Daily Dialogue — May 1, 2017

DAVID: Look! You can’t… That’s my ball. Just a minute!
SUSAN: Here’s hoping.
DAVID: I say, just a minute. I beg your pardon. Oh, dear.
SUSAN: You shouldn’t do that, you know.
DAVID: What shouldn’t I do?
SUSAN: Talk while someone’s shooting. Anyway, I forgive you because I got a good shot.
DAVID: But you don’t understand.
SUSAN: It’s right next to the pin.
DAVID: That has nothing to do with it.
SUSAN: You playing through?
DAVID: I’ve just driven off the first tee.
SUSAN: I see, you are a stranger here. You should be over there. This is the 18th fairway and I’m right on the green. If I sink this putt, I’m gonna beat my record.
DAVID: (to Mr. Peabody) I’ll be with you in a minute! (to Susan) What kind of ball are you playing
SUSAN: PGA.
DAVID: I’m playing a CrowFlight.
SUSAN: I like a PGA better.
DAVID: I’m just trying to prove to you that you’re playing my ball. A PGA has two black dots, and a CrowFlight has a circle.
SUSAN: I’m not superstitious about things like that.
DAVID: That hasn’t anything to do with it.
SUSAN: Stop talking for a minute and and can you please take out the pin.
DAVID: Oh, my, this is so silly. There, you see? It’s a circle.
SUSAN: Of course it is. Do you think it would roll if it were square?
DAVID: No, I have reference to a mark on the ball. That proves it’s a CrowFlight.
SUSAN: What does it matter? It’s only a game, anyway.
DAVID: My dear young lady, you don’t seem to realize you’ve placed me in a very embarrassing position.
SUSAN: Oh really, I’m sorry.
DAVID: The most important lawyer in New York is waiting for me on the first fairway.
SUSAN: Then it’s silly of you to be fooling around on the 18th green.
DAVID: You don’t mind if I take this with me?
SUSAN: No, not at all. Tell the caddy master to put it in my bag when you’re finished.
PEABODDY: Huxley! Huxley, come on!
DAVID: Oh, yes, I’ll be with you in a minute, Mr. Peabody!

— Bringing Up Baby (1938), written by Dudley Nichols & Hagar Wilde, from the story by Hagar Wilde

The Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Meet-Cute. Today’s suggestion by Gisela Wehrl

Trivia: The final shooting script of the film comes in at 202 pages, which would equal a running time of 3 hours 22 minutes. Whether this amount of footage accounted for the rough assembly cut of the film isn’t known.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Gisela: “That what makes screwball comedy, two people talking at cross-purposes and mostly of the time not being aware of that. That makes the dialogue so funny: Until the where and Susan doesn’t get that’s that’s all about the ownership of the ball. She talks about totally different things. In the shooting script the two of them are arguing about whose ball it is, but that their misunderstanding makes it even funnier. This also makes a brilliant exposition for Susan, showing her as a free mind (“What does it matter? It’s only a game, anyway.“), perhaps with a kind of reality distortion field and therefore a little bit crazy as well. But she is also shown as a part of the upper-class as she upbraids David the same way as Mr. Peabody did about talking to somebody while playing golf.