Thursday, August 23, 2001
Revisiting old movies, classics and otherwise
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
Summer should be fun time . On the heels of a poetry piece, a reader suggested one of famous lines from movies. He is a Godfather fan, and provided the seed capital. Mafia characters are natural philosophers: Take "I don't like violence. I'm a businessman. Blood is a big expense." Can you beat that for expression of principle? Or: "Leave the gun. Take the cannolis," fat Clemenza’s peacekeeping advice. Here are the gems from Don Corleone himself, the now overused "I'm gonna make him an offer he cannot refuse," to Johnny Fontane about Woltz. And "A lawyer with a briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns." Thesarcasm can be devastating: "And if by any chance an honest man like you should make enemies, they will become my enemies too." You can just about hear Marlon Brando hoarsely whispering the words. More Brando? "I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender," Terry Malloy On the Waterfront, and "Stelaa! Stellaa!" Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire.
Changing intonations: German accent underscores the heavy-handed "I'll be back" and the murderous "Hasta la vista, baby" of the Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Stepping away from the killers, let me tell you that I’ve been polling friends for favorite movie lines. Most of the ones quoted are from someone’s memory, therefore do not expect exact wording. The most popular are, still, the classics, in the pre-x generations, anyway. The top selection? The remembered seductive smile and a pose struck in the doorway of the boat: "You know how to whistle, don’t you? Just put your lips together and blow." That was Lauren Bacall, 19 years old, to Bogey in To Have and Have Not .
Casablanca is the most quoted movie, has never been surpassed in dry wit. "I am shocked, shocked that gambling is going on here," Claude Rains as Capt. Renault says with a straight face while accepting his winnings from the croupier. Incidentally, the line preceding his "Round up the usual suspects" is the explanation: "Major Strasser has been shot."
This response impressed Bogart’s Rick enough to admit: "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship" as they walked off the set and the movie. Rick’s "Here’s looking at you, kid " to Ingrid Bergman’s Ilse and "Play it Sam, if she can take it, so can I" (usually misstated as "Play it again, Sam") are overused. To hear the pure Bogart, take his answers to the German interrogator: "I came here for the waters." "Vaters, what vaters? . Ve are in the desert!" "I was misinformed."
Let’s lot leave Rick’s American Cafe without hearing Sidney Greenstreet: "I don't buy or sell humans." is a declaration of principle that fits character (as does his "by gad, sir, you are a character," from The Maltese Falcon).
A different Bogart and Catherine Hepburn had some encounters in the African Queen:" Well, I ain’t sorry no more, you crazy skinny psalm-singing old maid," but they got together, to the final moment when Hepburn uttered the ultimate lover’s line, asking the German captain as a last request: "Would you hang us together, please?"
Hepburn’s thin figure elicited more than one comment: "There ain’t much meat on her but what there is is cherce," Spencer Tracy in Woman of the Year. "The calla lilies are in bloom again," Hepburn’s girlish enthusiasm in "Philadelphia Story" is memorable in context, truly cherce. More Tracy; his simple heroic "Don’ let the kids see me," in Captains Courageous gains stature when one realizes that it was uttered with the hero mortally injured.
More one-liners conjure pictures: "The name is Bond, James Bond" can only be Sean Connery; "Rosebud...Rosebud.." spoken by Orson Wells as Charles Foster Kane; Robert DeNiro in Taxi Driver: "Ya talkin' to me?"
Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry Callahan had a real monologue: "I know what you're thinking: did he fire six shots or only five? Well, to tell you the truth, I kinda lost track in all this excitement. But being this is a 44 Magnum, the most powerful gun, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?" Overused is "Go ahead, make my day."
Gunga Din had Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, and a drunken Gary Cooper with : "Out of my way, I'm an expedition" and "You’re all under arrest," the latter to the assembled thuggee, with Eduardo Cianelli leading the shouts of "Kaliii!" But Sam Jaffe's Gunga Din saved the day, "The Colonel's got to know." For more Gary Cooper, remember High Noon, the background music to the sheriff's lonely walk: "Do not forsake me, oh my darlin'." The doomed lovers Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman (Robert Jordan and Maria) in For Whom the Bell Tolls saw the earth move (credit Hemingway), while Akim Tamiroff as Pablo immortalized "I do not provoke." He and Katina Paxinou’s Pilar won Oscars in 1943.More old Cooper? :"Frankly my dear I don't give a damn,".to Vivien Leigh in GWTW
This is a joyful subject, people keep calling with more remembered lines. There will be more columns, as time goes by. Feel free to write or call.
I should like to dedicate this article to Dr. Charles Crandall, active physician, environmentalist and humanitarian, on the anniversary of Japan’s surrender on August 14, 1945.. On that day, young Lt. Com. Crandall was in charge of a flotilla of 12 rocket launcher ships steaming towards the Bay of Tokyo, protecting a group of battleships from the perils.of the sea, and making sure that none of his 1,500 young salts, to whom he was the "old man," would get blown up while shooting at the stray mines. None were lost. Banzai, Charles!
