Daily Dialogue — September 13, 2012

Annie: You didn’t ask about the kid, Francis.
Francis: I was going to. So what is it, a boy or a girl?
Annie: Dead. It’s dead. Never even got born, Francis, ’cause I was left alone. Did you hear me, Francis? Eight months. You know I… I slipped on the front steps in the snow. I fell down them. There was no one there to help me. You know what I mean? I lost the kid. It would have been a boy, Francis. Never even got born. Never got baptized. You know what that means. That soul cannot go to heaven, Francis. That’s what you did for your son’s soul, you bastard. You sent it into limbo. That soul cannot go to heaven.

— Annie (Penelope Allen), Francis (Al Pacino), Scarecrow (1973), written by Garry Michael White

http://static.movieclips.com/embedplayer.swf?shortid=W6Zxt

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is phone call revelations, suggested by Debbie Moon. Today’s suggestion by Teddy Pasternak.

Trivia: Gene Hackman has stated that his performance in Scarecrow is his personal favorite.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Teddy’s commentary: “A couple of revelations going on here. It’s a revelation to Francis that Annie lost the kid. Even though it’s a lie, he doesn’t know that, so that would count as a revelation. It’s a revelation to the audience that Annie would rather lie about the boy’s existence than to have Francis back in her life and in their son’s life. That’s how much she hates him for leaving.

Also, it’s the kind of scene that works great on the phone. One party is not privy to all of the facts since the two are not in the same location. Had Francis actually showed up at the house instead of calling the story would perhaps have had a different outcome.”

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