Help with a quote, please
 

:read: ???
Need help with a line from a movie or TV (television, not The Villages) show. It's half stuck in my mind and I can remember neither the exact quote nor the source. The set up is that the protagonist is an orphan. He is introduced to relatives of his lady love. An elderly lady (mother, grandmother, aunt, whatever) responds more of less: “To lose one parent might be considered unfortunate. To lose both is certainly careless.”

Anyway, that‘s surely not the exact quote, but it’s close. Can anyone attribute it and correct my misrememberance. This is kinda like an old melody that gets stuck in your head and will not leave until identified. And I've always loved, not the quote exactly, but the sense of certitude behind it.???

~~~~
An aside in that the snobbery of the old lady reminded me of the young Bostonian girl who returned home with her beau from college (Harvard, of course). Upon being introduced to the grande dame of the family, the boy explains that "his people" are from Des Moines, Iowa. The dear old lady is somewhat taken aback but recovers quickly enough to explain to the young man that "in Boston, we pronounce it "Ohio". But I digress. What's the quote and where's it from???

:dontknow:

Re: Help with a quote, please
 

Boy, aren't you glad I love trivia? :a20:

Actually, it is neither from a movie or TV so far as I know. It's Oscar Wilde at his best: To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness. (The Importance of Being Earnest)

Re: Help with a quote, please
 

Red...you are amazing; what a wealth of knowledge you possess. You probably made this person's day and now they can sleep tonight.

Re: Help with a quote, please
 

:bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:

I bow to your brilliance. As soon as I read your reply, my reaction: "Doh! Well, yeah, of course that's it. I do feel a bit stupid."

I was pretty sure I'd seen a great old movie version recently on TCM or the like, so I checked IMDB.com. There was a recent 2002 which I've not seen. Cast looks good. The version I remembered was a '52 movie starring Michael Regrave, Dame Edith Evans as Lady Bracknell (source of quote) and the wonderful Margaret Rutherford. There have been a bunch of TV movies with some outstanding performers. I don't think Tom Arnold, Jennifer Lopez, or Erik Estrada were in any of them.

Re: Help with a quote, please
 

Nope, actually knew the quote. lol Did doublecheck the wording, though.

Ask me something important like my daughter's name or date of birth and I'm apt to go huh???? Ask me trivia and the more useless it is, the more likely it's stuck somewhere in my brain. Sad, huh?

Re: Help with a quote, please
 

Good job redwitch!!!!

I knew it was from a movie but for some reason I was thinking "The Wrong Box"!?!?! :dontknow: :dontknow: :dontknow: What was I thinking? ??? :dontknow: ??? :dontknow: ???

By the way the 2002 version of The Importance of Being Earnest I find to be as delightful as the 1952 version.

Sure glad Red came up with it ....I was thinking Oscar Levant..........

fumar

Thanks Fumar. I've been missing Muncle a lot. It is cool to see one of his posts revisited.

I agree, Bare. Vintage Muncle.

That probably is from some movie or television show...
 

...but inspired by the line by Oscar Wilde. http://www.litquotes.com/quote_autho...=Oscar%20Wilde

Sure do miss Muncle's posts.