"Scott Chavez: [after murdering Pearl's mother and her lover] I plead no mitigating circumstances. They deserved to die, as I deserve to die, for I long since killed a person much superior to either of them: myself. I killed that person the day I gave my family's name to the woman who became my wife. And since I believe the punishment should fit the crime, I suggest that you hang me by the neck until I'm dead."

"Deep among the lonely sun-baked hills of Texas, the great and weatherbeaten stone still stands. The Comanches called it Squaw's Head Rock. Time cannot change its impassive face, nor dim the legend of the wild young lovers who found Heaven and Hell in the shadows of the rock. For when the sun is low and the cold wind blows across the desert, there are those of Indian blood who still speak of Pearl Chavez, the half-breed girl from down along the border, and of the laughing outlaw with whom she here kept a final rendezvous, never to be seen again... And this is what the legend says: A flower, known nowhere else, grows from out of the desperate crags where Pearl vanished. Pearl, who was herself a wild flower, sprung from the hard clay - quick to blossom and early to die."

"Pearl Chavez is my girl, and she'll always be my girl. Just as long as I want her to be. [shoots Sam] Has anybody else around her got any fancy ideas about Pearl Chavez? Well, don't seem to be no takers."

"Oh, Lord, have mercy on all men - young and old alike - who gaze upon this, Thy regained servant. Amen."

"Oh Lord, look upon this thy creature. She's a weak vessel and a pauper as thou knowest, but she wants to be thy handmaiden. Give her the horse sense not to go wanderin' off in the tulies with worthless cowpokes. Amen."

"Joan Bennett - Alice Reed"

"Arthur Loft - Claude Mazard/Frank Howard/Charlie the Hat check Man"

"Dorothy Peterson - Mrs. Wanley"

"Thomas E. Jackson - Inspector Jackson, Homicide Bureau"

"Dan Duryea - Heidt/Tim, the Doorman"

"Edmund Breon - Dr. Michael Barkstane"

"Raymond Massey - Dist. Atty. Frank Lalor"

"Edward G. Robinson - Professor Richard Wanley"

"The screen's supreme adventure in suspense!"

"It was the look in her eyes that made him think of murder."

"Heidt: I don't want to make trouble for anybody. I can, of course, but I don't want to."

"Dr. Michael Barkstane: We've decided she's our dream girl just from that picture."

"We rarely arrest people just for knowing where the body was."

"In the District Attorney's office we see what happens to middle-aged men who try acting like colts."

"[Sees Alice Reed for the first time, after just seeing her painting in the window] I-I couldn't have drunk that much."

"There are only three ways to deal with a blackmailer. You can pay him and pay him and pay him until you're penniless. Or you can call the police yourself and let your secret be known to the world. Or you can kill him."

"The streets were dark with something more than night."

"[lecturing] The Biblical injunction "Thou shalt not kill" is one that requires qualification in view of our broader knowledge of impulses behind homicide. The various legal categories such as first and second degree murder, the various degrees of homicide, manslaughter, are civilized recognitions of impulses of various degrees of culpability. The man who kills in self defense, for instance, must not be judged by the same standards applied to the man who kills for gain."

"[to Vincent] I've cried myself to sleep at night because of you. She's got you now. She wants you very badly doesn't she? She's willing to run away with you and keep on running and ruin everything for herself. But she wouldn't care because she'd be with you and that's what she wants. Well she doesn't have you now. She'll never have you. Nobody will ever have you! And that's the way I want it! You're nothing but an escaped convict. Nobody knows what you wrote down. They'll believe me! They'll believe me!"

"You know, it's wonderful when guys like you lose out. Makes guys like me think maybe we got a chance in this world."

"Together again"

"Two Of A Kind ! Tough . . . Torrid . . . Terrific !"

"In danger as violent as their love!"

"Houseley Stevenson - Dr. Coley"

"Rory Mallinson - George Fellsinger"

"Douglas Kennedy - Detective in Diner"

"Clifton Young - Baker"

"Agnes Moorehead - Madge Rapf"

"Bruce Bennett - Bob"

"Lauren Bacall - Irene Jansen"

"Humphrey Bogart - Vincent Parry"

"Zachary Scott - Monte Beragon"

"Jack Carson - Wally Fay"

"Joan Crawford - Mildred Pierce Beragon"

"[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."

"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."

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

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

"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."