Chapter 6 of 15 · 5'02"
At the office Christmas party, Baxter and Fran drink in her elevator and trade banter, while Miss Olsen tells Fran that Sheldrake has done this with a string of women. Baxter offers a promotion and a date, and Fran turns him down: "This is a bad day for me." The party is warm on the surface and quietly cruel underneath.
Baxter Declares the Elevator Out of Order
❝ Monologue · 10 lines Miss Olsen Warns Fran About Sheldrake
On Christmas Eve, the office party spills through the building. Baxter meets Fran in her elevator, they drink, and he jokes about declaring it out of order to keep talking. At the party, Miss Olsen warns Fran about Sheldrake's history with women. Later, in Baxter's new office, he shows off a hat and invites Fran out; she says it is a bad day for her.
The scene sets up the film's real subject: the distance between how people act at a party and what they know. Baxter and Fran flirt easily in the elevator, but the foundation is already cracked — he reminds her she once stood him up, and she answers with a line that both apologizes and warns: "Just because I wear a uniform, that doesn't make me a Girl Scout." Miss Olsen then supplies the context Fran can't ignore, detailing Sheldrake's pattern of secretaries and other women, ending on "you wind up with egg foo yung on your face." That is the film's thesis in a joke: the charming man always leaves the woman holding the mess. Baxter, meanwhile, is rehearsing for a version of the same role, showing off his office, his hat, and his pull with Sheldrake. When Fran says "this is a bad day for me," she is refusing more than one invitation.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“Just because I wear a uniform, that doesn't make me a Girl Scout.”
It refuses a role someone else assigned her, and does it with dry humor.
Informal
“Then, in the end, you wind up with egg foo yung on your face.”
A plate of food becomes an image of humiliation, which makes the warning memorable.
Informal
“I like it that way. Makes me look the way I feel.”
The broken mirror says everything about her mood without naming it.
literary
“You're so right. By the power vested in me, I declare this elevator out of order.”
Mock ceremony makes a tiny workplace rule sound like an official decree.
Informal
He used to tell his wife I was the branch manager from Seattle... ...four years ago when we were having a little ring-a-ding-ding. - I don't know what you're talking about. - Before me it was Miss Rossi in Auditing. And after me it was Miss Koch in Disability. And right before you was a Miss, um... - Would you excuse me? - What for? You haven't done anything. It's him. Oh, what a salesman! Always the last booth in the Chinese restaurant... ...and the same pitch about divorcing his wife. Then, in the end, you wind up with egg foo yung on your face.
Up next · 07ancient historyThe scene: Sheldrake Leaves Fran on Christmas EveShe is Sheldrake's secretary, and a former mistress. Having been replaced, she recognizes Fran as the newest woman in the same position and tries to warn her.
She is not being coy. Her evening is already ruined by what Miss Olsen told her, and she is still involved with Sheldrake, so a date with Baxter is the last thing she wants.
He offers influence: a transfer to Personnel, a promotion, even the job of elevator starter. He name-drops Sheldrake and the Christmas card to prove he can help her career.
It means a naive, rule-following girl. Fran is telling Baxter that wearing an elevator uniform does not make her innocent, so he should not treat her like one.
He says he likes it because it shows him the way he feels. It is a rare honest moment from a man who spends the party joking and performing.
