"I never did like the idea of sitting on newspaper. I did it once, and all the headlines came off on my white pants. On the level! It actually happened. Nobody bought a paper that day. They just followed me around over town and read the news on the seat of my pants."
Peter says this to the bus driver early on in the film before we know much about him. There are stacks of newspapers in the back of the bus where Peter is trying to sit, so he confronts the bus driver about it. While the bus driver is rude at first, Peter gets the upper hand in the situation by being more clever about the situation. This line typifies Peter's irreverence and sense of humor. He describes a time in which he sat on newspaper and newsprint got all over his pants. It is an absurd joke because he reveals that after he sat on the newspaper, people followed him around and tried to read his pants. Peter is both silly and not especially respectful of authority, and this line shows that.
"You think I'm a fool and a spoiled brat. Well, perhaps I am, although I don't see how I can be. People who are spoiled are accustomed to having their own way. I never have. On the contrary. I've always been told what to do, and how to do it, and when, and with whom. Would you believe it? This is the first time I've ever been alone with a man!...It's a wonder I'm not panic-stricken...Nurses, governesses, chaperones, even bodyguards. Oh, it's been a lot of fun."
Ellie confides this to Peter when they share breakfast at the cabin. Peter has been pretty teasing about Ellie's wealth throughout the film, and here she contends that she isn't very spoiled at all, as she has been sheltered and not allowed to make decisions for herself. The constant supervision of her upper-class life has been trying, she explains to her new friend, and while many people suspect wealth of equaling happiness, in Ellie's estimation this is not so. She would rather have enjoyed more freedom in her upbringing, rather than being constantly under the watchful eye of servants and her father.
Ellie: You've been telling me what not to do ever since I can remember.
Mr. Andrews: That's because you've always been a stubborn idiot.
Ellie: I come from a long line of stubborn idiots.
Here, Mr. Andrews and Ellie fight about the fact that Ellie has been so rebellious. Ellie pushes back against Mr. Andrews' supervision, scolding him for being so controlling of her decisions. He calls her a "stubborn idiot," and she hurls the insult right back at him. Indeed, father and daughter have more in common than either of them suspect. They are both stubborn about getting their way, which is what causes the friction to begin with.
"Perhaps you're interested in how a man undresses. You know, it's a funny thing about that. Quite a study in psychology. No two men do it alike. You know, I once knew a man who kept his hat on until he was completely undressed. Yeah, now he made a picture. Years later, his secret came out. He wore a toupee. Yeah. You know, I have a method all my own. If you notice, the coat came first, then the tie, then the shirt. Now, uh, according to Hoyle, after that, the, uh, pants should be next. There's where I'm different... I go for the shoes next. First the right, then the left. After that it's, uh, every man for himself."
When Peter and Ellie first arrive at the cabin, Ellie is not too excited to share a room with a man she barely knows. Even when Peter hangs a curtain to divide their sides of the room, she remains unconvinced. It is not until he delivers this monologue, as he begins to remove his clothing one item at a time, that Ellie sees that she has no other option and must share the room with him. As he takes off more and more clothes, Ellie becomes anxious and runs to her side of the room. This monologue is Peter's playful way of getting Ellie to leave him alone; he knows that if he talks about how men get changed, and engage in a game of chicken, a striptease of sorts, Ellie will accept her sleeping situation.
Ellie: By the way, what's your name?
Peter: What's that?
Ellie: Who are you?
Peter: Who me? I'm the whippoorwill that cries in the night. I'm the soft morning breeze that caresses your lovely face.
Ellie: You've got a name, haven't you?
Peter: Yeah, I got a name. Peter Warne.
Ellie: Peter Warne. I don't like it.
Peter: Don't let it bother you. You're giving it back to me in the morning.
Ellie: Pleased to meet you, Mr. Warne.
Peter: The pleasure is all mine, Mrs. Warne.
This is a playful moment between Peter and Ellie, mere moments after they have removed their clothing on either side of the curtain and climbed into bed. While Ellie has not been too interested in Peter up until now, she finds herself curious about his name, and he playfully answers her questioning. The only way that the cabin would allow them to share a room at the motel is if they pretended to be married, hence Peter's jokingly calling Ellie "Mrs. Warne," and referencing the fact that she can give him back his name in the morning. This moment foreshadows the fact that eventually, Ellie will become the actual Mrs. Warne.
Ellie: He despises everything about me. He says that I'm spoiled and selfish and pampered, and—and thoroughly insincere.
Mr. Andrews: Oh, ridiculous.
