Driving Miss Daisy (1989)

Jessica Tandy: Daisy Werthan

Photos 

Quotes 

• Daisy Werthan : Hoke?

  Hoke Colburn : Yes'm.

  Daisy Werthan : You're my best friend.

  Hoke Colburn : No, go on Miss Daisy.

  Daisy Werthan : No, really, you are...

  [Takes Hoke's hand] 

  Daisy Werthan : You are.

  Hoke Colburn : Yes'm.

• [Hoke and Miss Daisy are talking about how he can't read] 

  Daisy Werthan : You know your letters don't you?

  Hoke Colburn : Oh yeah, yeah I know my ABC's pretty good, just can't read.

  Daisy Werthan : Stop saying that you're making me mad! If you know your letters you can read. You just don't know you can read.

  Hoke Colburn : Maam?

  Daisy Werthan : I taught some of the stupidest children God ever put on the face of this earth and all of them could read well enough to find a name on a tombstone.

• Idella : I'm goin', Miss Daisy.

  Daisy Werthan : [from upstairs]  Alright Idella, see you tomorrow.

  Hoke Colburn : I'm goin' too, Miss Daisy.

  Daisy Werthan : Good!

• Daisy Werthan : Did you have the air-conditioning checked? I told you to have the air-conditioning checked.

  Hoke Colburn : I had the air-conditioning checked. I don't know what for. You never allow me to turn it on.

  Daisy Werthan : Hush up!

• Hoke Colburn : [Hoke is driving Daisy to Mobile]  Did I evre tell you about the first time I ever been outside the state of Georgia?

  Daisy Werthan : No, when was that?

  Hoke Colburn : Oh, a few minutes ago.

• Hoke Colburn : [Hoke walks in, Boolie and Daisy are there to confront him about a missing can of salmon]  Mornin', Miss Daisy. I think it's gettin' ready to clear up out there! Oh, 'scuse me, Mr. Werthan!

  Boolie Werthan : Hoke, I think we're gonna have to have a little talk.

  Hoke Colburn : All right, sir. Just let me get outta my coat.

  [pauses, then turns to Daisy] 

  Hoke Colburn : Oh, Miss Daisy, yesterday, while you was out visitin', I went and ate a can of your salmon. Now, I know you said eat the left-over pork chops, but they was kinda stiff. So, I stopped at the Piggly Wiggly and got you another can. You want me just to go on and put it in the cupboard?

  Daisy Werthan : [embarrassed]  Yes, that'll be fine... thank you, Hoke. Well, I guess I'd better get dressed now!

• [Hoke is trailing Daisy in the car as she walks to the supermarket] 

  Daisy Werthan : What are you doing?

  Hoke Colburn : I'm tryin' to drive you to the store!

• Daisy Werthan : It's 7:16!

  Boolie Werthan : You should have a job on the radio announcing the time.

• Daisy Werthan : [as Hoke drives Miss Daisy to a dinner at which Martin Luther King is to speak]  Boolie said the silliest thing to me just the other day.

  Hoke Colburn : What'd he say?

  Daisy Werthan : We were talking about Martin Luther King. I assume you know him.

  Hoke Colburn : No'm, I don't know him.

  Daisy Werthan : But, you've heard him preach.

  Hoke Colburn : Yes'm... same way you have, on the TV.

  Daisy Werthan : I think he's wonderful.

  Hoke Colburn : [Hoke ponders what Daisy said]  What you gettin' at, Miss Daisy?

  Daisy Werthan : Well, Boolie says you wanted to go with me to this dinner. Did you tell him that?

  Hoke Colburn : No'm, I didn't.

  Daisy Werthan : [as Hoke looks at her seriously in the rear view mirror]  I didn't think so. What would be the point? You can hear him any time you like. I think it's wonderful how things are changing.

  Hoke Colburn : [Hoke stops the car]  Now, Miss Daisy, the tickets for this here dinner came in the mail a month ago. Bein' that you wanted me to go wit' you, how come you wait till we in the car and on the way there before you ask me?

• Hoke Colburn : Hey, there, Oscar, Junior... how you boys doin' this morning?

  Oscar : How the old lady treatin' you, Hoke?

  Hoke Colburn : Lord, I tell you one thing... she sho' do know how to throw a fit!

  [Hoke, Oscar, and Junior break out in laughter] 

  Daisy Werthan : What's so funny?

