Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945)

Agnes Moorehead: Bruna Jacobson

Photos 

Quotes 

• Selma Jacobson : Ma?

  Bruna Jacobson : Hmm?

  Selma Jacobson : Why don't you want Pa to have a new barn?

  Bruna Jacobson : I'd like him to have a new barn, Selma. I'd like anything that makes your pa happy. But, new barns aren't easy. Sometimes they take too much out of a man like your father.

  Selma Jacobson : But if you'd like him to have a new barn, why do you always talk like you didn't?

  Bruna Jacobson : Well, what you'd like people to have and what people are able to have - those are two different things. Right now your pa's out in the barn mendin' harness when he ought to be here with us gettin' some rest. With the old barn, he works more than any man should. To pay for a new one, he'd be workin' longer; he'd never be able to stop for a minute. He's growin' old and dreamin' at night of his debts. Oh, it's better Selma - it's better never to have a thing than to have it and be afraid. Some of these days when you're older, you...

  [hears rustling movement and discreetly shushes their conversation] 

  Bruna Jacobson : ... That's your pa, isn't it?

• Selma Jacobson : We're home ma.

  Bruna Jacobson : Ring the dinner bell, and then you and Arnold go wash.

  Selma Jacobson : Alright ma.

  [They run over to the dinner bell] 

  Arnold Hanson : You should let me pull it.

  Selma Jacobson : Why?

  Arnold Hanson : Cause I'm the guest.

  Selma Jacobson : But you always pull the bell when you're here.

  Arnold Hanson : That's because I'm always the guess.

  Selma Jacobson : Oh alright.

• Martinius Jacobson : [contemplating and reevaluating what's really important in life after the tragic fire that destroyed the Bjornson's new barn]  You know, I've been thinking.

  Bruna Jacobson : Yeah?

  Martinius Jacobson : When the war is over, and things open up again, I want to do some things to the house: pipe water in, fix up the bathroom, maybe get a little electric plan - these lamps ain't so good on Selma's eyes. You could do with a new stove too, the kind that works on rock gas.

  Bruna Jacobson : Where you figure on gettin' the money?

  Martinius Jacobson : We've got it.

  Bruna Jacobson : But you, you'll need that and a lot more for the new barn.

  Martinius Jacobson : I don't figure to build a barn, Bruna.

  Bruna Jacobson : I thought you had your heart set on it?

  Martinius Jacobson : Yeah, I guess I did. Guess every man kinda figures way down in his heart the one thing he really wants is a... new barn. Hmph, that's mostly foolishness.

  Bruna Jacobson : I'm not so sure, Martinius. Maybe... maybe if a man wants a barn as bad as you do, maybe he ought to have it.

  Martinius Jacobson : No, not if it costs a price a man ain't willin' to pay. I've got you, I've got Selma; now if I had a barn I'd have everything, there wouldn't be anything else I'd want. I don't know, Bruna; maybe it's a good thing for a man to want somethin' - somethin' he ain't ever gonna get - just to keep his interest up and help him take care of things he has.

  [Bruna is emotionally touched and goes upstairs to bed] 

• Arnold Hanson : [sitting around the dinner table eating pancakes for supper and talking about the Jacobson's new calf]  Sure is funny how I keep on not getting a calf.

  Bruna Jacobson : Well what Selma's pa meant was that it was just pretend her calf.

  Selma Jacobson : [looking disheartened]  But pa didn't say it was pretend - he said it was all mine.

  Bruna Jacobson : Well everything on the farm is all yours Selma, yours and ours - the things that keep us warm, the food we have - it couldn't just belong to one of us any more than... the sunshine,

  [waves her hand] 

  Bruna Jacobson : or these pesky flies. I'm sure that's what your pa meant, isn't it Martinius?

  Martinius Jacobson : Well uh, that may be what I meant to say; but I did tell her it was all hers. Well maybe your mother's right Selma. Maybe we, uh, ought to kinda figure it like she said instead of, uh, what we spoke about.

  Bruna Jacobson : Well Heaven sakes Martinus, you can't take it away from her if you gave it to her like that. Maybe it's a good thing; I think your pa's right. She needed something to take care of. She'll have work to do, just like a grownup.

  [Selma smiles and nods] 

• Bruna Jacobson : What you'd like people to have, and what people are able to have - those are two different things

  [...] 

  Bruna Jacobson : It's better never to have a thing than to have it and be afraid.

• Bruna Jacobson : [Martinius feels guilty for having to reprimand Selma]  Oh, first you won't eat your supper and now you're gonna take a bath. You just wanna be by yourself, don't ya?

  Martinius Jacobson : Something like that.

  Bruna Jacobson : Well, I'll get the water goin'; you can have the new soap. I honestly don't know which of you's the biggest baby: you or Selma?

• Martinius Jacobson : [proudly, while toasting wine with their local friends on Christmas morning]  Oh, I have some news to tell. I talked to the bank and, uh, they think we should put up a new barn here.

  Bjorn Bjornson : Well...

  Bruna Jacobson : [concernedly]  When?

  Martinius Jacobson : Soon as the winter breaks.

  Bjorn Bjornson : Then we drink to a Merry Christmas, and a new barn.

  Mr. Faraassen : Well, especially the new barn - we already have the Christmas.

  Selma Jacobson : [excitedly]  Oh, jeepers Pa!

  Bruna Jacobson : What are you gonna do with the old barn?

  Martinius Jacobson : Use it for storage.

  Bjorn Bjornson : Ja, you always need more storage space around the farm.

  Bruna Jacobson : And the debt? What shall we do with the debt?

  Martinius Jacobson : Well, we'll drink to it too.

  Martinius Jacobson , Bruna Jacobson , Bjorn Bjornson , Mr. Faraassen , Selma Jacobson : Skol!

  [They all toast each other while Bruna looks worried] 

• Martinius Jacobson : [to Selma, after hearing Bruna yelp in fright during a storm]  Did you ever notice how your mother always gets her knitting done when there's a thunderstorm?

  Bruna Jacobson : Oh, you.

  [he chuckles amusingly] 

• Bruna Jacobson : [referring to Selma]  She'll be alright, she's asleep. You ought to get some sleep yourself.

  Martinius Jacobson : [lamenting over the tragic loss of Bjornson's new barn in a fire and the subsequent mercy killing of his cattle]  I just killed 21 purebred Jerseys. A man can't sleep on that.

  Bruna Jacobson : You did what was best.