Young Cassidy (1965)

Rod Taylor: John Cassidy

Photos 

Quotes 

• John Cassidy : [said almost slightly humorously as he watches his fellow Irishmen's somewhat shabby display while training for militia combat]  All the world's a stage Mick, but some of us are *desperately* under rehearsed.

• John Cassidy : Come on, Nora. Let's get back to the dirty, human parts of town. To the places I love.

• Mick Mullen : [sizing him up]  You're an odd one to come among us.

  John Cassidy : Why's that?

  Mick Mullen : Well, not many of us carry books on this job.

  John Cassidy : Oh that's...

  [grabs the book from his jacket pocket] 

  John Cassidy : , that's Michael Davet's land reform.

  Mick Mullen : Tell me something, are you interested in the state-a the land?

  John Cassidy : We all bloody well should be. We work close enough to it, don't we?

  Mick Mullen : Can ya win the battle with a shovel?

  John Cassidy : [happily confident]  Well I can earn me bread with it.

  Mick Mullen : [smiling intriguingly]  You'll do Johnny.

  [they both get back to work after clearly and friendly hitting it off well] 

• [first lines] 

  Foreman : [agitated with his overly vigorous workmanship]  Cassidy! For the love-a God man, your enthusiasm will be the death of us all. Toss the dirt nice and easy where it's meant to go.

  John Cassidy : Yes sir.

  Foreman : What dya think you're doin' down there, reconstructin' the whole of Ireland? Come on outta there, come up.

  [John reluctantly climbs out of the trench] 

  Foreman : Cassidy, ya be with us one day, and already ya nearly caused the most terrible slaughter among the men.

  John Cassidy : Yes, I'll get the hang of it if I'm given the chance.

  Foreman : Go on over there and give Mick a hand with those lamps.

  [John hands him his shovel and heads over toward Mick] 

  Foreman : . And try to control your passionate feelin's man!

  [irritatedly tossed the shovel down] 

• Daisy Battles : [just after they finish making love as John is about to leave]  You're a good man.

  John Cassidy : Thank you Daisy.

  Daisy Battles : Ah well, it's all for old Ireland anyway.

  [he smiles at her endearingly] 

  Daisy Battles : I suppose you have to go now.

  John Cassidy : I must.

  Daisy Battles : Give me another kiss.

  [they kiss romantically] 

  Daisy Battles : Shut the door gently now love, I'm going to have a little sleep.

  [they smile, he turns to leave, and the scene fades out] 

• John Cassidy : [reading aloud the papers to mother Flora that he was hired to write blurbs in]  'Sound the loud trumpet.'

  [paper #2] 

  John Cassidy : 'People of Ireland, what's the key? Sound the trumpet, beat the drum, sing and be glad.'

  [paper #3] 

  John Cassidy : 'Oh foolish Irish people, why do you clamber and make unseemly noises? For goodness sake, hold your p's and do not make the airs of your best friends tingle with despondent cry.'

• Mick Mullen : [talking outside shortly after Ella's sudden and untimely death]  Damn poverty all together.

  John Cassidy : Amen. But we're fightin' it Mick. And while we fight we can appreciate the little things - like the beauty of this Hawthorn tree. Ella used to love this tree. She used to say that beauty was more important than bread. How do ya explain that to Ella's kids?

  [the scene fades out] 

• Mrs. Cassidy : [after the fighting stopped]  Will there be peace now?

  John Cassidy : Ay... for the dead.

• Mick Mullen : How's it goin' Johnny?

  John Cassidy : Well, I sent me play to the Abbey Theatre Mick, and one of the management read it - Lady Gregory I think - and she thanked me very much and sent it back with a comment that it was a bit short on plot and a bit long on character.

  Mick Mullen : Well that's a profound thing to say.

  John Cassidy : Right. So, I went over the thing and rewrote it and sent it in again, and a Mr. Yeats read it this time, and he thanked me very much and he sent it back with a comment that it was a bit long on short of character and a bit long on plot.

  Mick Mullen : Well what happened then?

  John Cassidy : Well, I had a another go and I sent it in once more.

  Mick Mullen : And?

  John Cassidy : And I had a very nice note from the management to say they'd lost it.

  [they both laugh] 

  Mick Mullen : Well, keep at it Johnny. One day you'll be able to give up the pick axe altogether.

  John Cassidy : I will.

• Mrs. Cassidy : [slightly sarcastically as he briefly passes through the room where John and Mick are discussing a labor strike]  Up the revolution. Workers unite, ya have nothin' to lose... except your jobs.

  John Cassidy : You push off on your way out, ya darn fella.

  Mrs. Cassidy : I'll tell ya somethin', that little old boyo Will Shakespeare could move the hearts of people more by gettin' them together in the theatre than you'll ever do by gettin' them together in a riotous mass.

  John Cassidy : Whaddya mean by that Arch?

  Mrs. Cassidy : [smiling]  Don't forget the dreamer in yourself Johnny. Goodnight.

