The Long, Hot Summer (1958)

Paul Newman: Ben Quick

Photos 

Quotes 

• Ben : All right then, run, lady, and you keep on running. Buy yourself a bus ticket and disappear. Change your name, dye your hair, get lost - and then maybe, just maybe, you're gonna be safe from me.

• Ben : Get out of character, lady. Come on, get way out.

• Ben : Put them things down, Miss Clara, 'cause I'm gonna kiss you. I'm gonna show you how simple it is. You please me, and I'll please you.

  [Attempts to kiss Clara, but she slaps him across the face] 

  Ben : [chuckles]  Oh, I know what's troublin' you. It's all those boys hollerin' for Eula every night. And Eula with her hair hangin' down and Jody with his shirt off chasin' her. And your old man at 60 and he's callin' on his lady love.

  [Bends down to kiss Clara, and she makes no resistance] 

  Clara : All right, you proved it. I'm human.

  Ben : Yes, ma'am. You human, all right.

• Will Varner : I got influence. I'll dog you, boy, wherever you go. I'll break you.

  Ben : No, you won't. You'll miss me.

• Ben Quick : What happens if a federal man comes by?

  1st Resident : Oh, they've been known to come by. Also been known to disappear.

  2nd Resident : Well, not entirely.

  1st Resident : No, not entirely. The missing man's shoes might show up, or his hat; maybe even his suspenders. Of course, somebody else is wearing them.

• Ben : I respect him. I admire his manners and I admire the speeches he makes and I admire the big house he lives in. But if you're saving it all for him honey, you've got your account in the wrong bank.

• Ben : Life's very long and full of salesmanship, Miss Clara. You might buy something yet.

• Clara : You're too much like my father to suit me, and I'm an authority on him.

  Ben : He's a wonderful old man.

  Clara : One wolf recognizes another.

  Ben : Tame us. Make pets out of us. You could.

• Ben : Miss Clara, you slam the door in a man's face before he even knocks on it.

• Ben : Summertime, and the livin' is easy.

• Ben : If you're scared of me, mister, why don't you just come right out and say so?

  Will Varner : Sir, why should I be scared of you?

  Ben : 'Cause I got a reputation for being a dangerous man.

  Will Varner : You're a young dangerous man. I'm an old one. I guess you don't know who I am. I better introduce myself. I'm the big landowner, chief moneylender in these parts. I'm commissioner of elections, veterinarian, own a store and a cotton gin and a grist mill and a blacksmith shop... and it's considered unlucky for a man to do his trading or gin his cotton or grind his meal or shoe his stock anywhere else. Now that's who I am.

  Ben : You talk a lot.

  Will Varner : Well, yes I do, sir. I'm done talking to you, except for passing you on this piece of information. I built me a new jail in my courthouse this year, and if during the course of your stay, something, anything at all should just happen to catch fire, I think you ought to know that in my jail, we never heard of the words habeas corpus. You rot.

• Ben : Yes or no, mister. Ain't no in between.

• Ben : The world belongs to the meat eaters, Miss Clara, and if you have to take it raw, take it raw.

• Ben : I can see my white shirt and my black tie and my Sunday manners didn't fool you for a minute. Well, that's right, ma'am, I'm a menace to the countryside. All a man's gotta do is just look at me sideways and his house goes up in fire. And here I am, living right here in the middle of your peaceable little town, right in your back yard, you might say. Guess that ought to keep you awake at night.

• Ben : Well, I'll be damned.

  Will Varner : More than probable, you will be. But first, you're going to church and get married, yeah, to my daughter.

• Ben : You look like two butterflies lit out on the grass.

• Will Varner : I get preached to on Sundays

  Ben : I know, and you don't listen and neither did I.

• Ben : [a group of men approaching with hostile intentions]  Story of my life. Why don't nobody ever wanna talk with me peacable?

• Ben : I live single.

• Ben : Well, that's all right. I'm a quiet-living man, myself.

  Eula Varner : Oh, I only know one reason for living quiet; that's if you're too old to live any other way.

  Ben : In other words, you two girls take your fun where you can find it.

  Clara : Don't jump to conclusions, young man. We're giving you a ride and that's all.

  Eula Varner : Where you headed?

  Ben : I go as far as you go, ma'am.

  Eula Varner : Oh, you sound as free as a bird. Doesn't he sound as free as a bird, Clara?

  Ben : Well, Clara's wondering what kind of bird. Aren't you Clara?

• Ben : That's a long time to live in one place.

  Alan Stewart : You don't believe in living in one place, Mr. Quick?

  Ben : Well, my family moved. Not that they wanted to. They was encouraged by the local citizens.

• Passerby : I wouldn't fool with them folks, boy. I'd light out.

  Ben : I'm just not in a running mood.

• Ben : [to Clara]  Never say never.

• Ben Quick : You're old enough to know that and I'm young enough to learn it

  [to Will Verner]