One of the things we all seem to enjoy about a good story is a particularily memorable bit of dialogue. That can be an exchange between two characters or just the classic one-liner. And if you are very successful, that phrase often manages to make it’s way into use in every day conversation.
While those from the printed page have been around for a while, it’s the classic movie lines that seem to have lives all their own. Even harking back to that very first talkie, “The Jazz Singer”, you get Al Jolson in a very prophetic moment with, “You ain’t heard nothing yet!”
Now if there’s one thing you can say about the electronic frontier known as the Internet, it is that there are outposts of information lurking where one might least expect, such as in plain sight. In this case, there are a couple of fine references to drawn upon.
The first is the Internet Movie Database. First off, it comes in two flavors – free and paid. A surprise in it’s self, the free access has all kinds of information on movie and television productions. For example, how about credits for a certain actor or actress? Useful to see what film you might have missed in which Zazu Pitts had a role, right?
Don’t stop there! The database also includes credits for folks behind the cameras as well. Interestingly enough, we found one of Michele’s relatives listed. Morgan Padelford was a Technicolor consultant on a good number of films from the early days of the process. Notable films among her credits include “The Adventures of Robin Hood”(1938), “Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex” (1939), “Victory Through Airpower” (1943), “The Three Caballero’s” (1944), “Sinbad The Sailor” and “Fun and Fancy Free” (both in 1947), “Melody Time” and “Three Godfathers” (in 1948), with her last credit in 1954 on Disney’s “20, 000 Leagues Under The Sea” as the ” associate color director: Technicolor: . Turn’s out she was something of a black sheep of the family, I’m told. Bad enough to leave home for Hollywood in the mid-Thirties, but then finding a successful career with a big name company like that! Scandalous…
But for me, it’s the Quotes from the database that make my days. Check out the Random Quotes, and then head off in search of your favorites from that movie or character.
A sample of mine includes:
“Well, here’s a another nice mess you’ve gotten me into.”
Ollie, “Another Fine Mess” (1930)
“Boys, you got to learn not to talk to nuns that way.”
Curtis, “The Blue Brothers” (1980)
“Would it endanger your amateur standing if I asked you to use a sterilized needle?”
Dr. Irving Finegarten, “S.O.B” (1981)
“Say buddy, will you stake a fellow American down on his luck?”
Fred C. Dobbs, “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1948)
“I distrust a man who says “when.” If he’s got to be careful not to drink too much, it’s because he’s not to be trusted when he does.”
Kasper Gutman, “The Maltese Falcon” (1941)
“Put your pants on, Spartacus!”
C.R. MacNamara, “One, Two, Three” (1961)
“Don’t point that finger at me unless you intend to use it.”
Oscar Madison, “The Odd Couple” (1968)
“A second flood, a simple famine, plagues of locusts everywhere, or a cataclysmic earthquake, I’d accept with some despair. But no, You sent us Congress! Good God, Sir, was that fair?”
John Adams, “1776” (1972)
“Why don’t you get out of that wet coat and into a dry martini?”
Mr. Osborne, “The Major and the Minor” (1942)
“Ladies and gentlemen. Due to circumstances beyond our control, we are unable to continue with this picture. And, eh, confidentially, that film didn’t exactly break.”
Bugs Bunny, “Rabbit Punch” (1948)
“Realizing the importance of the case, my men are rounding up twice the usual number of suspects.”
Captain Louis Renault, ” Casablanca” (1942)
Now if you’re really into this kind of thing, you probably have a sound file or two (gigs perhaps? J ) on the hard drive of your home computer. I’ve enjoyed them in various ways over the years, all for personal entertainment, of course. AOL was one, when you could customize the various online events with sounds of your choosing. Gotta replace, “You’ve got mail!” with something such as Eric Idle’s “Message for you, sir!” from “Monty Python and The Holy Grail” (1975). While there are all kinds of places out and about to find them, I’ve always thought that the Daily Wav was the best of the bunch. As the line from the page says, ” Annoying your cubemates with non-sequitur soundbytes since 1995! ”
Some of my favorites are linked here (please note that some browsers may not be able to open the following links, if not, please visit http://www.dailywav.com.):
- From “Mommie Dearest” (1981)
- From “Animal House” (1978)
- From “Animaniacs” (1993)
- From “Battlestar Galactica” (1978)
- From “Star Trek” (1966)
- From “The Three Stooges”
- From “Casablanca” (1942)
So there you go. The “begining of a beautiful friendship”, so to speak!
In other news: Cindy Russell and her Disney collectibles store, “Where The Magic Begins”, have been in the news here over the last few days. Here’s a link to one of several newspaper stories. She says the phone hasn’t stopped ringing and her e-mail in-box is full! Oh, that and her “Big Figs” piece from yesterday is drawing a fair amount of attention, calls and e-mails, too. Glad to see that more folks are sharing her enthusiasm for Disney collectibles!
And don’t forget! Tonight, the first JHM ” Night at the Movies” on Friday, August 27 at Oakland’s Paramount Theater! Who could pass up the chance to see Walt Disney’s “20,000 Leagues Under The Sea” in all of it’s Technicolor glory on the big screen? If you’re interested, see Roger Colton in front of the theater tonight at 7:00 p.m. to save your seat. For a mere six bucks, it’s an evening you won’t soon forget!
Whew! Florida, what can we say? Still! There’s a long clean-up ahead, and just getting back to normal is a big challenge. If you’re of a mind to help, lots of folks continue to need your generosity. The American Red Cross will put your donations to work in the best possible ways there for some time to come. So if you’re in the mood, that will be the place to drop a few bucks some time to come!
Come back next week and see where we’re off to then!