The Song of Songs (1933)

Brian Aherne: Richard Waldow

Photos 

Quotes 

• Lily Czepanek : I can't take my clothes off!

  Richard Waldow : Why? Why can't you?

  Lily Czepanek : Why, I'd, I'd be undressed!

• Richard Waldow : Stand up, again. Stand up. I want to see you.

  Lily Czepanek : No! I will not.

  Richard Waldow : Oh, I see. You think I'm interested in your legs. Well, I'm not. At least not just as legs. My dear child, if you've seen as many legs as I have, you'd get more excited about a pair of crutches! I'm a sculptor, my dear. A sculptor. Oh, that is, I'm supposed to be. And there was something about you, as you stood there, that was almost - an idea.

• Richard Waldow : I tell you what, you come over and pose for me. Perhaps you'll bring me inspiration.

  Lily Czepanek : No, thank you.

  Richard Waldow : How about eight o'clock?

  Lily Czepanek : I wouldn't wait if I were you.

  Richard Waldow : Oh, no, no, no. You must come. You know, I believe I could get something really interesting. Oh, please come, please come.

• Richard Waldow : I've been making a sketch of you. You want to see yourself?

  Lily Czepanek : Oh, yes!

  [Richard shows her the sketch] 

  Lily Czepanek : Oh! I haven't any clothes on.

  Richard Waldow : Clothes? Do you think I model people with their clothes on?

  Lily Czepanek : But, how did you know I was like that?

  Richard Waldow : And just what does that mean?

  Lily Czepanek : I mean, it is me and it isn't me.

• Lily Czepanek : [looking at a sketch of herself]  It's wonderful! I mean, it's the way I want to be. It's me as I dream of me. It's the girl in the Song of Songs.

  Richard Waldow : Who?

  Lily Czepanek : The girl in the Song of Songs. She's in the Bible.

  Richard Waldow : The Bible?

  Lily Czepanek : She's the girl who feels in her heart that somewhere the perfect love is waiting for her. She says, "I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved saying, Open to me, my love, my undefiled."

  Richard Waldow : Mercy! Honest.

  Lily Czepanek : Oh, I know what she means. I know it! Because I feel it inside. I mean, "It is the voice of my beloved." That's what I mean.

• Richard Waldow : You mustn't think of me as a man! Don't you realize that? Why, a model means no more to me than a tree. All I see is the - the thing she creates.

• Richard Waldow : Oh, there you are. That's right. That's right. Come on. Step up there. You can drop the smock.

  Lily Czepanek : It's cold.

• Lily Czepanek : I don't understand how I ever got into this.

  Richard Waldow : Now, look here. Wait a minute. Wait a minute and take it easy. You don't have to do this, you know, if you don't want to. Well, all right. You put your clothes on and go home.

  Lily Czepanek : No. I said I'd do it - and I will do it.

  [drops the smock] 

  Richard Waldow : That's the way to talk. Good! Good!

• Lily Czepanek : Oh, smell that.

  Richard Waldow : What?

  Lily Czepanek : The grass and the earth. Oh, smell the grass.

  Richard Waldow : I don't smell anything.

  Lily Czepanek : Oh, you're so funny darling. Look what he called grass. Now, you've got to bury your nose in it! You've got to get into the ground. You've just got to be grass.

  Richard Waldow : You've got Spring Fever.

• Richard Waldow : How could I give her to you even if I wanted to? And I don't.

  Baron von Merzbach : All I ask is that you step aside and give me a chance with Lily.

  Richard Waldow : Oh, this is obscene.

  Baron von Merzbach : Obscene? Because I'm not as young as you? Obscene? Because I consider her welfare and you don't? Obscene? Because I'm willing to marry her - and you are not? Yes - stare. That's how I want her! Enough to make her the Baroness von Merzbach. Now, tell me again what I'm asking - is obscene.

• Richard Waldow : I don't know where else to look.

  Mrs. Rasmussen : Have you tried the gutter? That's where girls like her - end up.

• Richard Waldow : One makes mistakes. One does things. Heaven knows why. I was wrong. But, need one suffer forever for one mistake?

• Richard Waldow : A Song of Songs. Don't you remember? "I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved."

  Lily Czepanek : No. "I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. I called him, but he made no answer. The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me." They took away my veil from me.

  [cries] 

• [last lines] 

  Richard Waldow : That's all right, my dear. That's all right. Let it go. We'll begin again. Do you remember long ago, when we climbed a hill - into the sky? Well, we'll climb again, now. We'll find the sky, perhaps.