Nice Girl? (1941)

Robert Benchley: Prof. Oliver Wendall Holmes Dana

Photos 

Quotes 

• Jane Dana : [Tasting her soup at the dinner table]  Oh, it's hot!

  Sylvia Dana : [to Nancy, who's blowing on her soup]  One does not blow on one's soup.

  Nancy Dana : Oh, doesn't one?

  Oliver Dana : Well, there are several schools of thought in the art of soup cooling. There are the blowers, the fanners, the diluters with ice water, and the wait-til-it-coolers. Now I belong to the old school -- the toughies. We take our soup straight and if it burns us, we just laugh it off, see?

• Oliver Dana : [to Jane]  Speaking as an authority, I'd say you were the nicest girl in the world.

• Jane Dana : I'm afraid I'm not very sophisticated.

  Oliver Dana : Sophisticated? Heh, now you are being young. Real sophistication, dear, is just another name for good taste. Sophistication isn't doing, it's knowing.

• Nancy Dana : Hector, I found out what men really are. Apes. All of them. Apes. After today, I will look upon all men with impunity.

  Oliver Dana : First I'd look up impunity in the dictionary.

• Jane Dana : [Crying on her dad's shoulder]  Oh, dad, I did something so stupid. So cheap. I threw myself at him and he didn't even kiss me. He didn't even try.

  Oliver Dana : [Smiling with relief]  Why, the bounder!

• Oliver Dana : What this town needs is a good five cent scandal!

• Oliver Dana : [Talking to himself as he writes at his desk]  This is the thesis of my exegesis. Thesis of my exegesis? Exegesis... treatise. This is the thesis of my treatise.

• Oliver Dana : There's only one rule in this house, Mr. Calvert -- all jokes are funny.

• Oliver Dana : Anything wrong?

  Jane Dana : Well, why, Dad? You notice a change in me?

  Oliver Dana : Oh, no sudden change. Of course, since the day when I used to walk the floor with you, you have grown up a little.

• Sylvia Dana : Father, you really should do something about that child.

  Oliver Dana : What, lock her up? We tried that with you. By the way, whatever became of that butcher boy with adenoids?

  Cora Foster : Oh, he's still got 'em.

• Nancy Dana : [to Sylvia]  One does not read one's book when one's at the dinner table.

  Sylvia Dana : Father, speak to Nancy.

  Oliver Dana : Hello, Nancy.

• Oliver Dana : Well, I wouldn't say that your homecoming went unnoticed. And you must be prepared to have a few eyebrows raised at you. But what's a little gossip when those who count know the truth.