... you can learn from:
Ball of Fire (1941)
Garbage Man: I could use a bundle of scratchright now on account of I met me a mouse last week.Prof. Oddly: Mouse?Garbage Man: What a pair of gams. A little in,a little out, and a little more out.Professor Potts: I am still completely mystified.Garbage Man: Well, with this dish on me handsand them giving away 25 smackaroos on that quizzola.Professor Potts: Smackaroos?Prof. Oddly: Smackaroos? What are smackaroos?Garbage Man: A smackaroo is a...Professor Potts: No such word exists.Garbage Man: Oh, it don't, huh? A smackaroo is a dollar, pal.Professor Potts: Well, the acceptedvulgarism for a dollar is a buck.Garbage Man: The accepted vulgarismfor a smackaroo is a dollar.That goes for a banger, a fish, a buck, or a rug.Professor Potts: Well, what about the mouse?Garbage Man: The mouse is the dish.That's what I need the moolah for.Prof. Oddly: Moolah?Garbage Man: Yeah, the dough. We'll be stepping.Me and the smooch - I mean, the dish, I mean, the mouse.You know, hit the jiggles for a little drum boogie.Professor Potts: Please, please, not so fast.Garbage Man: Brother, we're going to have some hoytoytoy.All The Profs: Hoytoytoy?Garbage Man: Yeah, and if you wantthat one explained, you go ask your papas.
The script for Ball of Fire is so much fun (not a surprise given Billy Wilder was one of the writers) that I had to share this entire lengthy passage of dialogue -- god I love this film. I didn't even need to include a portion involving Barbara Stanwyck here -- that's how you know it's good! But since I tend to give her all of the love for this movie I figured I'd focus in on her stellar leading man Gary Cooper today, given it's Coop's birthday. He was born today, the year 1901. Check out our extensive Gary Cooper Archives for more of him -- he's a forever MNPP fave, he is. One of the greatest faces (et cetera) ever put on screen.
4 comments:
"Boogie!"
This is the one performance where Cooper isn’t as wooden as he is in so many other films.
Gary Cooper is so weird. Like I know the name, yet I don't think I've seen a single film he's been in, and I like old movies. Feel like he is more famous for his looks than any of his actual movies.
Gary Cooper attended (though many years before) the same school as I did in England, Dunstable School. I remember that when he died, the school mag printed an obituary of him in which they sought to take credit for his screen persona by writing something on the lines of (I no longer have the original mag): "It may be suggested that the values of integrity and justice he displayed in his films were values he learnt at Dunstable School."
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