Daily Dialogue — March 27, 2014
Osgood: l called Mama. She was so happy, she cried. She wants you to have her wedding gown. It’s white lace.
Jerry: Osgood, l can’t get married in your mother’s dress. She and l, we are not built the same way.
Osgood: We can have it altered.
Jerry: Oh no you don’t! Osgood, I’m gonna level with you. We can’t get married at all.
Osgood: Why not?
Jerry: Well, in the first place, I’m not a natural blonde.
Osgood: Doesn’t matter.
Jerry: I smoke! I smoke all the time!
Osgood: I don’t care.
Jerry: Well, I have a terrible past. For three years now, I’ve been living with a saxophone player.
Osgood: I forgive you.
Jerry: I can never have children!
Osgood: We can adopt some.
Jerry: But you don’t understand, Osgood! Ohh…
[Jerry finally gives up and pulls off his wig]
Jerry: [normal voice] I’m a man!
Osgood: [shrugs] Well, nobody’s perfect!
— Some Like It Hot (1959), Written by Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond
The Daily Dialogue theme this week: Self-Deprecation, suggested by JasperLamarCrab. Today’s suggestion by Alejandro.
Trivia: Jack Lemmon wrote that the first sneak preview had a bad reaction with many audience walkouts. Many studio personnel and agents offered advice to Billy Wilder on what scenes to reshoot, add and cut. Lemmon asked Wilder what he was going to do. Wilder responded: “Why, nothing. This is a very funny movie and I believe in it just as it is. Maybe this is the wrong neighborhood in which to have shown it. At any rate, I don’t panic over one preview. It’s a hell of a movie.” Wilder held the next preview in the Westwood section of Los Angeles, and the audience stood up and cheered.
Dialogue On Dialogue: This is a great bit of business where Jerry tries every which way but Sunday to get out of the wedding while not owning up to the truth, a string of self-deprecating comments. And we see one key to comedy: Create resistance to get where the scene needs to go, then milk it for all it’s worth.
We could use some more suggestions for this week’s them: Self-Deprecation.
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