The Hucksters (1947)

Clark Gable: Victor Albee Norman

Photos 

Quotes 

• Tie Sales Clerk : Anything?

  Victor Albee Norman : I want a very sincere necktie.

  Tie Sales Clerk : I beg your pardon?

  Victor Albee Norman : I want something that makes me seem sincere. You know, honest; genuine; upright; trustworthy.

  Tie Sales Clerk : Well... um, here's a handpainted one in four colors; at thirty-five dollars. Is that sincere enough?

  Victor Albee Norman : I think, my friend, any more sincerity would be downright foolhardy.

• Mrs. Kimberly : [to Kay]  I'm sorry. I'm afraid now it's going to be two subjects: business talk and oomph.

  Mr. Kimberly : Well, what else is there?

  Victor Albee Norman : [Tongue in cheek]  There's always mah-jong.

• Kay Dorrance : You'll say anything to win your point, won't you? Make any promise?

  Victor Albee Norman : That's the kind of guy I am. I haven't kidded you about that.

  Kay Dorrance : [after a pause]  Well, I didn't believe it. I thought you were more than that.

  Victor Albee Norman : Now you know.

  Kay Dorrance : [Resigned]  Now I know.

• Buddy Hare : [Jauntily]  Hi yeah, chum! Just call me Buddy.

  Victor Albee Norman : [Dourly]  Hi, and most people call me Vic. You can call me Victor.

• Jean Ogilvie : Wanna secretary, Mr. Norman?

  Victor Albee Norman : How's your shorthand?

  Jean Ogilvie : [Adding to the double-entendre]  Some people like it.

• Victor Albee Norman : Miss Hammer, take a memorandum. To Mr. Kimberly: Dear Kim, For four years I haven't been listening to the radio much. Paragraph. Kim, in that time, it's gotten worse, if possible. More irritating, more commercials per minute, more spelling out of words, as if no one in the audience had gotten past the first grade. Paragraph. I know how tough Evans is, and some of the other sponsors, but I think we make a great mistake in letting them have their own way. We're paid to advise them. Why can't we advise them that people are grateful for what free entertainment they get on the air, grateful enough to buy the product that provides good shows. But, they have some rights, Kim, it's their homes we go into, and they're not grateful to people who get one foot in the door by pretending to offer them music and drama, and then take too much time in corny sales talk. Paragraph. I want to go on record as saying that I think radio has to turn over a new leaf. We've pushed and badgered the listeners, we've sung to them and screamed at them, we've insulted them, cheated them and angered them, turned their homes into a combination grocery store, crap game and midway. Kim, some day, 50 million people are going to just reach out and turn off their radios,

  [snaps fingers] 

  Victor Albee Norman : snap, just like that - and that's the end of the gravy, for you, and me, and Evans. Sign it love and kisses, Vic.

• Victor Albee Norman : [to Kay]  Have you ever seen dawn from a beach?

• Victor Albee Norman : [to Kay]  I don't want anything from you except you.

• Mr. Kimberly : You might be able to handle the job. And, then again, you might not.

  Victor Albee Norman : Well, it might be a job I'd accept. And, then again, it might not.

• Victor Albee Norman : Oh, Jean, this is Mr. Kimberly. Miss Ogilvie, here.

  Jean Ogilvie : Hello.

  Mr. Kimberly : Aren't you pretty, Miss Ogilvie.

  Jean Ogilvie : Well, aren't you nice. I'm doing my hair differently.

• Victor Albee Norman : Now, this is the part of your advertising agency I don't like. People work down here.

  Mr. Kimberly : Well, I work. I work all the time.

  Victor Albee Norman : You worry. It's not the same.

• Victor Albee Norman : People like Beautee Soap employ us to put on their radio shows and write their magazine advertisements. To shout their praises and sell their wares. To do their huckstering for them.

  Kay Dorrance : Their what?

  Victor Albee Norman : Huckstering. A huckster is a peddler. A, you know, a hawker. We're professional hucksters! But, with station wagons instead of push carts.

• Victor Albee Norman : I'll drop in and see you.

  Jean Ogilvie : Tonight?

  Victor Albee Norman : Maybe.

  Jean Ogilvie : Now, don't be like that. You know you're not going to pick up anything better than me between now and then.

• Victor Albee Norman : Hey, if you'll pardon a word of advice. Why don't you take the rest of the day off? Get a massage. Get drunk.

• Cooke : You don't mean to tell me you're going over there right now? Just barge in?

  Victor Albee Norman : Oh, no. No, I'll call her first. I always give rich women at least 10 minutes to get the egg off their faces.