  Hoke Colburn : Nothin', Miss Daisy. We jus' carryin' on.

• [Hoke and Boolie are at the nursing home visiting Daisy. Daisy appears unwilling to speak much] 

  Boolie Werthan : Hoke, I thought of you the other day on the expressway. I saw an Avondale Milk truck. Monster of a thing, must have had about sixteen wheels.

  Hoke Colburn : You don't say!

  Boolie Werthan : I was wondering how you'd like drivin' that thing around!

  Daisy Werthan : [to Boolie]  Hoke came to see me, not you!

  Hoke Colburn : Look like one o' her good days!

  Daisy Werthan : Boolie, go charm the nurses!

  Boolie Werthan : [smiling]  She wants you all to herself.

• Daisy Werthan : I've never been prejudiced in my life and you know it.

  Boolie Werthan : [about the Martin Luther King dinner]  Okay, then why don't you ask Hoke to go with you?

  Daisy Werthan : Hoke? Don't be ridiculous. He wouldn't go.

• Boolie Werthan : I'd better be gettin' back to the office. Florene'll be havin' a fit if I don't get home on time tonight.

  Daisy Werthan : [sarcastically]  Ya'll must have plans tonight!

  Boolie Werthan : Goin' to the Anderson's for a dinner party.

  Daisy Werthan : This is her idea of heaven on earth, isn't it?

  Boolie Werthan : What?

  Daisy Werthan : Socializin' with Episcopalians!

• Daisy Werthan : [Talking about Idella's passing]  Idella was lucky.

  Hoke Colburn : Yes'm. I expect she was.

• [Boolie and Daisy are discussing attending a dinner where Martin Luther King will be speaking] 

  Boolie Werthan : Mama, we have to talk about this.

  Daisy Werthan : Talk about what?

  Boolie Werthan : The feasibility of all this. Now, I believe Martin Luther King has done some marvelous things...

  Daisy Werthan : Boolie, if you don't want to go to the dinner, just say so.

  Boolie Werthan : I wanna go. You know how I feel about him.

  Daisy Werthan : I know, but Florene!

  Boolie Werthan : Florene has nothing to do with it. I still have to conduct business in this town.

  Daisy Werthan : [incredulously]  I see. Werthan Bag will go out of business if you attend the King dinner.

  Boolie Werthan : Not exactly. But a few of the men I do business with wouldn't like it. They might... snicker a little. Call me Martin Luther Werthan behind my back. Maybe I might not hear about certain lunch meetings at the Commerce Club. Ol' Jack Raphael down at Ideal Mills, he's a New York Jew instead of a Georgia Jew. And everybody knows all the really smart ones come from New York. Maybe some of the men might throw their business to Jack instead of ol' Martin Luther Werthan. I don't know, maybe it wouldn't happen. Sometimes that's just how things work. Anyway, if we don't use those seats, somebody else will.

  Daisy Werthan : 'If we don't use those seats?' I'm not supposed to go, either?

  Boolie Werthan : Mama, you can do whatever you want.

  Daisy Werthan : Thanks for your permission.

• Daisy Werthan : [Stepping into the kitchen]  And don't make a mess of those peas, Idella.

  Idella : [Under her breath]  Do I ever?

• Daisy Werthan : [Hoke and Daisy are driving to Boolie and Florene's for a Christmas party. Daisy, a Jew, is annoyed at the extraneous Christmas light displays]  Everybody's wishing the Georgia Power Company a Merry Christmas.

  Hoke Colburn : I bet Miss Florene got 'em all beat with the new house.

  Daisy Werthan : If I had a nose like Florene's, I wouldn't go around wishing anybody a Merry Christmas!

  Hoke Colburn : [laughs]  Yes'm... but, I tell ya, I do enjoy a Christmas at their house.

  Daisy Werthan : Of course, you're the only Christian in the place!

  Hoke Colburn : Well, they got that new cook.

  Daisy Werthan : [sighs]  Florene never could keep help. Of course, it's none of my affair. Too much running around, if you ask me.

  [Hoke agrees] 

  Daisy Werthan : The Garden Club this, the Junior League that... as if any of them would give her the time of day! But, she'd die before she'd fix a glass of iced tea for the Temple Sisterhood! I just hope she doesn't get it into her head to *sing* this year!

