Peg La Centra: Birdie Summers

Quotes 

• Dick Hamilton : Mike, you wait and see. Miss Neptune will be either Gay Dennis or Sally Dean.

  Birdie Summers : Well, Mike darling, do you consider my client's body worth guarding?

  Michael Shayne : Sorry, Birdie. I gave up bodyguard work when I gave up bubblegum.

• Birdie Summers : Oh, wait a minute, precious. You don't think Gay performed that little dagger dance?

  Michael Shayne : You said the Dean girl threatened your client. Now was that the truth or more bait for a headline?

  Birdie Summers : Mike, darling, I would gladly sacrifice my second and my third husband to science for the sake of publicity, but I do draw the line somewhere.

• Michael Shayne : Did Kayle threaten Gay?

  Birdie Summers : Sally did and so did Benny Weems.

  Michael Shayne : Who's Benny Weems?

  Birdie Summers : Oh, a little cherub with cauliflower ears and brass knuckles. Mort Kayle apparently assigned him to see to Sally's welfare.

• Michael Shayne : He killed Sally?

  Birdie Summers : It's possible.

  Michael Shayne : What reason would he have? You said he was supposed to be guarding Sally not kill her.

  Birdie Summers : Maybe she was two-timing Kayle. Maybe Weems was ordered.

  Michael Shayne : A professional torpedo using a pair of scissors? Nah, he'd be laughed out of the regiment.

• Michael Shayne : You didn't find those scissors here; you put them here to frame Gay.

  Ellen : That's a pure-blooded lie!

  Michael Shayne : Gay's been in police custody, Ellen. She hasn't had time to steal the scissors.

  Ellen : And I suppose I knocked myself on the head and knocked me unconscious, too.

  Birdie Summers : [sarcastically]  Ellen, dear, how versatile you are!

• Birdie Summers : [referring to Ellen]  Did someone really slug that southern-fried chicken?

• [reading a card that came with a box of roses] 

  Birdie Summers : "Be beautiful for me." Oh, that's a touching sentiment, Mike. Are you writing your own dialogue these days?

  Michael Shayne : It was sent to Gay Dennis. Any idea who her suitors are?

  Birdie Summers : Only every American male over the age of twelve.

• Michael Shayne : This card came in this box of roses...

  Birdie Summers : What roses?

  [Mike turns around and discovers the box of roses has been stolen from Gay's dressing room] 

  Michael Shayne : Yeah. What roses?

• Mort Kayle : I hope you got an angle, Shayne. That five grand's getting' cold.

  Birdie Summers : Snap to it, Michael. When Mort Kayle orders a miracle, he wants immediate delivery.

  Mort Kayle : You shut up.

  Birdie Summers : Point that cigar the other way, lover. It might go off.

  Ellen : I do declare, you two fuss and fume like old married folk.

• Michael Shayne : Who sent her those roses?

  Birdie Summers : She grew them herself.

  Lucy Hamilton : We happen to think it was Mort Kayle.

  Birdie Summers : [chuckling]  Mort Kayle? Mort Kayle and Gay? That's the most amusing thing I've heard in years! Lucy, sweet you are, charming - but Mort Kayle and Gay?

  [breaks into peals of laughter] 

  Lucy Hamilton : One more giggle and I'm going to poke her right in the nose.

• Michael Shayne : Kayle didn't seem to think it was quite so funny.

  Birdie Summers : Oh, Kayle didn't tell you that.

  Michael Shayne : He's a client of mine. He's trying to level with me about everything.

  Birdie Summers : Mort Kayle is about as level as a cobblestone street.