Daily Dialogue — February 6, 2014

GEORGE: Mary Hatch, why in the world did you ever marry a guy like me?
MARY: To keep from being an old maid.
GEORGE: You could have married Sam Wainwright or anybody else in town.
MARY: I didn’t want to marry anybody else in town. I want my baby to look like you.
GEORGE: You didn’t even have a honeymoon. I promised you . . . (does a double take) . . . Your what?
MARY: My baby.
GEORGE: (incredulously) You mean . . . Mary, you on the nest?
MARY: George Bailey lassos stork.
GEORGE: Lassos the stork! You mean you . . . What is it, a boy or a girl?

Mary nods her head happily.

— It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), screenplay by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett and Frank Capra, story by Philip Van Doren Stern

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Pregnancy Announcement.

Trivia: Two of the writers called the finished film “horrid” and refused to see it when it was released. The only one of Clifford Odets’ ideas to appear in the finished script was George saving Mr Gower from poisoning a boy with pills.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Ah, the euphemisms for being pregnant. Here it’s “on the nest.” Some others to keep on file for future reference: preggie, expectant, blessed event, in a family way, in a delicate condition, got one in the oven, infanticipating, heirapparenting, full of heir, and watermelon on the vine.

Comment Archive