  Hoke Colburn : [coming up on Boolie's house, looking at the gaudy light display]  Oh, Lord, look what Miss Florene done done!

  Daisy Werthan : If her grandfather, Old Man Freitag, could see this... what is it you always say?... he'd jump up out of his grave and snatch her bald-headed!

  Hoke Colburn : [bursts out laughing as he lets Daisy out]  HA! Jump up outta his grave and snatch her bald-headed! Miss Daisy, you oughta go on away from here!

• Daisy Werthan : [on the phone, trying to get a ride to her hair appointment]  Well, I need you now, I have to be at the beauty parlor in half an hour... no, I most certainly did NOT know you have to call a minimum of three hours ahead! I don't know why you call yourselves a taxicab company if you can't provide taxicabs!

  Idella : [in the other room, polishing a table]  Why don't you call your son down at the mill? He'll send somebody for you.

  Daisy Werthan : That won't be necessary... I'll just cancel the appointment and fix my own hair!

  Idella : Sometimes I think you ain't got the sense God gave a lemon!

• Daisy Werthan : You should have let me keep my old LaSalle. It never would've behaved this way and you know it.

  Boolie Werthan : Mama, cars don't behave. They are behaved upon. Fact is, you demolished that Chrysler all by yourself.

  Daisy Werthan : Say what you want, I know the truth.

  Boolie Werthan : The truth is, you just cost the insurance company $2,700. You're a terrible risk. Nobody's gonna want to issue you a policy after this.

  Daisy Werthan : You're just saying that to be hateful!

  Boolie Werthan : OK. I am. I'm makin' it all up. Look out there in the driveway! Every insurance company in America is out there, waving their fountain pen, trying to get you to sign up!

• Boolie Werthan : [Boolie is eating lunch at Daisy's, trying to convince her that she can't drive anymore after her accident]  Mama.

  Daisy Werthan : No.

  Boolie Werthan : Mama!

  Daisy Werthan : No!

  Boolie Werthan : You know, it's a miracle you're not laying up at Emory Hospital. Or decked out at the funeral parlor!

  Daisy Werthan : The cucumbers are pretty this year.

  Boolie Werthan : Look at you, you didn't even break your glasses!

• Daisy Werthan : [Looking at map]  Here. Here. You took the wrong turn at Opelika.

  Hoke Colburn : Well, now, you took it with me, Miss Daisy, and you got the map.

• Daisy Werthan : [Daisy walks into the kitchen as Hoke and Idella are watching "The Edge of Night"]  I don't know how you all can look at that.

  Hoke Colburn : You see it a few times, you get in it!

  Daisy Werthan : Both your brains are fixing to evaporate! You can bring the cake in now, Hoke! And, don't make a mess of those peas, Idella!

  Idella : Do I ever?

  Hoke Colburn : [gets up to get the cake]  Looka there... ain't she got a head full of hair? Wonder how she get it so shiny?

  Idella : Washes it in mayonnaise.

  Hoke Colburn : Go on away from here, Idella!

  Idella : Read about it in Life Magazine!

  [Hoke leaves with the cake. Idella intensely watches the TV, but then passes away as the peas fall to the floor] 

  Hoke Colburn : [re-enters]  She up to something, ain't she?

  [sees Idella unresponsive] 

  Hoke Colburn : Idella... .IDELLA?

• [Hoke and Miss Daisy are having lunch on the side of the road near the pond] 

  Hoke Colburn : Idella sure do stuff eggs good.

  Daisy Werthan : You stuff yourself good.

  Hoke Colburn : [chuckles as he sips a bottle of Coke]  Yes'm.

  Daisy Werthan : I was thinking about the first time I ever went to Mobile. It was Walter's wedding, 1888.

  Hoke Colburn : 1888. You were nothing but a little bitty thing.

  Daisy Werthan : I was 12.

  Hoke Colburn : Mm-hmm.

  Daisy Werthan : We went on the train. Oh, I was so excited. I'd never been in a wedding party, and I'd never seen the ocean. Papa said it was the Gulf of Mexico and not the ocean, but it was all the same to me. I asked Papa if it was all right for me to dip my hand into the water, and he laughed 'cause I was so timid.

  [Hoke laughs] 

  Daisy Werthan : And then I tasted the salt water on my fingers. Mmm. Isn't that a silly thing to remember?

  Hoke Colburn : Ain't no sillier than what most folks remember.