Summer should be fun time . On the heels of a poetry piece, a reader suggested one of famous lines from movies. He is a Godfather fan, and provided the seed capital. Mafia characters are natural philosophers: Take "I don't like violence. I'm a businessman. Blood is a big expense." Can you beat that for expression of principle? Or: "Leave the gun. Take the cannolis," fat Clemenza’s peacekeeping advice. Here are the gems from Don Corleone himself, the now overused "I'm gonna make him an offer he cannot refuse," to Johnny Fontane about Woltz. And "A lawyer with a briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns." Thesarcasm can be devastating: "And if by any chance an honest man like you should make enemies, they will become my enemies too." You can just about hear Marlon Brando hoarsely whispering the words. More Brando? "I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender," Terry Malloy On the Waterfront, and "Stelaa! Stellaa!" Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire.
Changing intonations: German accent underscores the heavy-handed "I'll be back" and the murderous "Hasta la vista, baby" of the Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Stepping away from the killers, let me tell you that I’ve been polling friends for favorite movie lines. Most of the ones quoted are from someone’s memory, therefore do not expect exact wording. The most popular are, still, the classics, in the pre-x generations, anyway. The top selection? The remembered seductive smile and a pose struck in the doorway of the boat: "You know how to whistle, don’t you? Just put your lips together and blow." That was Lauren Bacall, 19 years old, to Bogey in To Have and Have Not .
Casablanca is the most quoted movie, has never been surpassed in dry wit. "I am shocked, shocked that gambling is going on here," Claude Rains as Capt. Renault says with a straight face while accepting his winnings from the croupier. Incidentally, the line preceding his "Round up the usual suspects" is the explanation: "Major Strasser has been shot."
This response impressed Bogart’s Rick enough to admit: "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship" as they walked off the set and the movie. Rick’s "Here’s looking at you, kid " to Ingrid Bergman’s Ilse and "Play it Sam, if she can take it, so can I" (usually misstated as "Play it again, Sam") are overused. To hear the pure Bogart, take his answers to the German interrogator: "I came here for the waters." "Vaters, what vaters? . Ve are in the desert!" "I was misinformed."
Let’s lot leave Rick’s American Cafe without hearing Sidney Greenstreet: "I don't buy or sell humans." is a declaration of principle that fits character (as does his "by gad, sir, you are a character," from The Maltese Falcon).
A different Bogart and Catherine Hepburn had some encounters in the African Queen:" Well, I ain’t sorry no more, you crazy skinny psalm-singing old maid," but they got together, to the final moment when Hepburn uttered the ultimate lover’s line, asking the German captain as a last request: "Would you hang us together, please?"
Hepburn’s thin figure elicited more than one comment: "There ain’t much meat on her but what there is is cherce," Spencer Tracy in Woman of the Year. "The calla lilies are in bloom again," Hepburn’s girlish enthusiasm in "Philadelphia Story" is memorable in context, truly cherce. More Tracy; his simple heroic "Don’ let the kids see me," in Captains Courageous gains stature when one realizes that it was uttered with the hero mortally injured.
More one-liners conjure pictures: "The name is Bond, James Bond" can only be Sean Connery; "Rosebud...Rosebud.." spoken by Orson Wells as Charles Foster Kane; Robert DeNiro in Taxi Driver: "Ya talkin' to me?"
Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry Callahan had a real monologue: "I know what you're thinking: did he fire six shots or only five? Well, to tell you the truth, I kinda lost track in all this excitement. But being this is a 44 Magnum, the most powerful gun, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?" Overused is "Go ahead, make my day."
Gunga Din had Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, and a drunken Gary Cooper with : "Out of my way, I'm an expedition" and "You’re all under arrest," the latter to the assembled thuggee, with Eduardo Cianelli leading the shouts of "Kaliii!" But Sam Jaffe's Gunga Din saved the day, "The Colonel's got to know." For more Gary Cooper, remember High Noon, the background music to the sheriff's lonely walk: "Do not forsake me, oh my darlin'." The doomed lovers Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman (Robert Jordan and Maria) in For Whom the Bell Tolls saw the earth move (credit Hemingway), while Akim Tamiroff as Pablo immortalized "I do not provoke." He and Katina Paxinou’s Pilar won Oscars in 1943.More old Cooper? :"Frankly my dear I don't give a damn,".to Vivien Leigh in GWTW
This is a joyful subject, people keep calling with more remembered lines. There will be more columns, as time goes by. Feel free to write or call.
I should like to dedicate this article to Dr. Charles Crandall, active physician, environmentalist and humanitarian, on the anniversary of Japan’s surrender on August 14, 1945.. On that day, young Lt. Com. Crandall was in charge of a flotilla of 12 rocket launcher ships steaming towards the Bay of Tokyo, protecting a group of battleships from the perils.of the sea, and making sure that none of his 1,500 young salts, to whom he was the "old man," would get blown up while shooting at the stray mines. None were lost. Banzai, Charles!
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 3:15 AM 
