It Happened One Night Marriage Quotes

How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from It Happened One Night.

Quote #1

KING: Ellie and I got married because we love each other.

These words are King Westley's, and we can hear their hollowness as soon as he utters them. No one believes King Westley when he says this—least of all Andrews himself, to whom the words are addressed.

Quote #2

ANDREWS: You'll be set free when the marriage is annulled.

This is the deal that Andrews makes with his daughter in the film's first scene. Some deal, right? He's depriving Ellie of the right to choose her life partner; he wants to determine for her whom she can and whom she can't. And yet the film backs up Andrews's sense that King Westley's all wrong for her. At the same time, Peter probably wouldn't be Andrews's first choice of a hubby for his daughter, either, so the fact that he agrees with Ellie's later choice shows that he's evolved over the course of the movie.

Quote #3

PETER: Listen—suppose I should tell you that Ellen Andrews is going to have her marriage annulled.

Here's Peter on the annulment that Big Daddy Andrews has wanted from the first. He's gone to the office to ask his boss for $1,000—and to announce that he's going to be the lucky guy who'll wed Ellie. Some final ordeals still await the pair, but it's one of the film's great ironies that Peter ends up announcing the fulfillment of Andrews's wish.