• Victor Albee Norman : I'll keep my foot in the door by doing a little chore for you.

  Mr. Kimberly : How are you going to go about it?

  Victor Albee Norman : I'll carry a pipe. Women always seem to trust a man who smokes a pipe. If I had a dog, I'd try and smell a little doggy.

• Victor Albee Norman : Ellen looks like you. You both have that wonderful quality that you get better and better looking as you grow older.

  Kay Dorrance : Oh, dear, we're getting a long way from Beautee Soap.

• Regina Kennedy : Mr. Evans approved them.

  Kay Dorrance : Mr. Evans doesn't have to wear them.

  Victor Albee Norman : I'm surprised he doesn't want to photograph Mrs. Dorrance in a bubble bath.

  Regina Kennedy : Don't be silly, Mr. Norman. Beautee Soap doesn't bubble!

• Victor Albee Norman : You can't trust an honest person.

• Jean Ogilvie : I don't believe it. Vic! Vic, baby!

  Victor Albee Norman : Hello, honey.

• Mr. Kimberly : Where would you like to go Vic?

  Victor Albee Norman : Wherever you say Kim.

  Mr. Kimberly : Well, I thought of some quiet restaurant; but, now that I see how oomph! Mrs. Dorrance is...

  Kay Dorrance : Do I have to say thank you every time you say that?

  Mr. Kimberly : No, it isn't necessary. Say, I've got an idea. I know a gay, noisy place were we can get some wonderful steaks. But, maybe Vickie boy wouldn't want to go there.

  Victor Albee Norman : Why not?

  Mr. Kimberly : El Siroco. That singer friend of yours is pretty oomphy! herself. And a man can have too much oomph! in the same room.

• Kay Dorrance : Aren't we a little late as it is?

  Victor Albee Norman : First, the Stork Club. I haven't been there in four years. A table in the corner. I might even order some wine.

  Kay Dorrance : You're very persuasive.

  Victor Albee Norman : Good.

• Jean Ogilvie : Hello, Vic, my honey.

  Victor Albee Norman : Hello, Jeannie. What are you drinking?

  Jean Ogilvie : Why, Vic, don't you remember? Always straight Scotch right after my number.

• Victor Albee Norman : What's America to us? A blank space between New York and Hollywood where people buy soap.

• Victor Albee Norman : Hey, Ogilvie. Come here.

  Jean Ogilvie : In a minute. First, I want to get you some after dinner brandy.

  Victor Albee Norman : I should have brought my house slippers.

  Jean Ogilvie : You know, I like doing things for you, Vic. I like having you around the house. I'm what you might call a Vic Norman kind of a gal.

• Victor Albee Norman : Oh, Jean, you look good. Awful good! Have you gotten prettier since I last saw you?

  Jean Ogilvie : Well, I don't know. Does it seem that way to you?

  Victor Albee Norman : Mmm! lusciouser and lusciouser.

  Jean Ogilvie : Oh, that's good, huh?

  Victor Albee Norman : That's very good.

• Buddy Hare : Listen, would you like a peephole routine? Of the peephole, by the peephole, for the peephole.

  Victor Albee Norman : I'll call you tomorrow.

• Victor Albee Norman : I bet you were a tough little girl.

  Jean Ogilvie : I still am - for the wrong guy.

  Victor Albee Norman : And for the right guy?

  Jean Ogilvie : For the right guy - for the right guy, Vic, I'm not so tough.

• Victor Albee Norman : You know, I never much liked train trips before; but, this one's going to be just dandy.

• Jean Ogilvie : Isn't it nice we're both in the same business? It makes everything so much cozier. Don't you think so?

  Victor Albee Norman : Yes, Jean. Everything just as cozy as it can be.

  [kiss] 

• [last lines] 

  Victor Albee Norman : Now we're starting out with *exactly* an even nothing in the world. It's neater that way.

• Dave Lash : I have respect for you, Vic. You got what you came for.

  Victor Albee Norman : This is one time I'd rather be forgiven than respected.

  Dave Lash : Like I said, I have respect for you.

  Victor Albee Norman : Well, I wish I could say the same thing for myself - about myself.

• Victor Albee Norman : Dave, I hit you where you live and I didn't mean to. The next thing I know I'll be beating women and kicking children.

• Kay Dorrance : [on the phone]  Vic! My darling, where are you?

  Victor Albee Norman : I'm in Laguardia Field. Oh, you sound so warm and sleepy. I've missed you darling.

• Mr. Kimberly : Vic! A nightclub singer. A nobody!

  Victor Albee Norman : Well, everybody was a nobody once.

  Mr. Kimberly : Yeah, but, lots of them stay nobodies.