Ellie: He doesn't think so much of you either...He blames you for everything that's wrong with me. He says you raised me stupidly.
Mr. Andrews: Now that's a fine man to fall in love with.
Ellie: Oh, he's marvelous!
When Ellie returns to her father, he can sense that she isn't very happy about her upcoming wedding to King Westley. He asks her about it and correctly guesses that she has fallen in love with another man. This quotation is from their conversation about Peter. Ellie confides in her father that she suspects Peter doesn't love her because she is a spoiled rich girl, and that he has bad things to say about her privilege and the way she was raised. The humor of the exchange comes from the fact that when Mr. Andrews says that Peter doesn't sound like a very good man to fall in love with, Ellie responds, "Oh he's marvelous!" In her eyes, Peter's disparagement of her wealth and privilege is an attractive trait.
"I got a couple of machine guns in my suitcase. I'll let you have one of 'em. May have a little trouble up North. Have to shoot it out with the cops. But if you come through all right, those five G's are as good as in the bag, maybe more. I'll have a talk with the Killer, see that he takes care of ya....yeah, yeah, the big boy, the boss of the outfit. You ever hear of Bugs Dooley?...He was a nice guy, just like you. But he made a big mistake one day. Got a little too talkative. Do you know what happened to his kid?...Well, I can't tell you, but when Bugs heard about it, he blew his brains out."
Peter says this to Mr. Shapeley when Shapeley asks him if he wants to turn in Ellie for the reward. In order to get Shapeley off Ellie's tracks, Peter affects the character of a dangerous gangster, launching into a performative monologue about all the guns he's carrying and the fact that if Shapeley spills the beans and trips up, he'll be knocked off by the head of the gangsters. While Peter isn't a tough guy at all, his performance of a dangerous and violent crime guy strikes fear into Shapeley, who rescinds his offer to get involved with the Ellie Andrews case and runs away in fear.
"That guy Warne is OK. He didn't want the reward. All he asked for was $39.60, what he spent on you. Said it was a matter of principle. You took him for a ride. He loves you, Ellie. He told me so. You don't want to be married to a mug like Westley. I can buy him off for a pot of gold. And you can make an old man happy and you won't do so bad for yourself. If you change your mind, your car's waiting back at the gate."
Mr. Andrews whispers this to Ellie as he walks her down the aisle to marry King Westley. Ellie has not given him a chance to tell her how his meeting with Peter went, and so he has to now reveal what a good man Peter is, that he didn't accept the reward money and that he still loves her. Mr. Andrews tells Ellie that it's not too late for her to change her mind and return to Peter. In Mr. Andrews' estimation, Peter is the better match for his daughter because he has demonstrated that he loves her for herself and not for her money. If she chooses Peter, her father tells her, she will "make an old man happy" and have a nice life than if she marries the shallow King Westley.
"I proved once and for all that the limb is mightier than the thumb."
Ellie makes this cheeky remark to Peter in the car once they have been picked up. Peter had a hard time getting people to stop for them when he was just using his thumb to hitchhike, and all after making a big to-do about his hitchhiking abilities. When Ellie tries her hand at hitchhiking, she lifts up her skirt to reveal more of her leg and a car immediately slams on the breaks to pick them up. Her feminine wiles go a much longer way than his hitchhiking efforts, and here she confirms that her leg ("the limb") did a much better job of getting a car to stop than Peter's thumb.
"If I could ever meet the right sort of girl. Aw, where you gonna find her? Somebody that's real. Somebody that's alive. They don't come that way anymore. Have I ever thought about it? I've even been sucker enough to make plans. You know, I saw an island in the Pacific once. I've never been able to forget it. That's where I'd like to take her. She'd have to be the sort of a girl who'd... well, who'd jump in the surf with me and love it as much as I did. You know, nights when you and the moon and the water all become one. You feel you're part of something big and marvelous. That's the only place to live... where the stars are so close over your head you feel you could reach up and stir them around. Certainly, I've been thinking about it. Boy, if I could ever find a girl who was hungry for those things..."
On their final night together, Ellie asks Peter what his ideal lover would be like. He gives this answer. In his estimation, being "real" and "alive" are the finest attributes a woman can possess. He then tells Ellie about an island in the Pacific where he once felt especially "at one" with nature. Peter's credentials for a woman to love are someone who could travel to that island with him and "jump in the surf" with him. He wants someone who enjoys adventure and the thrill of the natural world. On the other side of the curtain that separates their beds, Ellie longs to be that girl, to jump in the surf with the man she loves.
