictor. Is it because I treated you badly once?

  Jerry Corbett : I didn't think you knew that you had.

  Claire Hempstead : I was young and egotistical, Jerry.

  Jerry Corbett : Well, what are you now?

  Claire Hempstead : Young and egotistical.

• [recurrent line] 

  Jerry Corbett : I think you're swell.

• Jerry Corbett : [toast]  Well, merrily we go to Hell.

• Jerry Corbett : You know Miss Clair Hempstead, I met a girl who's just the opposite of your lovely, fleshly self. The first girl that's attracted me since you opened my veins and carried away my blood in a golden bowl.

• Jerry Corbett : [on the phone]  What would you say if I said I was coming over to see you now? Well, you might at least answer me.

  Claire Hempstead : Sir, if I said yes, I should mean no, and if I said no, I should mean yes. But my silence is all true and for you.

• Jerry Corbett : [Drunk and slurring]  I don't believe we've met. My name's Corbett, what's yours?

  Gregory 'Greg' Boleslavsky : Gregory Boleslavsky.

  Jerry Corbett : [Taking affront]  Hey, now, wait a minute. I asked you a civil question and I expect a civil answer.

  [Bewildered, he puts his hands in his pockets] 

  Jerry Corbett : Want a drink?

• Jerry Corbett : [singing]  First she gave me ginger bread and then she gave me cake; and then she gave me creme de menthe for meeting her at the gate.

• Jerry Corbett : Sir, you're a baritone and a gentleman...

• 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] 

• Jerry Corbett : [Drunkenly]  At the moment we're looking for a baritone.

  Fred - Bartender : [Taking offense]  I don't allow them in the place!

  Jerry Corbett : [In unison with Buck and Claire]  You don't?

  [They leave] 

• Richard Damery : [after Jerry reads a particularly snide column about him and Joan written by Demery]  Any statement to make to the press, Corbett?

  Jerry Corbett : Any statement I made to you wouldn't be fit to print.

  Richard Damery : [Officiously]  Well, I don't know. Yours is just a common case. When we're young, we want to marry for love, and when we're a little older, we marry a Rolls-Royce.

  [Jerry punches him] 

• Jerry Corbett : What troubles me is, have I a right to take a swell girl and make her my wife?

  Vi : No.

  Jerry Corbett : Your charm is only exceeded by your frankness.

• Jerry Corbett : Wouldn't you like a little drink?

  Joan Prentice : No thank you. Drinking isn't one of my many vices.

  Jerry Corbett : Oh, personally, I'm going to stop drinking next Tuesday afternoon at three o'clock sharp.

• Jerry Corbett : You shouldn't have got me started on the subject of myself; because, I can go on and on for hours!

• Jerry Corbett : You don't often see such fine hands. Long, slender and artistic. And a diamond ring the size of a small potato on the right little finger.

  Joan Prentice : Awfully fine head. You're like an Indian. Fine chiseled features. Clean-cut as a tomahawk.

• Joan Prentice : Do you always make love to girls when you take them for a drive?

  Jerry Corbett : I don't often take them for a drive. I'm afraid as a rule I prefer the company of men - particularly if they're bartenders. You see, I figured out a long time ago a punch in the nose heals much quicker than a broken heart.

• [repeated line] 

  Jerry Corbett : Is there a baritone in the house?

• Jerry Corbett : I guess I didn't know you walked on these floors; because most of the floors I know have sawdust on them.

• Jerry Corbett : I've just had an invitation to the dance. James, me cuffs and me sword, please. I'm off to the wars in Flanders.

• Buck : I think we ought to celebrate.

  Jerry Corbett : So do I.

  Buck : So do I.

  Jerry Corbett : Let us have champagne, or at the very least, beer.

• Claire Hempstead : Oh, Jerry, this is your big moment.

  Jerry Corbett : To Waterloo.

  Claire Hempstead : To Austerlitz!

• Jerry Corbett : Don't you think I've done enough today?

  Joan Prentice : How many pages?

  Jerry Corbett : Two, uh, and a half.

  Joan Prentice : You know you do three pages a day.

  Jerry Corbett : You're not Mrs. Jerry Corbett. You're Mrs. Simon Legree and I'm poor ol' Uncle Tom.

• Jerry Corbett : We're rich! We're famous! We're *celebrities*!

• Claire Hempstead : Well, how do you feel with the curtain going up on your first play?

  Jerry Corbett : Like Napoleon before Austerlitz - or before Waterloo.

• Joan Prentice : If being a modern husband gives you privileges, then being a modern wife gives me privileges.

  Jerry Corbett : I'm not worried, honey. I've told you before, you've got the words but not the tune.

  Joan Prentice : Don't forget, I have a musical ear and can pick up tunes easily.

• Joan Prentice : Where's our charming host?

  Jerry Corbett : He's sleeping - behind the bar there.

• Jerry Corbett : I'm grateful this whole thing's happened because if I had never met you again, I might have gone through life clinging to an image in my mind, a phantom that I'd been drinking to for years, when all the time I had a wonderful reality in my arms.

  Claire Hempstead : You really should save those speeches for your plays.