The Haunting (1963)
Julie Harris: Eleanor Lance
Photos
Quotes
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Mrs. Dudley : [Eleanor has just been shown her room after she arrives] I can't keep the rooms the way I'd like, but there's no one else they could get that would help me.
Eleanor Lance : How very nice.
Mrs. Dudley : I set dinner on the dining room sideboard at 6. I clear up in the morning. I have breakfast for you at 9. I don't wait on people. I don't stay after I set out the dinner, not after it begins to get dark. I leave before the dark.
Eleanor Lance : Your husband?
Mrs. Dudley : We live over in town, miles away.
Eleanor Lance : Yes.
Mrs. Dudley : So there won't be anyone around if you need help.
Eleanor Lance : I understand.
Mrs. Dudley : We couldn't hear you. In the night.
Eleanor Lance : Do you have any idea when Dr. Markway...
Mrs. Dudley : [cuts her off] No one could. No one lives any nearer than town. No one will come any nearer than that.
Eleanor Lance : I know.
Mrs. Dudley : In the night. In the dark.
[Mrs. Dudley grins and leaves]
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Eleanor Lance : God! God! Whose hand was I holding?
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[last lines]
Eleanor Lance : [voice-over] Hill House has stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Within, walls continue upright, bricks meet, floors are firm, and doors are sensibly shut. Silence lies steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House. And we who walk here... walk alone.
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Theodora : Is this another one of your crazy hallucinations?
Eleanor Lance : I'm not crazy!
Theodora : Crazy as a loon! You really expect me to believe that you're sane and the rest of the world is mad?
Eleanor Lance : Well, why not? The world is full of inconsistencies. Unnatural things. Nature's mistakes, they're called. You, for instance!
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Dr. John Markway : Did something happen?
Eleanor Lance : [she and Theodora start laughing hysterically] No, nothing in particular, just someone banging on the door with a cannon ball!
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Eleanor Lance : What scares you, Theodora?
Theodora : Knowing what I really want.
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Eleanor Lance : The house... it's alive!
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[the group is huddled in the conservatory. Nell, Theo, and Markway are asleep as Luke enters and takes a drink from a liquor bottle, when the door suddenly slams shut by itself, waking everyone up!]
Dr. John Markway : [to Luke] Why aren't you upstairs?
Luke Sannerson : I needed a drink.
[suddenly there are sounds of wind blowing and then distant yet distinct pounding is heard]
Dr. John Markway : Grace!
Luke Sannerson : Wait a minute! It's nowhere near the nursery... it's down here.
Theodora : Seems we've been on this kick before.
Eleanor Lance : Next vacation I must really go somewhere else!
[the pounding becomes louder and closer]
Eleanor Lance : [thinking; voice-over] It knows my name, this time it knows my name!
Dr. John Markway : I have to go out there.
Eleanor Lance : [shouting] No, no! It hasn't hurt me. Why should it hurt her?
Dr. John Markway : She might try to do something about it!
[the pounding stops]
Eleanor Lance : Is it over, Theo? Is it?
Theodora : No, I'm still cold. It's going to start everything all over again!
[the pounding resumes violently and loudly against the closed door]
Eleanor Lance : [screaming] It can't get in! It can't get in! Don't let it get in!
[the pounding stops and the doorknob jiggles]
Eleanor Lance : [whimpering] God, it knows I'm here!
[the door begins to buckle and bend in on itself, Luke in his horror drops his bottle]
Luke Sannerson : Doc... I'll let you have the house cheap!
[the bulging door returns to normal, the wind is heard blowing again, and soon the pounding footsteps resume and head upstairs]
Eleanor Lance : [thinking to herself; voice-over] Go on and on and come back again until it finds me! On and on and on until it finds me!
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Eleanor Lance : Can't you feel it? It's alive... watching.
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Eleanor Lance : I'm still so terrified from last night.
Dr. John Markway : You shouldn't be. It's silly to be frightened...
Eleanor Lance : Silly? You haven't been through it! This horrible, unknown thing!
