Daily Dialogue — June 3, 2104

BONNIE: (putting her on) Ain’t you ashamed? Tryin’ to steal an old lady’s automobile.
CLYDE: (with the same put-on) I been thinkin’ about buyin’ me one.
BONNIE: Bull. You ain’t got money for dinner, let alone buy no car.
CLYDE: (still the battle of wits going on) Now I got enough money for cokes, and since it don’t look like you’re gonna invite me inside–
BONNIE: You’d steal the dining room table if I did.
CLYDE: (he moves from his spot) Come to town with me, then. How’d that be?
BONNIE: (starting to walk onto the sidewalk) Goin’ to work anyway.

EXT. STREET. MOVING SHOT. DAY.

The camera tracks. It is a hot Texas afternoon, all white light and glare. As they walk the block to town in this scene, their manner of mutual impudence is still pervading.

CLYDE: Goin’ to work, huh? What do you do?
BONNIE: None of your business.
CLYDE: (pretending to give it serious thought) I bet you’re a…movie star! (thinks) No…A lady mechanic?…No…A maid?–
BONNIE: (really offended by that) What do you think I am?
CLYDE: (right on the nose) A waitress.
BONNIE: (slightly startled by his accuracy, anxious to get back now that he is temporarily one-up) What line of work are you in? When you’re not stealin’ cars?
CLYDE: (mysteriously) I tell you, I’m lookin’ for suitable employment right at the moment.
BONNIE: What did you do before?
CLYDE: (coolly, knowing its effect) I was in State Prison.
BONNIE: State Prison? (she shows her surprise)
CLYDE: Yeah.
BONNIE: (herself again) Guess some little old lady wasn’t so nice.
CLYDE: (tough) It was armed robbery.
BONNIE: (sarcastically) My, my, the things that turn up in the driveway these days.

— Bonnie and Clyde (1967), written by David Newman & Robert Benton

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Flirting, suggested by Sabina Giado. Today’s suggestion by Daniel Cossu.

Trivia: In a TV interview director Arthur Penn pointed out that this film shows for the first time the firing of a gun and the consequences in one single frame. Before that you would see a gun being fired, then cut and the next scene shows the bleeding body. In Bonnie and Clyde you see a gun being fired into the face of a person without inter cut. This was incredible at the time and would have been censored in the past. (Such a shot had, however, had already been used in all three of the films Sergio Leone’s “Dollars” trilogy.)

Dialogue On Dialogue: Talk about a ‘meet cute’! Couple intersects when he is contemplating stealing a car. The sexual subtext here sizzles. And note how common the use of parentheticals. That is a sure sign of an old screenwriting style.

If you have a suggestion for this theme, please post in comments.

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