• [Miss Daisy is cooking fried chicken for dinner in a skillet on the stove] 

  Hoke Colburn : You're fixing to ruin it.

  Daisy Werthan : What you talking about?

  Hoke Colburn : Well, you got the chicken too close together there and the fire's way too high.

  Daisy Werthan : Mind your business.

  Hoke Colburn : Well, it's your chicken.

• Hoke Colburn : [as the 1955 Cadillac Fleetwood Sixty Special enters the state of Alabama]  I ever tell you about the first time I leaved the state of Georgia?

  Daisy Werthan : When was that?

  Hoke Colburn : Few minutes back.

  Daisy Werthan : [chuckles]  Go on!

  Hoke Colburn : Yes'm. Now, my daughter, she's married to a Pullman Porter, you know. She's always on the go- New York, Detroit, St. Louis.

  [laughs] 

  Hoke Colburn : I say, "Well now, that's all well and good now, Tommy Lee, but I just don't feel the need for it." So here it is... first time. And I might tell you, Miss Daisy, Alabama ain't looking like much so far.

• Boolie Werthan : Mornin', Mama.

  [Miss Daisy doesn't return the greeting] 

  Boolie Werthan : All I'm asking is that you come down and say hello.

  Daisy Werthan : Now you listen here. Unless they rewrote the Constitution and didn't tell me, I still have rights.

  Boolie Werthan : Of course you do.

  Daisy Werthan : What I do not want and absolutely will not have is some... some chauffeur sitting in my kitchen gobbling up my food, running up my phone bills. Oh, I hate all that in my house.

  Boolie Werthan : You have Idella.

  Daisy Werthan : Idella's different. She's been coming to me since you were in 8th Grade and we know how to stay out of each other's way. And even so, there are nicks and chips in my wedding china.

  Boolie Werthan : You think Idella has a personal vendetta against your wedding china?

  Daisy Werthan : Don't be sassy! On Forsyth Street, we couldn't afford them, and we did for ourselves. That's still the best way if you ask me.

  Boolie Werthan : Them? Afford them? You sound like Governor Talmadge.

  Daisy Werthan : [insulted]  Why, Boolie, what a thing to say! I'm not prejudiced! Aren't you ashamed?

  Boolie Werthan : You might as well try to make the best of it, Mama.

• Daisy Werthan : Go away! I've been on the trolley with groceries plenty of times.

  Hoke Colburn : Yes'm, I know, Miss Daisy, but I can't keep taking Mr. Werthan's money for doin' nothin'.

  Daisy Werthan : How much he pay you?

  Hoke Colburn : Now, Miss Daisy, that's between him and me.

  Daisy Werthan : Anything over seven dollars a week is robbery. Highway robbery.

  Hoke Colburn : Yes'm, you sure right about that, especially since I don't do nothin' but sit in your kitchen on a stool all day.

  Daisy Werthan : [finally relents]  All right.

  [Miss Daisy gets in the back seat of her new Hudson Commodore] 

  Daisy Werthan : Piggly Wiggly, then home. Nowhere else.

  Hoke Colburn : Yes'm.

  [Hoke presses the gas pedal and starts the drive towards the supermarket] 

  Hoke Colburn : Oh, I just love the smell of a new car. Don't you, Miss Daisy?

  Daisy Werthan : I'm nobody's fool, Hoke.

  Hoke Colburn : Why, no!

  Daisy Werthan : My husband taught me to run a car.

  Hoke Colburn : Yes'm.

  Daisy Werthan : I remember everything he said, so don't you think even for a second that- Wait! You're speeding. I can see it.

  Hoke Colburn : No, Miss Daisy. No. We're only doing about 19 miles an hour.

  Daisy Werthan : I like to go under this speed limit.

  Hoke Colburn : Yes'm, but the speed limit's 35 here.

  Daisy Werthan : The slower you go, the more you save on gas. My husband taught me that.

  Hoke Colburn : [under his breath]  We ain't hardly moving. Might as well walk to the Piggly Wiggly.

  Daisy Werthan : Is this your car?

  Hoke Colburn : No.

  Daisy Werthan : Do you pay for the gas?

  Hoke Colburn : No.

  Daisy Werthan : All right, then! My fine son may think I'm losing my abilities, but I'm still in control of what goes on in my car.

  Hoke Colburn : Yes'm.