Directed by Douglas Sirk. Written by George Zuckerman, based on the novel by Robert Wilder.

Kyle Hadley

• [after being shot] What are we doing here, Mitch?... Let's go down to the river, where we belong. I'll be down at the river, waiting, waiting.

Marylee Hadley

• I'm allergic to politeness.

• [to Lucy] Oh, there's a man for you — or for me, rather. Kyle starts something. Mitch finishes it for him. Kyle falls on his face. Mitch picks him up. Kyle steals. Mitch takes the blame. And there you have the secret story of Kyle Hadley and his electric personality.

Dialogue

Lucy: [to Mitch] Just what do you do for the Hadley Oil Company?

Kyle: We're troubleshooters. Wherever they want trouble, they send for us.

Mitch: I, uh, have a sheepskin that says I'm a geologist.

Kyle: I was kicked out of the same school. They found rocks in my head.

Kyle: A toast to — to beauty — and the truth, which is anything but beautiful... This is an occasion. We must proceed with, with quiet dignity.

Mitch: What are we celebrating?

Kyle: The end of a drought, a year-long drought.

Mitch: We drank a toast to truth.

Kyle: So?

Mitch: So you ought to let us in on what you're really celebrating — or mourning.

Kyle: So you'd like to know my secret. The secret is — not to pour the vermouth, just to pretend you're pouring it.

Biff: [about Marylee] That's how she operates... I never heard of anybody ever picking her up, that's all. It's always the other way around.

Jasper: How do you know?

Biff: Why don't you just walk up and down Main Street and ask somebody, huh?

Jasper: I'm asking you!

Biff: I didn't take her to the motel. She took me. Your daughter's a tramp, mister, if that ain't plain enough for ya.

Lucy: Do you love me?

Kyle: Love you? I don't even love myself.

Lucy: Kyle, what is it? Is it something I've said or something I've done or should have done?

Kyle: I can't tell you. I'm afraid. It's like I was deep in a mountain pass, snowcaps hanging over my head. If I make a sound, snow might all come tumbling down... bury me... alive.

Marylee: That was no lady. That was your wife.

Kyle: Where are they going?

Marylee: I don't know. Where would you take your best friend's wife?

Kyle: You're a real sweet kid.

Marylee: Now be nice to me, brother. One morning we'll wake up and we'll be all alone together.

Kyle: Go on, sister. Tell me another pretty story.

Marylee: Once upon a time, there was a poor little rich boy.

Kyle: Kyle Hadley by name.

Marylee: Who pickled his tiny brain with gin and bourbon.

Kyle: Not so. Scotch.

Marylee: Till he got so stinking blind he couldn't see what was going on right under his big red nose.

Kyle: But his charming, righteous little sister did.

Marylee: Yes, she saw the end of a marriage and the beginning of a love affair.

Kyle: You're a filthy liar.

Marylee: I'm filthy — period. But you don't have to take my word for anything. Just try keeping your head clear and your eyes open.

Kyle: Why should you care? You've never cared about me.

Marylee: Or your wife.

Kyle: Why are you putting your two cents in?

Marylee: Only because of Mitch. Because I've never had him, and your wife has.

Taglines

• The story of a family's ugly secret and the stark moment that thrust their private lives into public view!

• This woman in his arms was now the wife of the man he called his best friend!

Cast

• Rock Hudson - Mitch Wayne
• Lauren Bacall - Lucy Moore Hadley
• Robert Stack - Kyle Hadley
• Dorothy Malone - Marylee Hadley
• Robert Keith - Jasper Hadley
• Grant Williams - Biff Miley
• Robert J. Wilke - Dan Willis
• Edward Platt - Dr. Paul Cochrane
• Harry Shannon - Hoak Wayne