The Country Girl (1954)

William Holden: Bernie Dodd

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Quotes 

• Georgie Elgin : Let's say I try my small way to help.

  Bernie Dodd : That's what my ex-wife used to keep me reminding of, cheerfully. She had a theory that behind every great man there was a great woman. She also was thoroughly convinced that she was great and all I needed to qualify was guidance on her part.

  Georgie Elgin : Still does not prove that the theory is completely wrong. I imagine one can go through history and find a few good examples.

  Bernie Dodd : It's a pity that Leonardo da Vinci never had a wife to guide him, he might have really gotten somewhere.

• Bernie Dodd : Does your wife really want you to play this part?

  Frank Elgin : Yeah, she's all for it.

  Bernie Dodd : I was just wondering. The day I met her, she seemed a little difficult about terms and rather domineering, I thought.

  Frank Elgin : She wasn't always like that.

  Bernie Dodd : Oh I know, I know. They all start out as Juliets and wind up as Lady Macbeths.

• Georgie Elgin : Frank's on stage.

  Bernie Dodd : I know. I want to talk to you.

  Georgie Elgin : The last time we talked, Mr. Dodd, you reduced me to tears. I promise you, it won't happen again.

• Georgie Elgin : Mr. Cook seems to be almost what the bad fairy promised Frank at his cradle.

  Bernie Dodd : Oh, he's not too bad. Gruff, but with a heart of stone.

• Georgie Elgin : How's Frank?

  Bernie Dodd : Okay. How's it been back here?

  Georgie Elgin : He was a little uneasy with the curtain going up so late.

  Bernie Dodd : If only the first few rows had the balcony's manners, what a wonderful world this would be.

• Bernie Dodd : Now, Cookie, no cracks, please.

• Bernie Dodd : This isn't "Student Prince" or "Blossom Time". The guy who plays this part has to act while he's singing and sing while he's acting.

• Philip Cook : He's too old for the part.

  Bernie Dodd : Get a couple of hairpieces. It will make him look ten years younger.

• Bernie Dodd : I'm just trying to find out if you were ever an actress?

  Georgie Elgin : Oh, no. Not me. Thank you. I'm just a girl from the country. The theatre and its people have always been a complete mystery to me. They still are.

• Bernie Dodd : Touché. In French, that means...

  Georgie Elgin : Oh, come on, everybody knows what touché means.

• Bernie Dodd : Dreiser, Balzac, Montaigne. Who reads these books?

  Georgie Elgin : I do.

  Bernie Dodd : I'm afraid to ask you if you enjoy them. You'd bite my head off. Montaigne's too polite for me.

  Georgie Elgin : That doesn't surprise me.

• Georgie Elgin : You're even younger than I thought.

  Bernie Dodd : And you try to look like an old lady. You're not. You shouldn't wear your hair like that. There are two kinds of women: those who pay too much attention to themselves and those who don't pay enough.

  Georgie Elgin : [sarcastically]  Say, that's quite a pearl of wisdom. May I quote you?

• Bernie Dodd : It's bad enough to go to Hollywood to cast. Now you suggest I go to heaven!

• Bernie Dodd : What is this? I come up here with the best intentions in the world and suddenly I find I'm victimizing you.

  Frank Elgin : Can I get a word in?

  Bernie Dodd : What did I bring you? A basket of snakes?

• Bernie Dodd : Are you for him or against him?

  Georgie Elgin : I'm his wife.

• Bernie Dodd : They can get awful bent out of shape, can't they? You know, my wife was so twisted, she once said to me, "I hope your next play's a flop, so the world can see how much I love you even though you're a failure."

• Bernie Dodd : Frank? Having trouble at home?

  Frank Elgin : No, nothing like that. What's the matter? Don't you believe me?

  Bernie Dodd : Everyone has trouble at home. The only ones who deny it are those that have too much of it.

• Georgie Elgin : You're sure I'm not in the way?

  Bernie Dodd : No, no. We're just closing up shop, giving it back to the theatre ghosts.

  Georgie Elgin : There's nothing quite so mysterious and silent as a dark theatre. A night without a star.

• Bernie Dodd : Your timing was perfect, Mrs Elgin.

  Georgie Elgin : I have a knack that way.

• Georgie Elgin : I try to be careful, Mr. Dodd, but being an actor's wife is not the easiest of jobs. If I tell him he's magnificent, he says I'm not honest. If I tell him he's not magnificent, he says I don't love him.

  Bernie Dodd : Why don't you tell him he's good but can be better.

  Georgie Elgin : Is that what the critics will tell him?

  Bernie Dodd : Are you a critic or a wife?

• Georgie Elgin : Frank's weak. He's a leaner! I happen to be the one he leans on.

  Bernie Dodd : The good, strong helpmate. Did it ever occur to you that you and your strength might be the very reason he is weak. I don't like strong women, Mrs. Elgin.

• Philip Cook : The dame in this paper puts her finger on it. Right on it. She says, "Elgin lacks authority in a role that cries for it." No authority. That's it.

  Bernie Dodd : You know why he lacks authority? Because his wife has too much of it.

• Georgie Elgin : For your edification, he's heading for a bender.

  Bernie Dodd : Why is it that women always think they understand men better than men do?

  Georgie Elgin : Maybe because they live with them.

• Bernie Dodd : You make him tense and uneasy. You never stop handling him and now you're trying to handle me too!

  Georgie Elgin : And don't think I couldn't, after handling a cunning drunkard for 10 years.

  Bernie Dodd : If you had any compassion or love whatsoever for this man, you could never call him a cunning drunkard.

  Georgie Elgin : Maybe I have a greater love for the truth. That's what he is and I'm a drunkard's wife. That's the truth, too. And I think it's high time you stop looking at everything as if it were a musical comedy!

• Bernie Dodd : We've got a lot of hard work ahead of us and I haven't time to outmaneuver frustrated females.

• Bernie Dodd : May I smoke?

  Georgie Elgin : May you smoke? What is that supposed to be? Homage to a lady?

• Bernie Dodd : Show me your wrists. Show me your wrists!

• Bernie Dodd : I don't know where to begin to apologize, Mrs. Elgin.

  Georgie Elgin : You can begin by not calling me Mrs. Elgin.

• Georgie Elgin : How could you be so angry at someone you didn't even know?

  Bernie Dodd : Maybe I really wasn't. Maybe I screamed at you to keep myself at an angry distance.

• Georgie Elgin : You'll be taking a big chance.

  Bernie Dodd : They're the only ones worth taking.

• Bernie Dodd : Frank, there are as many reasons for drinking as there are drinkers. But, there are only two reasons why a drinker stops. He dies or decides to quit - all by himself.

• Bernie Dodd : I know it's gratifying for a woman to be wanted and needed, but not for every minute of every day.

• Bernie Dodd : I'm always running out of cigarettes.

  Georgie Elgin : You smoke too much.

  Bernie Dodd : And you're impertinent. But you're loyal and steadfast and devoted. I like that in a woman.