Dr. John Markway : 'Unknown.' That's the key word - 'unknown.' When we become involved in a supernatural event, we're scared out of our wits just because it's unknown. The night cry of a child. A face on the wall. Knockings, bangings... What's there to be afraid of? You weren't threatened. It was harmless, like a joke that doesn't come out.
Eleanor Lance : But the child...
Dr. John Markway : There was no child, remember? Just a voice.
Eleanor Lance : A voice...
Dr. John Markway : Look, Eleanor, put it this way. When people believed the Earth was flat, the idea of a round world scared them silly. Then they found out how the round world works. It's the same with the world of the supernatural. Until we know how it works, we'll continue to carry around this unnecessary burden of fear.
Eleanor Lance : Supposing it is in my imagination. The knocking, the voices. Everything! Every cursed bit of the haunting. Suppose the haunting is all in my mind.
Dr. John Markway : Well, you can't say that, because there are three other people here. We all resist the idea that what ran through the garden that first night was a ghost, what banged on the door was a ghost, what held your hand was a ghost. But there is certainly something going on in Hill House. We're getting closer, very close to finding out what it is.
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Theodora : [noticing the large sculptures] You know, this could be a family portrait of us.
Eleanor Lance : Don't be ridiculous.
Theodora : You're the companion, I'm Abigail, uh, grown up, and Markway could be old Hugh.
Luke Sannerson : Where do I fit in?
Theodora : The dog.
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Eleanor Lance : Human nature could certainly stand some improvement.
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Theodora : Here you are. Okay, Isolde. Tristan wants you inside.
Eleanor Lance : Leave me alone.
Theodora : Stop trying to be the center of attention, Nell. Come inside.
Eleanor Lance : [swipes Theodora's hand off her shoulder] Don't touch me, Theo! You revolt me!
Theodora : Whoa, can't you take a joke? I didn't know you were serious about Markway.
Eleanor Lance : Of course you did.
Theodora : I'm not jealous. I'm actually flattered that you have feelings for him. But he shouldn't be allowed to get away with it.
Eleanor Lance : Get away with what?
Theodora : You're making a fool of yourself over him.
Eleanor Lance : Suppose I'm not, though? You'd mind terribly if you turned out to be wrong for once, wouldn't you?
Theodora : You poor, stupid innocent.
Eleanor Lance : I'd rather be innocent than like you!
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Eleanor Lance : I was leaning back to see the top of the tower and... I got dizzy.
Luke Sannerson : Dizzy like a fox, huh?
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Eleanor Lance : Everybody has a right to run away.
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[after either nearly falling off a high balcony - or being pushed off - she is saved by John Markway]
Eleanor Lance : Oh! This house! You have to watch it every minute!
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Eleanor Lance : [panicking] But where?
Dr. John Markway : Home, of course.
Theodora : Back to your little apartment, where all your things are.
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Eleanor Lance : [to the garage attendant, rather desperately] I want my car. I mean to take it.
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Eleanor Lance : I am disappearing inch by inch into this house.
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Eleanor Lance : Are you Dudley the caretaker?
Mr. Dudley : [Mimicking her] Yeah, I'm "Dudley the caretaker."
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[repeated line]
Eleanor Lance : My mother...
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[the group in the conservatory room hears the pounding and breaking glass and furniture from the unseen phantom]
Dr. John Markway : It's in the nursery!
Luke Sannerson : [stops Markway from opening the door] You must be crazy!
Dr. John Markway : I'm going out there!
Luke Sannerson : Oh, no you don't! Not with that thing out there!
Eleanor Lance : [intervenes] Luke, we must find Mrs. Markway to find out if she's there!
[Luke shoves Eleanor aside and continues to try to stop Markway from leaving the room]
Luke Sannerson : No! Don't be crazy!
Dr. John Markway : I've got to get out of here! I've got to find out if Grace is all right.
Luke Sannerson : Look, I don't know what that is out there, but I don't want to find out!
Dr. John Markway : Get away from me! I've got to get out of here! I've got to find out if Grace is all right!
