"I don't ask you to understand me. Between us all the time were those jewels, like a fire - a fire in my brain that separated us - those jewels which I wanted all my life. I don't know why...Goodbye, Paula."

"Terry Moore - Paula Alquist – Age 14 (uncredited)"

"Jewels are wonderful things. They have a life of their own."

"I know you never lie to me. I believe you. You're not lying. It's worse than lying. You've forgotten. You've forgotten him as you forget everything. But perhaps I'm wrong to try to handle this myself. The case is one for people who know about those things."

"Dame May Whitty - Miss Bessie Thwaites"

"That house comes into my dreams sometimes - a house of horror. Strange - I haven't dreamed of it since I've known you. I haven't been afraid since I've known you."

"If it was I who took that picture down...if it was I who took it down the other times, if I do all these senseless, meaningless things, so meaningless, why should I take a picture down? But then, I don't know what I do anymore...But then, if that's true, then you must be gentle with me. You must bear with me, please. Oh please, Gregory, please!"

"I hear noises and footsteps. I imagine things, that there are people over the house. I'm frightened, and of myself too."

"It isn't here, you must have dreamed you put it there. Are you suggesting that this is a knife I hold in my hand? Have you gone mad, my husband? Yes, that's it. [throws the knife away] I am mad. I'm always losing things and hiding things and I can never find them, I don't know where I've put them. That was a knife, wasn't it? And I have lost it...I must look for it, mustn't I? If I don't find it, you'll put me in the madhouse. Where could it be now? Perhaps it's behind this picture. Yes, it must be here. No, no - where should I look now? Perhaps I put it over here. Yes, I must have done that. [She opens a drawer and discovers the 'missing' brooch] My brooch. The brooch I lost at the Tower. I found it at last - you see? But it doesn't help you, does it? And I'm trying to help you, aren't I? Trying to help you to escape. How can a mad woman help her husband to escape?...Yes, I am mad as my mother was mad. If I were not mad, I could have helped you. Whatever you had done, I could have pitied and protected you. But because I am mad, I hate you. Because I am mad, I have betrayed you. And because I'm mad, I'm rejoicing in my heart, without a shred of pity, without a shred of regret, watching you go with glory in my heart!"

"Morgan Wallace - Fred Garrett"

"The kind of Woman most men want - but shouldn't have!"

"Please don't tell anyone what Mildred Pierce did!"

"Jo Ann Marlowe - Kay Pierce"

"In her heart of hearts she knew it would happen this way!"

"A mother's love leads to murder."

"Bruce Bennett - Albert "Bert" Pierce"

"Lee Patrick - Mrs. Maggie Biederhof"

"Moroni Olsen - Inspector Peterson"

"Butterfly McQueen - Lottie"

"Veda Ann Borg - Miriam Ellis"

"The trouble is, you're trying to buy love from those kids and it won't work. I'm no bargain, but I make enough to get by. But no, that isn't good enough. Veda has to have a piano and lessons and fancy dresses so she can sit up on a platform smirking her way through a piece any five-year-old with talent could play."

"[last lines, to Mildred] You can go now. We'll call you when we want you. You know, Mrs. Beragon, there are times when I regret being a policeman."

"Joan Crawford - Mildred Pierce Beragon"

"I love you, Mother. Really I do. But let's not be sticky about it."

"Personally, I don't think you're the type for the work. But against my better judgment, I'll give you a trial. Now you need white shoes. Ask for nurses' regulation. Any of the stores. $2.95. We furnish your uniform but it comes off your first check. $3.95. You get it at cost and keep it laundered. If you don't suit us, we charge you twenty-five cents on the uniform. That comes off your check too. Keep your own tips."

"When men get around me, they get allergic to wedding rings. You know, big sister type. Good old Ida. You can talk it over with her man to man. I'm getting awfully tired of men talking to me man to man."

"Jack Carson - Wally Fay"

"Personally, Veda's convinced me that alligators have the right idea. They eat their young."

"We lived on Corvallis Street where all the houses looked alike. Ours was number 1143. I was always in the kitchen. I felt as though I'd been born in a kitchen and lived there all my life, except for the few hours it took to get married."

"I'll never forget it. Never as long as I live. She said, "Mommy," and that was all. Oh, I loved her so much. Oh, please God, don't ever let anything happen to Veda."

"Sure was a big night for me. I come out looking for an evening of fun and laughter and what do I get? Dishpan hands and a date with a Girl Scout."

"I don't care what you do to me, Mike - just do it fast!"

"Zachary Scott - Monte Beragon"

"Genres collide in the great Hollywood movies of the midfifties cold-war thaw. With the truce in Korea and the red scare on the wane, ambitious directors seemed freer to mix and match and even ponder the new situation. The western goes south in The Searchers; the cartoon merges with the musical in The Girl Can’t Help It. Science fiction becomes pop sociology in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. And noir veers into apocalyptic sci-fi in Robert Aldrich’s 1955 masterpiece Kiss Me Deadly, which, briefly described, tracks one of the sleaziest, stupidest, most brutal detectives in American movies through a nocturnal, inexplicably violent labyrinth to a white-hot vision of cosmic annihilation."

"Blood red kisses! White hot thrills! Mickey Spillane's latest H-bomb!"

"[first lines and last words] Mildred!"

"Nick Dennis - Nick"

"Jack Lambert - Sugar Smallhouse"

"Gaby Rodgers - Gabrielle (Lilly Carver)"

"Jack Elam - Charlie Max"