Daily Dialogue — August 15, 2016

TWO-BEARS: Kid! Aw, Kid, what a time for you to fall off the wagon. Look at your eyes!
SHELLEEN: What’s wrong with my eyes?
TWO-BEARS: Well…well, they’re red. Bloodshot.
SHELLEEN: You ought to see ’em from my side.
TWO-BEARS: We’re countin’ on ya, Kid.

— Cat Ballou (1965), screenplay by Walter Newman and Frank Pierson, novel by Roy Chanslor

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Alcoholism. Today’s suggestion by Will King.

Trivia: Lee Marvin’s larger-than-life personality and fondness for tipping back the bottle made the actor a raucous but irresistible presence on the set. “Working with Lee Marvin was an unbelievable experience,” said Dwayne Hickman. “Never have I met such an outrageous personality. Lee loved to drink, and the more he drank, the more outrageous he became. He had a story about everything and everybody. He also had very definite theories on acting and a style that was all his own. Lee figured if a little bit was good, a lot would be so much better. As a result, each take of a scene was bigger than the last.” According to Hickman, Marvin sometimes used alcohol to enhance his performance as the drunken Kid Shelleen. For instance, the very first scene that Marvin shot was the one in which everyone meets Kid Shelleen for the first time, and he is falling down drunk. “He rehearsed several times,” said Hickman, “and then went behind the barn and took a shot of vodka to steel himself. I ran into him in front of his dressing room where he had just gotten sick. When I asked if he was all right, he said, in typical Lee Marvin fashion, ‘Tension, baby…just a little tension.’”

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Will: “An old joke, but one that probably hadn’t been used in film up to that point, so why not?”