Context

This line is spoken by Ellie Andrews (played by Claudette Colbert) in the film It Happened One Night, directed by Frank Capra (1934).

A young heiress and a newspaper reporter are hitchhiking across the country. The reporter (Clark Gable), being a prideful gentleman, offers to hail their next ride by using his thumb. Dozens of cars speed by and don't stop, so the lady, Ellie, tells him, "I'll stop a car and I won't use my thumb."

How does she do it? Well, she hitches up her skirt above her knee. Wowee-zowee. Seeing that shapely patella, the very next car driver applies every brake he has on board and comes screeching to a halt. In a game of Rock-Gams-Thumb, Gams beat Thumb every single time. Check out this clip to see what happens next.

Where you've heard it

You've heard this if you're successful at hitchhiking using body parts other than your thumb… or maybe after you cheated at thumb-wrestling.

Additional Notable References:

• This is one of those quotes where the scene that accompanies it, a classic visual gag, is more famous than the quote itself. For example, Julia Roberts (unsuccessfully) tries a similar technique in Mystic Pizza.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

This quote is hardly pretentious, and these days, the technique might not even be that successful. In some places, you'd have to show a lot more than a knee to get a ride.