Daily Dialogue — May 13, 2016

JESSICA: Mr. Valiant? Mr. Valiant? You’ve got the wrong idea about me, Mr. Valiant. I’m a pawn in this just like Roger. Can you help me find him? Just name your price and I’ll pay it.
VALIANT: Yeah, I bet you would. You gotta have the rabbit to make the scam work.
JESSICA: No, no, no. I love my husband. You’ve got me all wrong. You don’t know how hard it is being a woman looking the way I do.
VALIANT: No, ah, you don’t know how hard it is being a man looking at a woman looking the way you do.
JESSICA: I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way.
VALIANT: Weren’t you the one I caught playing pat-a-cake with Old Man Acme?
JESSICA: You didn’t catch me, Mr. Valiant, you were set up to take those pictures.
VALIANT: What are you talking about?
JESSICA: Maroon wanted to blackmail Acme. I didn’t want to have anything to do with it, but he said if I didn’t pose for those pat-a-cake pictures, Roger would never work in this town again. I couldn’t let that happen. I’d do anything for my husband, Mr. Valiant. Anything.
VALIANT: What a wife.
JESSICA: I’m desperate, Mr. Valiant. Can’t you see how much I need you?
DELORES: (Clears her throat.) Dabbling in water colors, Eddie?

Embarrassed, Eddie pulls up his pants, bumping Jessica’s chest.

VALIANT: Sorry.
JESSICA: Goodbye, Eddie. My offer stands firm. Think about it.

— Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), screenplay by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman, based on the novel by Gary K. Wolf

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Femme Fatale. Today’s suggestion by Will King.

Trivia: Jessica Rabbit was based exactly on four movie femme fatales. Writer Gary K. Wolf had based Jessica primarily on the cartoon character Red, Tex Avery’s vixen from Red Hot Riding Hood (1943). (In fact, the musical number in Red Hot Riding Hood (1943) is duplicated by Jessica at the Ink and Paint Club.) In addition, animation director Richard Williams said he based Jessica mostly on Rita Hayworth in Gilda (1946), Veronica Lake for the peek-a-boo bangs of her hair, and with the suggestion of Robert Zemeckis, “the look” trademark Lauren Bacall had.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Will: “It wouldn’t be a complete picture of the trope without at least one send-up. Jessica Rabbit is the quintessential femme fatale, but she can’t help it because she’s ‘drawn that way.’”