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Movie Quote of the Day – Private Hell 36, 1954 (dir. Don Siegel)
Cal Bruner: Fifty-dollar bill’s a pretty big tip. What did you do for it?
Lilli Marlowe: Just put this down in your little book. Ready?
Cal Bruner: Mmm-hmmm.
Lilli Marlowe: Not what you’re thinking.
Movie Quote of the Day – Rope of Sand, 1949 (dir. William Dieterle)
Fred Martingale: I never know what to think anymore! I’m being constantly disillusioned. Has money completely lost its power? Is everyone motivated now by love?
Movie Quote of the Day – Where the Sidewalk Ends, 1950 (dir. Otto Preminger)
Morgan Taylor: You know, I like places like this that specialize in good food instead of headwaiters.
Det. Sgt. Mark Dixon: It’s the worst food in town, but don’t worry. They usually serve a stomach pump with the dessert.
Martha: Who invited you to come to my restaurant, Mr. Detective? Not me!
Det. Sgt. Mark Dixon: Martha’s the head of a ring of burglars. My presence makes her nervous.
Martha: Yeah, last night we got a whole basketful of diamonds. You wanna see?
Det. Sgt. Mark Dixon: Bring us two of your dangerous dinners, Martha.
Martha: You know how much I’ve been offered to poison this man?
Det. Sgt. Mark Dixon: Ten dollars.
Martha: That’s right. I’m holding out for fifteen. Two dinners. Do you want wine?
Det. Sgt. Mark Dixon: Bring a small bottle.
Martha: Huh! Same old cheapskate!
Morgan Taylor: [after Martha leaves] She adores you, doesn’t she?
Det. Sgt. Mark Dixon: She ought to. I sent her husband up.
Morgan Taylor: Was he really a burglar?
Det. Sgt. Mark Dixon: Wife beater.
Movie Quote of the Day – Shock, 1946 (dir. Alfred L. Werker)
Nurse Elaine Jordan: You’re not sorry, are you?
Dr. Richard Cross: I wish I’d called the police. I lost my head! I didn’t mean to kill her! There was no premeditation! But now I’ve concealed her body, I’ve shipped the trunk to my lodge. . .you know as well as I do there’s only one answer for that! I shouldn’t have listened to you, Elaine!
Nurse Elaine Jordan: Think darling, what would have happened if you’d called the police? Manslaughter means twenty years. What would that have done to you? To us?
Dr. Richard Cross: I don’t know.
Nurse Elaine Jordan: Would you have wanted it that way? Now no one knows. We’re safe.
Dr. Richard Cross: You’re forgetting Janet Stewart, aren’t you? She knows. What if she talks?
Nurse Elaine Jordan: I haven’t forgotten her. She can’t tell what she’s seen as long as she’s in this condition, can she?
Dr. Richard Cross: The shock will wear off in a couple of weeks at the most.
Nurse Elaine Jordan: It will wear off if you let it, Dick.
Oscar Vault Monday – Crossfire, 1947 (dir. Edward Dmytryk)
As we continue with Noirvember, I bring one of my favorites from the era, Edward Dmytryk’s Crossfire. I read one critic who said it is more of a “message film” than a film noir and I think that is kind of a ridiculous statement, as it assumes the two are mutually exclusive. If you’ve seen The Celluloid Closet, then you know that originally the crime in this film was perpetrated out of homophobia, rather than anti-Semitism. Under the Hays Code, clearcut mention of homosexuality was prohibited because it was consider “sexual perversion.” I’m going to write a little more about the origins of the film after the cut. Crossfire was nominated for five Academy Awards, though it didn’t win any: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor Robert Ryan, Best Supporting Actress Gloria Grahame, Best Director and Best Picture. The other films nominated for Best picture that year were The Bishop’s Wife, Great Expectations, Miracle on 34th Street and winner Gentleman’s Agreement (which is also about anti-Semitism). Crossfire was one of the twenty highest-grossing films of 1947, along with three other noirs: Body and Soul, Possessed and Dark Passage.
Movie Quote of the Day – The Wrong Man, 1956 (dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
Lt. Bowers: How do you explain it?
Christopher Emmanuel ‘Manny’ Balestrero: I made a mistake.
Lt. Bowers: And so did the hold up man. And it happens to be the same mistake.
Movie Quote of the Day – Where Danger Lives, 1950 (dir. John Farrow)
Waiter: Here you are, sir.
Dr. Jeff Cameron: These things are like water!
Waiter: They creep up on you.
Dr. Jeff Cameron: Bring me a couple more.
Waiter: But, sir, you have four and we are only allowed two to a customer.
Dr. Jeff Cameron: Why?
Waiter: That drink makes a guy talk back to his mother-in-law.
Dr. Jeff Cameron: What about his father-in-law?
Waiter: I suppose so.
Dr. Jeff Cameron: You’ve given me an idea.
Movie Quote of the Day – Cape Fear, 1991 (dir. Martin Scorsese)
Max Cady: Every man carries a circle of hell around his head like a halo. Your daddy too. Every man. . .every man. . .has to go through hell to reach his paradise. You know what paradise is?
Danielle Bowden: No.
Max Cady: Salvation.
Movie Quote of the Day – The Killers, 1964 (dir. Don Siegel)
Earl Sylvester: How’d he die?
Lee: Johnny North choked to death on one question. . .too many.
Movie Quote of the Day – House by the River, 1950 (dir. Fritz Lang)
Stephen Byrne: Don’t you realize, Marjorie, your reading the manuscript has solved everything? You know, I met Emily on the stairs. She was coming down from her bath. She’d used your perfume. She looked rather pretty and I wanted to kiss her, but she got frightened and screamed. I had to stop her screaming! I didn’t mean to kill her. I hardly touched her, but I didn’t realize how easy it would be. So very easy.
the diary of a film history fanatic 