Daily Dialogue — August 8, 2018

Climbing out of the pool at the Biswangers, suddenly noticing a colorfully decorated hot dog cart.

Ned: Hey, wait a minute. This looks like my wagon. I’m sure this is my wagon. Ned Merrill: [inspects the wagon more closely] This IS my wagon! I wheeled my kids around in it. Ya’ see that? Ned Merrill: [pointing to a spot] That’s where Ella put her foot through and I mended it. With plywood… This is MY WAGON, man!

— The Swimmer (1968), screenplay by Eleanor Perry, story by John Cheever

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Swimming Pool.

Trivia: Burt Lancaster called the film “Death of a Salesman in swimming trunks”.

Dialogue On Dialogue: One of many exchanges involving Ned in which his imbalanced mental state is in evidence. Perhaps the most memorable line of the movie — “Pool by pool, they form a river all the way to our house” — sets the tone for that aspect of the story while laying out the Protagonist’s goal.