If I’m doing my job right, then I’m not writing the dialogue; the characters are saying the dialogue, and I’m just jotting it down.
Okay, Marvin thinks, that’s the second time Rick has put down his Tanner co-star Michael Callan. That’s not a good sign. It suggests stinginess in spirit. It suggests a blamer. But Marvin keeps these thoughts to himself.
Do you like this cigarette case?” “It’s very nice.” “It’s a gift. From Joseph Cotten. One of my most cherished clients.” Rick gives Marvin the impressed expression the agent is demanding.
But I want you to tell me what it is you think I do.” “Well,” Rick says, “the way it was explained to me is you put famous American talent in foreign films.” “Not bad,” Marvin says.
I’m okay now, just embarrassed. Sorry about this humiliating display.” “Display?” Marvin snorts. “What are you talking about? We’re human people; human people cry. It’s a good thing.
You want me to look like some goddamn hippie? Rick thinks. “You want me to look like a goddamn hippie?” Rick questions with a skeptical face.
Life is a bleeding, screaming, violently jerking pig in your arms. And death is you holding a bunch of heavy unmoving meat.
You don’t need proof when you have instinct.
When a man of principle battles a scoundrel, the scoundrel always at first has the upper hand. Because there are some things the man of principle won’t do.
But now comes the cold-war resentment. Sharon has such a sunny presence that whenever she blocks out the sun, the effect is chilling.
Also, it’s a little odd to assume all your patrons are thieves.
The Ox-Bow Incident, Body and Soul, White Heat, The Third Man, The Brothers Rico, Riot in Cell Block 11.
Cliff putting out fires for Rick has been an essential part of their dynamic since the two became a team.
You might not want to do it, but you can do it. In fact, a case could be made, if you can’t do it, you don’t deserve to eat pork.
Now, many directors could and would say, So what? It’s just a movie. You don’t have to believe in giant monkeys to direct King Kong.
Cliff didn’t know enough to write critical pieces for Films in Review, but he knew enough to know Hiroshima Mon Amour was a piece of crap. He knew enough to know Antonioni was a fraud.
The directions say to add milk and butter, but Cliff thinks if you can afford to add milk and butter you can afford to eat something else.
Ninety-seven percent of everybody you’ve ever met in your life, and ninety-seven percent of everybody you’ll ever meet in your life, have spent ninety-seven percent of their lives running away from fear.
And right from the get-go when George Segal puts on a gorilla suit and Ruth Gordon punches him in the nuts, this movie had me. At that age, the height of comedy was a guy in a gorilla suit, and the only thing funnier than that was a guy getting punched in the nuts. So a guy in a gorilla suit getting punched in the nuts was the absolute pinnacle of comedy.
Can Miss Himmelsteen get you a tasty beverage?
It reminds me what Uma Thurman once said about actors improvising: “What most actors call improvising is just stammering and swearing. But another word for improvising is writing. And that’s not what you pay actors to do.