The Best Helen McNeill Quotes

Dottie: It's a terrible responsible secret, so you'll have to swear and cross your heart.
Joe: Oh.
[makes a crossing notion with hands]
Joe: I swear.
[Peggy does the same]
Dottie: I guess I can tell the rest of it to you, then. They're gonna kill him. They're gonna murder him. In a parade.
Helen: Dorothy, what parade? You didn't say anything about a parade.
Dottie: Oh, I just put that in. It was the way they killed Mr. Muffins.
Joe: Mr. Muffins?
Helen: In, uh, a comic strip.
Dottie: There was a big band, and Mr. Muffins was in an ostrich costume, and just as the band started, they shot him, which is why nobody heard the gun-- on account of trombones. It was pretty slick, all right.
Helen: [sighs] I'm sorry, Mr. Mannix. Sometimes her mind sort of runs over a little.
Joe: All right, Dottie.
[hands Dottie a microphone]
Joe: Now, I want you to talk into this. I want you to tell me exactly what you heard the men say in the booth-- nothing more. Nothing but the exact words. If you can remember them, okay?
Dottie: Yes.
Joe: Wait a minute.
[turns on the recorder]
Joe: Okay.
Dottie: He said...
Joe: Who?
Dottie: The taller one, thin. With kind of red hair. He said, "When does he knock him off?" Then I couldn't hear the words on account of the noise from the movie machine. And then he was saying, "He wants to make it day after tomorrow, if we can set it up." And then I couldn't hear. And then he said, "What?"
Joe: The redhead?
Dottie: Mm-hmm. Then the other one said, "Having the police working with us on this one." And they laughed. And that's when they must have saw me. And I ran.
Joe: Hmm. Someone in the police force a party to murder?
Helen: I know she's very imaginative, and she's crazy about crime stories. But you must believe me, I know when she's telling the truth.
Joe: All right, Dottie, very good. You know something? Peggy here keeps candy in her file, under "C". Would you like some?
Dottie: Sure.
Peggy: Come along, Dottie.
Dottie: Okay. But that's what they said, honest.
Helen: We live just a little way from that theater, and those men saw her. They'll be looking for her. She's all I have. I'm scared. She's only a little girl. I'm scared to death.