Someone on NPR asked some young actress what her favorite movie is. The one—if you had to pick one—that you could watch over and over for the rest of your life. She chose Wet Hot American Summer. Her explanation intrigued me enough to Netflix it. I do not get it. I am a fan of the genre. The cast is impeccable. But every line is spoken in a flat monotone, with long pauses in between, as if everyone is waiting for their cue. Its charms elude me.
So I asked myself, what is my one movie? There are so many I love and can watch any number of times. His Girl Friday, The Philadelphia Story, Holiday, You Can't Take it With You, Swing Time, To Have and Have Not, Tampopo, Yojimbo, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Long Hot Summer, Double Indemnity, The Lady from Shanghai, just off the top of my head. But if I stop trying to sift through all those movies I love, if I stop everything, and stop thinking at all, there is really only one answer. The one with the quotes tattooed all over my brain. The one they didn't get right until the third try.
Sam Spade: "We didn't exactly believe your story, Miss O'Shaughnessy. We believed your 200 dollars. I mean, you paid us more than if you had been telling us the truth, and enough more to make it all right."
Brigid O'Shaughnessy: "I haven't lived a good life. I've been bad, worse than you could know.
Sam Spade:"You know, that's good, because if you actually were as innocent as you pretend to be, we'd never get anywhere."
Joel Cairo "Our private conversations have not been such that I am anxious to continue them"
Kasper Gutman:
"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."
"Talking's something you can't do judiciously, unless you keep in practice."
"Now, sir. We'll talk, if you like. I'll tell you right out, I am a man who likes talking to a man who likes to talk."
"...there are other means of persuasion besides killing and threatening to kill."
Sam Spade: That's true. But, there're none of them any good unless the threat of death is behind them. You see what I mean? If you start something, I'll make it a matter of your having to kill me or call it off.
"I couldn't be fonder of you if you were my own son. But, well, if you lose a son, it's possible to get another. There's only one Maltese Falcon."
Spade:
"Don't be too sure I'm as crooked as I'm supposed to be."
"When a man's partner is killed, he's supposed to do something about it. It doesn't make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you're supposed to do something about it. And it happens we're in the detective business. Well, when one of your organization gets killed, it's-it's bad business to let the killer get away with it, bad all around, bad for every detective everywhere."
"I'll have some rotten nights after I've sent you over, but that'll pass."
So I asked myself, what is my one movie? There are so many I love and can watch any number of times. His Girl Friday, The Philadelphia Story, Holiday, You Can't Take it With You, Swing Time, To Have and Have Not, Tampopo, Yojimbo, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Long Hot Summer, Double Indemnity, The Lady from Shanghai, just off the top of my head. But if I stop trying to sift through all those movies I love, if I stop everything, and stop thinking at all, there is really only one answer. The one with the quotes tattooed all over my brain. The one they didn't get right until the third try.
Sam Spade: "We didn't exactly believe your story, Miss O'Shaughnessy. We believed your 200 dollars. I mean, you paid us more than if you had been telling us the truth, and enough more to make it all right."
Brigid O'Shaughnessy: "I haven't lived a good life. I've been bad, worse than you could know.
Sam Spade:"You know, that's good, because if you actually were as innocent as you pretend to be, we'd never get anywhere."
Joel Cairo "Our private conversations have not been such that I am anxious to continue them"
Kasper Gutman:
"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."
"Talking's something you can't do judiciously, unless you keep in practice."
"Now, sir. We'll talk, if you like. I'll tell you right out, I am a man who likes talking to a man who likes to talk."
"...there are other means of persuasion besides killing and threatening to kill."
Sam Spade: That's true. But, there're none of them any good unless the threat of death is behind them. You see what I mean? If you start something, I'll make it a matter of your having to kill me or call it off.
"I couldn't be fonder of you if you were my own son. But, well, if you lose a son, it's possible to get another. There's only one Maltese Falcon."
Spade:
"Don't be too sure I'm as crooked as I'm supposed to be."
"When a man's partner is killed, he's supposed to do something about it. It doesn't make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you're supposed to do something about it. And it happens we're in the detective business. Well, when one of your organization gets killed, it's-it's bad business to let the killer get away with it, bad all around, bad for every detective everywhere."
"I'll have some rotten nights after I've sent you over, but that'll pass."
