Great One Liners

[storeynicholas]

Marcelo - yes Wittgenstein would probably have got along very well with Cornelia Otis Skinner who observed that, in life we have to learn to draw our own confusions.
NJS

She once gave a rip-roaring keynote address to a Gynaecologists' Association convention, ending with the toast "bottoms up!"

Quite a character by all accounts!!
NJS

[Trey]

Gents:

Cary Grant in North by Northwest seems to be mentioned often in these forums. Several of my favorite CG lines from the movie - one-liners or not are:

* Eva Marie Sait: I'm a big girl.
* Cary Grant: Yeah, and in all the right places, too.

*CG: I've got a job, a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives and several bartenders dependent upon me, and I don't intend to disappoint them all by getting myself slightly killed.

*CG to secretary: I feel heavyish. Put a note on my desk in the morning - "think thin."

*CG to secretary: Soon as you get back to the office, call my mother; tell her about the theatre tickets for tonight. Dinner at 21; 7 o'clock. I'll have had two martinis at the Oak Bar, so she needn't sniff me.
*Secretary: She doesn't do that?!?
CG: Like a bloodhound.

Here's are two non NNW favorite CG quotes:

* "To succeed with the opposite sex, tell her you're impotent. She can't wait to disprove it."

* "My father used to say, 'Let them see you and not the suit. That should be secondary."

Trey

[storeynicholas]

Trey - thank you for these! I have said before that I like several lines in To Catch a Thief and I would add - The Philadelphia Story (took me several viewing before I quite understood it all). Holiday, My Favourite Wife and Bringing Up Baby also deserve a mention but I don't have copies here so I can't set them out (unfortunately). Some of my very favourite CG's are in the scene between the drunk Connor (Jimmy Stewart) and CG (CK Dexter Haven) and in the 'morning after' scene - the repartee between the dumped bridegroom and CG's character.
NJS

[Trey]

NJS -

My favorite CG "The Philadelphia Story" line is, in CG's reference to Kitteredge is:

"To hardly know him is to know him well."

Trey

[storeynicholas]

Trey - what's the exact Kitteridge / C K Dexter Haven bit about 'behave herself - naturally'?
NJS

[Trey]

This is the last scene where we see Kitteridge. He lacks the personality of C.K. Dexter Haven or Jimmy Stewart. He is uptight. He expects "Red" to act a certain way, which she did not on their wedding eve (at least according to him).

A highlight of this scene is when, during Kitteridge's interrogation and responding to how his wife shoud behave, she says stiffly and in a formal way that mocks Kitteridge's tone - "To behave herself - - - naturally." What she means is "obviously to act as 'high society' - (catch the reference?) expects." This is a Kitteridgesque monotone mechanical response, to which C.K. Dexter Haven quickly replies, in his oh so smart aleck way and in a much different tone, "To behave herself naturally". What he means, which is in direct contrast to what Red and Kitteridge mean is to naturally act as one wishes - to follow one's instincts instead of societal norms.

The differences between these identical lines delivered one after the other shows Hepburn and C.G. at their best. Her delivery is mechanical (which she had previously done unecessarily in other films to much justified criticism), but necessary. C.G.'s is masterful. What she is saying is (imagine this Robotically) "T-o b-e-h-a-v-e m-y-s-e-l-f n-a-t-u-r-a-l-l-y s-i-r". What CG conveys is the non "virgin goddess" part of Red to let her Lydiaish inner child come out and "to behave herself naturally".

C.G. as Dex, the now tee-totaller is telling Red to throw caution to the wind. Get tipsy. Drunkenly swim with a stranger at night. Then the next morning, cancel society's biggest wedding only to replace it with a wedding to your first husband (not even the man you drunkely kissed the night before) who will let you be who you want if you will only let him. He will not self-destruct this time through booze if she will not be too Kitteridgely rigid with her Virgin Goddess beliefs.

Throughout this scene I think that it is at this very part, when Red utters these very words that she, as Deborah Kerr said to C.G. in "An Affair to Remember", charted a new course and changed her course forever. When she utters these words she realizes that she cannot marry Kitteridge. I believe that it is when Dex immediately repeats her same words in his much different way that Red's and Dex's fate is sealed and that they will stroll down the wedding plank again.

Pretend that you had never seen this movie before. Just before Red utters these lines, do you know what will happen. Kitteridge appears out, but not totally. Jimmy Stewart's lips were last on Red's. Cary Grant lingers. Do you know what will happen?

Now let these two same lines pass - delivered by two different people - one right after the other. Is there any doubt, after these lines are uttered, how this movie will end. Red will marry Dex - not her fiance, not the man she last kissed. These lines tell all.

Sorry this is long. This is a great scene. You wanted one-liners. I delivered a tome.

Great catch NJS on this important, but easy to overlook part of a scene.

