Daily Dialogue — February 24, 2014

Christian begins to torture Babe by using a dental probe and a mouth mirror to check for cavities.

Babe: [the probe hits a cavity] Ow.
Christian Szell: That hurt?
Babe: Uh-huh.
Christian Szell: I know. I should think it would. You should take better care of your teeth. You have a…[hits the cavity again] quite a cavity here. Is it safe?
Babe: Look, I told you I can’t…[Christian stabs the probe into the nerve; screaming in pain] AAH!AAAH! Aah!

Babe’s painful screams and moans continue.

Karl: You think he knows?
Erhard: Of course he knows! He is being very stubborn.

Christian then opens a small bottle of oil of cloves, which he applies to Babe’s badly aggravated cavity to kill the pain.

Christian Szell: Is it not remarkable? Simple oil of cloves, and how amazing the results. Life can be that simple: [holds up the oil] Relief…[and the probe tool] Discomfort. Now which of these I next apply? That decision is in your hands. So… take your time… and tell me… is it safe?

— Marathon Man (1976), screenplay by William Goldman, based on his novel

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is agony, suggested by Illimani. Today’s suggestion by John David Walters.

Trivia: The film changes the novel’s ending, and Goldman thought the new ending was “shit.” He felt the way the film ended, it left out two important plot clarifications. In the novel, Babe led Szell by gunpoint to Central Park, and shoots him multiple times, subsequently lecturing him. He then threw the diamonds away and is quietly led away by a policeman.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by John: “Dialogue on Dialogue: It’s bad enough to be tortured so that you divulge information you’re trying to keep hidden, but it is sheer, unendurable horror to be tortured over a secret you have no clue about. I’m ashamedly not familiar enough with movies to say whether this type of dialogue began with Marathon Man, but it is certainly a masterpiece of the type of dialogue monsters like Szell use to torment their victims: the seemingly solicitous appeals to the victim’s health (you should really take better care of your teeth), which only foreshadow the angle of attack. This scene is also brilliant for playing to the deep mistrust most people already have of dentists. A dentist visit is scary enough when you know he or she is trying to help you. Being in the hands of a sadistic, Nazi dentist hell-bent on extracting (pun intended) information from you is just about the scariest thing imaginable.”

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