  [leaves the house] 

• Mrs. Cassidy : What good will it do Johnny, all this drillin' and shootin' at targets?

  John Cassidy : It might help free Ireland if they went about it the right way.

  Mrs. Cassidy : No man and no people can ever be made free by such goins on. It's against the law of man and it's against the law of God, and I won't have ya forget it Johnny.

  John Cassidy : What happens if the law of man is unfair mother, what do ya do then?

  Mrs. Cassidy : Suffer it.

• Nora : [while John visits Nora at her home]  Well how is it ya have time just to sit around?

  John Cassidy : I'm not workin'.

  Nora : When I first met ya I thought you had more talent than to go around chasin' girls.

  John Cassidy : Well I was chasin' after you. As for the rest, I write; I try to.

  Nora : You write, what?

  John Cassidy : I've had a book published. There are other things too.

  Nora : Oh, that'll not get you far - you need a high education to be a writer. Oh, I am sorry; I didn't mean that.

  John Cassidy : [snickers]  Oh you meant it Norah. It's a common thought. A high education as you call it is a grand thing. But just you wait - there are things gonna be written in this country, by brutal drunken workin' men like me. It'll be very very disturbin' Nora. Why don't you become part of it all Nora?

  [she slowly smiles and the scene fades out] 

• Bessie Ballynoy : [alone in Johnny's room after entering unannounced with the partially flimsy excuse of simply checking on him do to current political unrest and raids]  You're a fine, heavenly built young fella. And you're a good young man, and would never take advantage of a woman alone in your room at the dead of night with nothin' but a loose tablecloth between you and this swift bit a-courtin'. Would you?

  [he grins at her obvious advances, grabs her face intimately, and they begin to kiss as she immediately unrrobes and effortlessy puts out the candle with only two fingers] 

  John Cassidy : [in the dark]  I got me hand caught in your tablecloth.

  Bessie Ballynoy : I haven't a tablecloth on.

• John Cassidy : Are they paying you this time?

  Archie : Payment - for an actor, Johnny, is of no consequence whatsoever.

  John Cassidy : It's of consequence to this family. Look around you.

• Daisy Battles : [teasingly]  Oh, I can see you're the most terrible man. A girl in her senses would run for her life.

  John Cassidy : Why don't you?

  Daisy Battles : That's just what I'm going to do. But, don't you run away.

  [exits to her bedroom] 

• Daisy Battles : Shall I see to your leg?

  John Cassidy : Damn me leg. I'd prefer to look at yours.

  Daisy Battles : Shall I mend your trousers then? Or, is it damn your trousers too?

  John Cassidy : It is.

  Daisy Battles : Me skirt and petticoat's all twisted from the crush of the crowd.

  [John gives Daisy an aggressive kiss] 

• John Cassidy : We're too poor to be proud.

• John Cassidy : [looking around Daisy's nicely furnished home]  Say, tell me, do you manage all this on just the Christmas show - even the front row of the chorus?

  Daisy Battles : Oh, no. I have an uncle, as well.

  John Cassidy : You have a what?

  [Daisy smiles] 

  John Cassidy : Oh.

  Daisy Battles : I tried your kind of work once. Pickin' fruit to make jam. Sixty hours a week at eight P. an hour. It's not for me.

• Mrs. Cassidy : What became of Ella, John?

  John Cassidy : Five children in as many years, it doesn't leave much time for music and poetry.

• John Cassidy : Uniforms won't help us stand up against machine guns. Now we're gonna make up for lack of means by cleverness and cunning. Wear what you got on; but, dodge and strike, strike and dodge.

• John Cassidy : Now, look, lads, we're supposed to be revolutionaries, not pantomime soldiers. We're not fightin' for the right to strut up and down streets in gaudy uniforms. Our only chance is to be irregulars.

  Captain White : We know what we're fighting for, Cassidy, quite as well as you. We can fight better in uniforms than shabby coats and ragged trousers. Uniforms will give us a since of union, promote discipline; besides, the British will then be forced to regard us as soldiers waging war and treat us accordingly.

  John Cassidy : The British will regard us as bloody rebels, whatever we wear.

• John Cassidy : The fools! The bloody, magnificent fools.

• John Cassidy : I've told 'em to take off their uniforms and keep 'em for the wedding. I've told 'em the British will use cannons in the streets of Dublin, if need be. I've told 'em to stop goin' marchin' around in groups. I've told 'em and they think I'm daft! I've done all that I could and I've left 'em.

  Mrs. Cassidy : Thank, God.

• John Cassidy : [toast]  To her courage and her kindness and her gay heart.

• John Cassidy : [walking down the staircase]  Do you mind if I get past?

  Bessie Ballynoy : I'd never stop you, darling. Are you livin' here then?

  John Cassidy : I moved in with Mick Mullen. Me name's Johnny Cassidy.

  Bessie Ballynoy : Do you believe in good neighborliness, Johnny?

  John Cassidy : Well, I suppose you have to when you're livin' on top of each other, like this bunch here.

