Daily Dialogue — June 6, 2013

Mortimer Brewster: Look, Aunt Martha, men don’t just get into window seats and die!
Abby Brewster: We know, dear. He died first.
Mortimer Brewster: Wait a minute! Stop all this. Now, look, darling, how did he die?
Abby Brewster: Oh, Mortimer, don’t be so inquisitive. The gentleman died because he drank some wine with poison in it.
Mortimer Brewster: How did the poison get in the wine?
Martha Brewster: Well, we put it in wine, because it’s less noticeable. When it’s in tea, it has a distinct odor.
Mortimer Brewster: You mean, you… You put it in the wine!
Abby Brewster: Yes. And I put Mr. Hoskins in the window seat, because Reverend Harper was coming.
Mortimer Brewster: Now, look at me, darling. You mean, you mean you knew what you’d done and you didn’t want the Reverend Harper to see the body?
Abby Brewster: Well, not at tea. That wouldn’t have been very nice.
Mortimer Brewster: Oh, it’s first-degree.
Abby Brewster: Now, Mortimer, you know all about it and just forget about it. I do think that Aunt Martha and I have the right to our own little secrets.

— Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), screen play by Julius J. Epstein & Philip G. Epstein, play by Joseph Kesselring

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is witty banter, suggested by stoneinthesling. Today’s suggestion by BobByrne1.

Trivia: According to various sources, Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein adapted the screenplay “with help” from Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Unless someone stops me with other suggestions, I’ll just keep posting some of these wonderful old chestnuts from an era when dialogue ruled.

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