Sullivan's Travels (1941)
Robert Warwick: Mr. LeBrand
Quotes
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John L. Sullivan : I want this picture to be a commentary on modern conditions. Stark realism. The problems that confront the average man!
LeBrand : But with a little sex.
John L. Sullivan : A little, but I don't wanna stress it. I want this picture to be a document. I wanna hold a mirror up to life. I want this to be a picture of dignity! A true canvas of the suffering of humanity!
LeBrand : But with a little sex in it.
John L. Sullivan : [reluctantly] With a little sex in it.
Hadrian : How 'bout a nice musical?
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[discussing a prior 'serious' film]
LeBrand : It died in Pittsburgh.
Hadrian : Like a dog!
John L. Sullivan : Aw, what do they know in Pittsburgh...
Hadrian : They know what they like.
John L. Sullivan : If they knew what they liked, they wouldn't live in Pittsburgh!
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John L. Sullivan : What do you mean, what do I know about hard luck? Don't you think I've...
Hadrian : No.
John L. Sullivan : What?
Hadrian : You have not.
Hadrian : I sold newspapers till I was 20, then I worked in a shoe store and put myself through law school at night. Where were you at 20?
John L. Sullivan : I was in college.
LeBrand : When I was 13 I supported three sisters, two brothers and a widowed mother. Where were you at 13?
John L. Sullivan : I was in boarding school. I'm sorry!
LeBrand : Well, you don't have to be ashamed of it, Sully. That's the reason your pictures have been so light, so cheerful, so inspiring.
Hadrian : They don't stink with messages.
LeBrand : That's why I paid you five hundred a week when you were 24.
Hadrian : Seven hundred and fifty when you were 25.
LeBrand : A thousand when you were 26.
Hadrian : When I was 26, I was getting 18.
LeBrand : Two thousand when you were 27!
Hadrian : I was getting 25 then!
LeBrand : I'd just opened my shooting gallery. Then three thousand after "Thanks for Yesterday."
Hadrian : Four thousand after "Ants in Your Plants."
John L. Sullivan : I suppose you're trying to tell me I don't know what trouble is.
Hadrian : Yes!
LeBrand : In a nice way, Sully.
John L. Sullivan : Well, you're absolutely right. I haven't any idea what it is.
Hadrian : People always like what they don't know anything about.
John L. Sullivan : I had a lot of nerve wanting to make a picture about human suffering.
LeBrand : You're a gentleman to admit it, Sully, but then, you are anyway.
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John L. Sullivan : Of course I'm just a minor employee here, Mr. LeBrand...
LeBrand : He's starting that one again.
John L. Sullivan : I wanted to make you something outstanding... something you could be proud of, something that would realize the potentialities of film... as the sociological and artistic medium that it is. With a little sex in it. Something like...
Hadrian : Something like Capra. I know.
John L. Sullivan : What's the matter with Capra?
LeBrand : Look, you want to make O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Hadrian : Now, wait a minute!
LeBrand : Then go ahead and make it! For what you're getting, I can't afford to argue with you.
John L. Sullivan : That's a fine way to start a man out on a million-dollar production.
LeBrand : You want it, you've got it! I can take it on the chin. I've taken it before.
John L. Sullivan : Not from me you haven't.
LeBrand : Not from you, Sully, that's true. Not with pictures like So Long Sarong, Hey, Hey, In the Hayloft, Ants in Your Plants of 1939... But they weren't about tramps, lockouts, sweatshops, people eating garbage in alleys and living in piano boxes and ash cans.
Hadrian : And phooey!
LeBrand : They're about nice, clean young people... who fell in love... with laughter and music and legs. Now take that scene in Hey, Hey, In the Hayloft...
John L. Sullivan : But you don't realize conditions have changed. There isn't any work. There isn't any food. These are troublous times.
Hadrian : What do you know about trouble?
John L. Sullivan : What do I know about trouble?
Hadrian : Yes, what do you know about trouble?
John L. Sullivan : Well, what do you mean, what do I know about trouble?
Hadrian : Just what I'm saying. You wanna make a picture about garbage cans. What do you know about garbage cans? When did you eat your last meal out of one?
Hadrian : Well, what's that got to do with it?
John L. Sullivan : He's asking you.
Hadrian : You wanna make an epic about misery. You wanna show hungry people sleeping in doorways.
LeBrand : With newspapers around them!
Hadrian : You wanna grind out ten thousand feet of hard luck - and all I'm asking you is, what do you know about hard luck?