  Bessie Ballynoy : Then, we'll be seein' each other.

• John Cassidy : Wherever she is, when she hears me singin', she'll listen. She'll listen and she'll be glad and gay, too.

• Mick Mullen : It was bloody indecent the way you grabbed that girl last night - holding her fast, against her will.

  John Cassidy : What?

  Mick Mullen : She didn't like it.

  John Cassidy : I think she did and I didn't hear her callin' for any policeman. Do you good to grab a girl like that occasionally, Mick.

  Mick Mullen : Me? I got better things to do.

  John Cassidy : Oh, I've seen you with your fine eyes watchin' that plump little lass who brings dinner to the steamroller driver. Look, spruce yourself up. The next time she comes by, say, "Hello, lovely lass." She'll like it! And you'll get more fun out of life.

  Mick Mullen : No, thanks. I've no wish to get into trouble with girls. And you should feel the same about that girl you call Nora. For I can see that she's afraid of you.

  John Cassidy : Afraid of havin' me or afraid of losin' me? She's afraid like you, Mick, of takin' a risk. It's a timid man's way. It's not God's way!

• John Cassidy : [drunkenly]  Desmond Terrace! Oh, that's a dandy little place, full of dandy, dandy little people.

• John Cassidy : Wherever she is, she's lookin' down at us and sayin', "Johnny, why don't you take hold of that sweet, little girl and kiss her." So, why don't you kiss me, sweet and 20?

  [kisses Nora] 

• John Cassidy : Let me look at you. My God, you must be the most beautiful woman in the world.

  Nora : Ah, those are just words.

  John Cassidy : They are.

  Nora : You're clever with words, Johnny.

  John Cassidy : I am.

  Nora : Then how can I believe them to be true?

  John Cassidy : They say actions speak louder than words.

  [Nora runs off and Johnny chases after her] 

  John Cassidy : Come here!

  [kiss] 

• John Cassidy : Now is the time for great things. You see, we've got peace in this country now. We don't have to go in fear anymore. We can turn to the human things. And the beauty. And the real things.

  Nora : Isn't love a real thing?

  John Cassidy : Well, of course it is.

  Nora : Between us, is it real?

• Bessie Ballynoy : Don't you think you better go back to your own room, Mrs. Ballynoy. Or, there might be somebody prowlin' around and think the worst.

  John Cassidy : Aye, they're bad minds the lot of 'em! That's why I've locked the door.

  Bessie Ballynoy : You've?

  John Cassidy : So, you can light the candle now. I feel terribly shy in this get-up. After washin' the one good nightgown I had, I was sleepin' in me skin - and this tablecloth was the first thing that came to hand when the Tans came thunderin' on the door.

• John Cassidy : It is love to me. Writing is love.

• John Cassidy : Can I kiss you?

  Nora : Here?

  John Cassidy : This city's our home. Where else do you kiss the girl you love?

  [kiss] 

• John Cassidy : Ah, shut up and give us a kiss.

• John Cassidy : I have something to say.

  Nora : Serious?

  John Cassidy : Very serious.

  Nora : Then say it.

  John Cassidy : Are you listenin'? There's a curve of your body that I've loved ever since I first set eyes on you. It's where your neck enters your shoulder.

  [kisses the spot] 

  John Cassidy : There.

  Nora : Is that what you wanted to say?

  John Cassidy : Yes.

  Nora : That's not a serious thing, Johnny.

• Nora : Now, Johnny, Mr. Yeats said not to pay any attention to the reviews. There's another one here. Do you want to hear it?

  John Cassidy : No! What's it say?

• John Cassidy : You ought to forget me, Nora.

  Nora : I know. Hey, wait - for me.

• W.B. Yeats : Ah, Cassidy. We need your permission for something. If your play is proceed, action must be taken. Objects are being thrown at the actors. The stage may be stormed. We think it necessary to call in the police.

  John Cassidy : The police? Me call the police against the workers? Never, sir!

  Lady Gregory : My dear boy, such scruples. They're *our* police now. Not English police, anymore.

  John Cassidy : Lady Gregory, they're still the police.

• W.B. Yeats : "The Plough and the Stars" is the finest thing you've done. You've written the great play, Cassidy. There's brutality here and tenderness and a kind of humanity that reminds me of - Cassidy you are the Irish Dostoevsky.

  John Cassidy : I'm Johnny Cassidy. Nobody else.

• John Cassidy : I want you to come way up the ladder with me - as my woman. Don't you want to go to the dangerous parts of life? Lie still! Or, do you just want to stay safe?

  Nora : Do you want me to come with you?

  John Cassidy : I'd love it. But, you're so timid, Nora. You're wonderful and good; but, you're timid.

  Nora : Well, I - I get frightened, Johnny. I - I like the things I know. I feel safe then. I don't understand your dreams.

  John Cassidy : I don't really understand 'em me self.

• John Cassidy : Take a look into the future. Right? Now, do you see me as Johnny Cassidy or do you see me as something else?