Trey

[Trey]

NJS -

I forgot that you are in S. America. You omitted one of the greatest Grant/Hitchcock collaborations of all, which is set in you very own back yard (Brazil) - Notorious. The clothes are great and the acting is even better. Bergman is close to her best, as is Claude Rains. Hitchcock is superb. I do not recall that many great one-liners in Notorious, but it is one of the best movies of all-time and, other than the first few Miami scenes, is set in Brazil.

Trey

[storeynicholas]

Oh! it's a great scene all right - one of the best; in one of the best acted, best produced films ever made and, I know, I know, I keep keep keep going on about old times and the fact that they 'don't make 'em like that anymore' - but they really don't - and thank you for your time, your effort and for sharing your insight.
NJS

[storeynicholas]

NJS -

I forgot that you are in S. America. You omitted one of the greatest Grant/Hitchcock collaborations of all, which is set in you very own back yard (Brazil) - Notorious. The clothes are great and the acting is even better. Bergman is close to her best, as is Claude Rains. Hitchcock is superb. I do not recall that many great one-liners in Notorious, but it is one of the best movies of all-time and, other than the first few Miami scenes, is set in Brazil.

Trey

Trey- Yes, it is set here but I'm not sure that it was shot here. I'm fairly sure that there is a signed photo of Ingrid Bergman in the Copacabana Palace Hotel - but not sure about the rest of the cast and Hitch - next time that I go there, I will have a look. Their gallery of photos of the great Hollywood stars is worth Flying Down To Rio to see!
NJS

[Trey]

I happily disected the Philadelphia Story scene. Since I probably bored those of you who have not already tuned out - let's return to the original great topic. Let's hear more one liners.

Two of my favorites and to, "shift gears" from some of the great old classics to more recent (although it's now 14 years old) is probably the most quotable one-liner movie of all-time - Pulp Fiction.

Two favorites that bookeend the same scene and which are awesome are by its most under appreciated actor - Harvey Keitel

1) *"That's 30 minutes away. I'll be there in 10."

2) *"I drive fast. Try to keep up." - Think about this one-liner in the context of all that's gone on and the fact that it perfectly parallels his first lines "That's 30 minute away. I'll be there in 10."

By the way, Harvey is sporting an awesome black tie ensemble throughout all these scenes and it is in, even according to Sinatra, well beyond the "wee small hours of the morning."

Trey

[storeynicholas]

If I may change gears to silliness for a brief moment- Morecambe and Wise - two British TV stand-up comedians - the sketch is a Roman campaign tent and Little Ernie is sitting (in Roman costume) at a desk examining paperwork when Eric (also in costume) walks in carrying more. Little Ernie looks up and asks

Have you got the scrolls?

to which a bemused Eric, looking down at his feet replies with a worried tremor:

No - I always walk like this

NJS

[Trey]

In keeping with the silly theme, a reporter in search of information wired Cary Grant's agent: "HOW OLD CARY GRANT?" Grant happened to read the message himself, and wired back "OLD CARY GRANT FINE. HOW YOU?"

Trey

[storeynicholas]

In keeping with the silly theme, a reporter in search of information wired Cary Grant's agent: "HOW OLD CARY GRANT?" Grant happened to read the message himself, and wired back "OLD CARY GRANT FINE. HOW YOU?"

Trey

I read somewhere that this is apochryphal and that CG wished that this had happened... However, very much in the right spirit! Another that has just sprung to mind is from Noel Coward - chased all day by reporters on one of his trips to America, he managed to escape all but one who ran up to him as he was boarding a train - with "Mr Coward, Mr Coward - do you have anything to say to The Star?" to which Coward immediately replied - "Yes. Twinkle."
NJS

[marcelo]

...one of the greatest Grant/Hitchcock collaborations of all, which is set in you very own back yard (Brazil) - Notorious. The clothes are great and the acting is even better...

No wonder the cloths were really great in this film, for these were times when the actors themselves were in charge of selecting the cloths they were supposed to wear in the films. On this topic, Maria Costantinno affirms the following:

“Unlike the female stars, whose wardrobes were designed for them, and with the exception of historical costumes, male actors were expected to provide their own wardrobes. In some instances contracts stipulated that the studio’s own tailor were to be used while the leading male stars were allowed to commission their own tailors and offset the costs against the studio’s expenses.” (Men’s Fashion in the Twentieth Century: From Frock Coats to Intelligent Fibres, p. 55)

[marcelo]

Maria Costantinno (Men’s Fashion in the Twentieth Century: From Frock Coats to Intelligent Fibres, p. 58), also mentions the following sentence by Cary Grant:

“An impeccable dresser both on and off screen, Grant is reputed to have quipped about his film roles: ‘I play only myself, but I play it to perfection.’”