Daily Dialogue — November 30, 2011
POLICE CHIEF: I’m a police chief. From Michigan. Look, fella, I have explained to you. I have a postcard which says I have reservations in this hotel.
CLERK: I’m very sorry, sir, but you’re on the late list. So your reservations has been transferred to the… ah… Moonlight Motel, which is just out on Paradise Boulevard…
POLICE CHIEF: We’ve already paid for our goddamn room!
CLERK: It’s actually a very fine place of lodging and its only sixteen blocks from here, it a pool, sauna, steam…
POLICE CHIEF: You listen to me you filthy little faggot! I want a manager down here! Now, now! Because I’m sick of listening to your dogshit!
CLERK: I’m very sorry, sir. May I call you a cab?
POLICE CHIEF: Sure, and I’ll call you a cock sucker.
DUKE (V/O): Of course, I could hear what the Clerk was really saying…
CLERK: Listen, you fuzzy little shithead — I’ve been fucked around, in my time, by a fairly good cross-section of mean-tempered rule-crazy cops and now it’s MY turn. So Fuck you, officer, I’m in charge.
DUKE: Hey Listen, I really hate to interrupt, but I wonder if I could just slide on through and get out of your way. Name’s Duke — Raoul Duke. My attorney made the reservations.
CLERK: Duke, Raoul. Certainly, sir.
DUKE: My bags are out there in that white Cadillac convertible. Maybe someone can bring it to the room for me. Oh yeah, let me get a quart of Wild Turkey, two fifths of Baccardi, ice for the room. And let’s see, shit let’s try some lime chunks. What do you say?
CLERK: I say OK. You don’t worry about a thing. And you don’t hesitate to call me, Sven.
DUKE: Alright Sven, thank you very much.
— Police Chief (Troy Evans), Clerk (Gregory Itzin), Duke (Johnny Depp), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), screenplay by Terry Gilliam & Tony Grisoni and Tod Davies & Alex Cox, based on the novel by Hunter S. Thompson
The actual clip is here.
The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is hotel check-ins, suggested by Teddy Pasternak. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas suggested by Zeb Eckles.
Trivia: Terry Gilliam, ‘Tony Grisoni (I)’, Alex Cox and Tod Davies are credited for the film’s screenplay. Gilliam and Grisoni adapted the novel by Hunter S. Thompson and used their script for the film; however, a nasty arbitration wrangle at the Writers Guild of America found that Cox and Davies had written an earlier screenplay that had also adapted Thompson’s novel, with a number of similarities to Gilliam and Grisoni’s screenplay, and should therefore receive credit for the finished work instead of Gilliam and Grisoni (who the Guild claimed did not contribute enough new material to their script). After Gilliam appealed this decision, a shared credit for all four of the writer was permitted. To this date, both Alex Cox and Terry Gilliam claim to have been wronged in this.
Dialogue On Dialogue: Duke’s requests would be funny in and of themselves. But in the context of the spat between Sven and the Police Chief, it makes Duke’s drug addled narcissism that much more entertaining. All in all, another entertaining hotel check-in.