The Cinema Cafe

Serving Cinema's Tastiest Treats

Exploring the Artefacts #6: Jewels of Admiration Part 1

Exploring The Artefacts is a series in which I'll examine some unique and significant components, or by-products, of cinema storytelling that are often under-appreciated. 

Read More

Sterling Silver Dialogue #10

 

Sterling Silver Dialogue From The Movies: 

Do you know where they're from?

 

"Mandrake, do you recall what Clemenceau once said about war?"

(reply) "No, I don't think I do sir. No."   

(response)  "He said war was too important to be left to the generals. When he said that, 50 years ago, he might have been right. But today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids."

 

(Advocating a stronger nuclear attack to offset a further Soviet retaliation)  "Mr. President, we are rapidly approaching a moment of truth both for ourselves as human beings and for the life of our nation. Now, truth is not always a pleasant thing. But it is necessary now to make a choice, to choose between two admittedly regrettable, but nevertheless distinguishable, postwar environments: One where you got twenty million people killed, and the other where you got a hundred and fifty million people killed."

(reply)  "You're talking about mass murder, General, not war!"

(response)  "Mr. President, I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops. Uh, depending on the breaks."

(reply)   "I will not go down in history as the greatest mass-murderer since Adolf Hitler."

(response)   "Perhaps it might be better, Mr. President, if you were more concerned with the American People than with your image in the history books."

 

"Mandrake, do you realize that in addition to fluoridating water, why, there are studies underway to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk... ice cream? Ice cream, Mandrake, children's ice cream."

Mandrake: "Lord, Jack."

Jack: "You know when fluoridation first began?"

Mandrake: "I... no. I don't, Jack."

Jack: "Nineteen hundred and forty-six. 1946, Mandrake. How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy? It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That's the way your hard-core Commie works."

Mandrake: "Uh, Jack, Jack, listen... tell me, tell me, Jack. When did you first... become... well, develop this theory?"

Jack: "Well, I, uh... I... I... first became aware of it, Mandrake, during the physical act of love. Yes, a uh, a profound sense of fatigue... a feeling of emptiness followed. Luckily I... I was able to interpret these feelings correctly: Loss of essence. I can assure you it has not recurred, Mandrake. Women uh... women sense my power and they seek the life essence. I, uh... I do not avoid women, Mandrake. But I... I do deny them my essence."

Mandrake: "Yes, Jack."

 

"I was a nervous child.  I was a bed wetter. When I was younger, I, I uh, used to sleep with an electric blanket and I was constantly electrocuting myself."

 

 

"Sometimes it isn't being fast that counts, or even accurate, but willing. Most men will draw a breath or blink an eye before they shoot. I won't."

 

 

"A gun is a tool, Marian, no better, no worse than any other tool: An axe, a shovel or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that."

 

 

"If you work for a living, why do you kill yourself working?"

 

 

(complaining about a steak he ordered) "Hey Hombre. This horse is still fighting for his life."

 

 

"What a dump!"

 

 

(impersonating the above) "What a dump!"

 

 

"You've just had a bad day, that's all."  (reply)   "That's a masterpiece of understatement."

 

 

"Is your handwriting legible?"   (reply)   "Except on weekends."

 

"She offered me free love. At the time, that was all I could afford."

 

"Just who the hell do you think you are? How dare you come sniffing in here like Napoleon ordering me about! You are a traitor! Does it occur to you? A wanted, spent, dishonest man, the lowest currency of the Cold War. We buy you - we sell you - we lose you - we even can shoot you! Not a bird would stir in the trees outside. Not even a single pheasant would turn his head to see what fell."

 

"What the hell do you think spies are? Moral philosophers measuring everything they do against the word of God or Karl Marx? They're not! They're just a bunch of seedy, squalid bastards like me: little men, drunkards, queers, hen-pecked husbands, civil servants playing cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten little lives. Do you think they sit like monks in a cell, balancing right against wrong?"

 

"I don't go to church. Kneeling bags my nylons."

 

 

Answers to Sterling Silver Dialogue #10 are here.

Capturing a Golden Moment #6: Monkey Business (1931)

 

In this series I'd like to present some exceptional scenes inspired by cinema's most gifted artists of yesteryear.

 

 

Monkey Business (1931)

Director: Norman Z. McLeod

Scene: "Passport Departure"

I wonder what Maurice Chevalier would have made of this.

 

 

Monkey Business is available on DVD along with four other Marx Brothers movies here:

 



Top Ten: Western Treasures Part 1

One of the more fascinating aspects of this genre is that the historic "wild west" of America had just officially ended when these motion pictures were first being churned out. In other words, history having just been made in the real West in the late 1800s was to be first represented on celluloid in the early 1900s.

Read More

Capturing a Golden Moment #5: White Heat

 

In this series I'd like to present some exceptional scenes inspired by cinema's most gifted artists of yesteryear.

 

White Heat (1949)

Director: Raoul Walsh

Scene: "Prison Breakdown"

This little display of emotion demonstrates why James Cagney was such a great actor and commanding star. Creatively written by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts. Superbly captured by director Walsh.  

 

 

White Heat is available on Blu-ray here:

White Heat [Blu-ray]
$13.76
Starring James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'brien, Margaret Wycherly
Buy on Amazon

It is also available on DVD here:

White Heat
$9.50
Starring Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'brien, Margaret Wycherly
Buy on Amazon

Sterling Silver Dialogue #9

Sterling Silver Dialogue From The Movies: 

Do you know where they're from?

 

"Hey, you ain't lookin' too good. The sight of blood bother you or somethin'?"

(reply) "Only my own."

 

"It's the stuff dreams are made of."

 

 

"Some men just don't like to be driven."  

(reply) "No, some men just don't like to be taken for a ride."

 

"How do you know that? How do you know my friends call me Domino?"  

(reply) "It's on the bracelet on your ankle."

(response) "So... what sharp little eyes you've got."   (reply)  "Wait 'til you get to my teeth."

 

(after leaving an Irrigation Therapy Room) "See you later...irrigator."

 

 

"You buy nice drinks, mister but you talk so much."

 

"Occasionally I always drink too much."

 

(first look at their new residence) "Well, the place looks lived in."

(reply) "Yeah, but by what?"

 

"Would you kill me, Rocky?"  (reply)  "Wouldn't you?"

 

"You drinkin' that stuff so early?"   (reply)  "Listen, doll girl, when you drink as much as I do, you gotta start early."

 

(to Nancy) "I wouldn't give a nickel for your husband's chances before that parole board with all this going on."

(to Rocky) "And I wouldn't give a nickel for your chances with those two apes running around looking for you."

(to Castro) "For you, I just wouldn't give a nickel."

 

 

"Look Johnny, you know me. You get in my way... I'll kill you."   (reply)  "You took the words right out of my mouth."

 

 

"I'm no Humphrey Bogart. He gets slugged and he's ready for action; I get slugged and I'm ready for pickling."

 

"Lili, a sizzler at the Fol-de-Rol. A figure like champagne and a heart like the cork."

 

 

"We have a saying in India..."  (reply) "Yes?"   (response) "Yes."  (reply)  "Well?"

(response) "Well what?"

 

"Who do you think you are?"  

(reply) "In India, we don't think who we are. We know who we are."

 

"You meshuga!"   (reply)  "I am not your sugar."

 

"Num Num" "Birdie Num Num"

 

 

Answers to Sterling Silver Dialogue #9 are here.