Mon épouse favorite (1940)
Granville Bates: Judge Bryson
Photos
Quotes
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Judge Walter Bryson : I'd like to get home and tell my wife about this. She thinks all my cases are boring.
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Judge Walter Bryson : Who are you?
Stephen Burkett : Well, your honor...
Nick Arden : Oh, he was on the island with her. He's not important to this case.
Judge Walter Bryson : I'll decide what's important to the case. What island?
Nick Arden : The island where my wife stayed for seven years, your honor.
Judge Walter Bryson : They were on an island together for seven years?
Nick Arden : Yes, your honor.
Judge Walter Bryson : Not alone?
Nick Arden : Yes.
Judge Walter Bryson : Hmm. Same island?
Nick Arden : Yes.
Judge Walter Bryson : Is that in the brief?
Nick Arden : No, your honor!
Judge Walter Bryson : Oh, that should be in the brief. That's the most interesting part of the case.
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Nick Arden : It'd be very kind of you if...
Judge Walter Bryson : Just a moment.
[to court clerk]
Judge Walter Bryson : Wasn't I supposed to marry somebody?
Court Clerk Beside Judge Bryson : Why yes, yes Your Honor.
Judge Walter Bryson : Well, let's get it over with. This can wait. This is a very complicated case, this Arden matter.
[unknowingly referring to the same case]
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Judge Walter Bryson : [in the courtroom trying to solve/etc. the Arden case] Where'd you go to school?
Nick Arden : Harvard.
Judge Walter Bryson : Uh huh. I'm a Yale man myself.
[to Bianca]
Judge Walter Bryson : Are you the bride?
Bianca Bates : Yes Your Honor.
Judge Walter Bryson : Mmhmm. Kissless?
Bianca Bates : Yes Your Honor.
Judge Walter Bryson : [motions to the court clerk denoting an obvious example proving his subtle case of character about Nick] Harvard man.
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[first lines]
Judge Walter Bryson : [as the omnipotent viewer/camera enters the Los Angeles County Court Of General Sessions / Judge Walter Bryson Presiding and as the bickering over a previous case dies down] Alright, alright. The case is postponed till next Thursday. Now that'll be the 26th.
Postponed Case Lawyer : Thank you Your Honor.
Judge Walter Bryson : Be here.
Court Clerk Beside Judge Bryson : Are the parties ready in the matter of Ellen Wagstaff Arden?
Nick Arden : Yes here.
[smiles endearingly at Bianca and approaches the bench]
Nick Arden : Good morning Your Honor.
Judge Walter Bryson : Good morning.
[the somewhat confusingly complicated and situationally humorous case of Arden-Wagstaff-etc. begins]
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Stephen Burkett : [re-entering the courtroom and playing along with Ellen's verbal ploy to make Nick jealous and come back to her] Well Ellen, see ya at the boat - 9:00.
Judge Walter Bryson : [from the Bench] What boat?
Stephen Burkett : You see Your Honor, we're not interested in manmade laws. But there's a law of the jungle: when a man finds his mate, he doesn't have to
[looks condescendingly at Nick]
Stephen Burkett : think it out.
[pretendingly romantically to Ellen]
Stephen Burkett : Goodbye Eve, until tomorrow.
Ellen Wagstaff Arden aka Eve : Goodbye Adam.
Stephen Burkett : Just a moment.
Stephen Burkett : And it's alright with me if you bring the kiddies.
[leaves the courtroom]
Judge Walter Bryson : [appalled at the strangeness of it all] Kiddies? Well in all my experience on the Bench I have ne-...
[continues finishing the case]
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Judge Walter Bryson : [as Ellen and Stephen enter back into the courtroom, uproarious laughter is heard coming from the spectators and the Judge pounds his gavel in attempt to bring order to the court after Bianca has apparently just punched Nick in the nose] I'll have no violence in my courtroom.
Bianca Bates : [as she slams the money/fee down on the court Bench] $25 and it was worth it!
[to Nick]
Bianca Bates : And all I have to say to you is that, as far as I'm concerned, *you're* legally dead.
[she storms out of the courtroom]
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Judge Walter Bryson : [referring to Mr. Mulligan in the Mulligan vs. Mulligan-Benson case that Nick is using as a parallel example to his own situation] Well don't stand there gawking, what did he do?
Nick Arden : He died suddenly of cirrhosis of the liver.
Ellen Wagstaff Arden aka Eve : A-and they never did find out whether he slept with his beard under the covers or over the covers.
Judge Walter Bryson : Now that'll cost you $25.
Ellen Wagstaff Arden aka Eve : Just for a nice old joke?
Judge Walter Bryson : You heard me - $25.
Ellen Wagstaff Arden aka Eve : [in a proudly funny manner] Oh you can't do that Your Honor, I'm legally dead. You think it's nice to take money from a corpse?
Judge Walter Bryson : Now that'll cost you $25 more. That's 50 you owe me.
[to the court clerk]
Judge Walter Bryson : You keeping track of this?
Court Clerk Beside Judge Bryson : Mm, uh yes.
Judge Walter Bryson : See that you do.
Nick Arden : But she is legally dead Your Honor. You declared her legally dead yourself in this very courtroom; your decision is on file.
Judge Walter Bryson : Did I do that?
Court Clerk Beside Judge Bryson : Yes, yes you did Your Honor.
Judge Walter Bryson : I did? Well I'm going to declare her legally alive, then she can pay me that $50. Will someone swear she's a live woman?
Stephen Burkett : [happily] I'll say she is Your Honor.
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Ellen Wagstaff Arden aka Eve : [trying to help Nick stop his nosebleed] Oh hold your head back, way back.
[Nick's head bumps over the water pitcher and it spills all over the judge, the Bench, and the case brief papers]
Judge Walter Bryson : [extremely irritated] Doh! Now there's a mess.
[the court clerk quickly fusses with the mess]
Judge Walter Bryson : Oh, never mind that. I uh-uh-can't read a wet brief. You know what... where's that thing?...
[slams his hands down twice in frustration]
Judge Walter Bryson : *Court's adjourned*! Harvard man.
[leaves the Bench and the scene splices to the next scene]