|
Best Film Speeches and Monologues
|
| Film Title/Year and Description of Film Speech/Monologue |
Screenshots
|
Cat on a Hot
Tin Roof (1958)
Screenwriter(s): Richard Brooks, James Poe
Maggie's
Tortured Without Love Speech
Maggie Pollitt's (Elizabeth Taylor) longing,
pleading to an unresponsive (possibly gay) husband Brick (Paul
Newman):
Why can't you lose your good looks, Brick?
Most drinkin' men lose theirs. Why can't you? I think you've
even gotten better-lookin' since you went on the bottle.
You were such a wonderful lover... You were so excitin'
to be in love with. Mostly, I guess, 'cause you were...
If I thought you'd never never make love to me again...
why I'd find me the longest, sharpest knife I could and
I'd stick it straight into my heart. I'd do that. Oh Brick,
how long does this have to go on? This punishment? Haven't
I served my term? Can't I apply for a pardon?
|
|
The Last Hurrah (1958)
Screenwriter(s): Frank S. Nugent
Stealing
the Food of One's Employer
Aging, corrupt Eastern city Irish-American Democratic
political boss Mayor Skeffington's (Spencer Tracy) at the age
of 72 and running for re-election, told a long story to his
idealistic 33 year-old nephew Adam Caulfield (Jeffrey Hunter),
a newspaper sports column writer. He described how his Irish
immigrant mother, when working as a maid in the home of the
father of Amos Force (John Carradine), the current editor of
the newspaper, was fired for stealing her employer's food.
She was humiliated and then fired by the elder Force for stealing
two overripe bananas and a small apple, a "crime" usually
accepted by the wealthy Yankees who employed poor Irish immigrants.
He argued that the Force family had never forgiven their maid's
son for becoming mayor of the city: |
|
Vertigo (1958)
Screenwriter(s) Alec Coppel, Samuel A. Taylor, Maxwell
Anderson (uncredited)
"You
Found Me" Letter
Judy's/Madeleine's (Kim Novak) letter written
to Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart), and read in voice-over:
Dear Scottie: And so you found me. This
is the moment that I've dreaded and hoped for, wondering
what I would say and do if I ever saw you again. I wanted
so to see you again just once. Now I'll go and you can
give up your search. I want you to have peace of mind.
You have nothing to blame yourself for. You were the victim.
I was the tool, and you were the victim of Gavin Elster's
plan to murder his wife. He chose me to play the part because
I looked like her, dressed me up like her. He was quite
safe because she lived in the country and rarely came to
town. He chose you to be a witness to a suicide. Carlotta's
story was part real, part invented to make you testify
that Madeleine wanted to kill herself. He knew of your
illness. He knew you'd never get up the stairs to the tower.
He planned it so well. He made no mistakes. I made a mistake.
I fell in love. That wasn't part of the plan. I'm still
in love with you. And I want you so to love me. If I had
the nerve, I'd stay and lie, hoping that I could make you
love me again as I am, for myself, and so forget
the other and forget the past. But I don't know whether
I have the nerve to try.
|
|
Ben-Hur
(1959)
Screenwriter(s): Karl Tunberg
SlaveMaster's
Judgment of Slave 41
Roman gallery slave master Quintus Arrius's (Jack
Hawkins) appraisal of rower Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston), referring
to him as Slave Number "41":
You have the spirit to fight back but the
good sense to control it. Your eyes are full of hate, Forty-One.
That's good. Hate keeps a man alive. It gives him strength.
|
|
Compulsion (1959)
Screenwriter(s): Richard Murphy
Closing
Argument Against Capital Punishment
Clarence Darrow-like attorney Jonathan Wilk's
(Orson Welles) 10-15 minute eloquent, closing argument against
the death penalty, considered the longest true monologue in
film history, to save two rich young law student-turned-thrill-killers
Artie Straus and Judd Steiner (Bradford Dillman and Dean Stockwell)
in their court trial. Rather than a contrived defense to prove
their innocence, he conceded that his clients were guilty and
instead made an impassioned plea against the state being able
to execute two youths regardless of the severity of their premeditated
crime
They say you can only get justice by shedding
their last drop of blood. Isn't a lifetime behind prison
bars enough for this mad act?...You hang these boys, it
will mean that in this land of ours, a court of law could
not help but bow down to public opinion.
|
|
Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959)
Screenwriter(s): Edward D. Wood, Jr.
Introduction
of a Film About Grave Robbers From Outer Space
The bizarre, rambling opening speech by psychic
Criswell (as himself) that introduced Ed Wood, Jr.'s infamous
film:
Greetings, my friends! We are all interested
in the future, for that is where you and I are going to
spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friends; future
events such as these will affect you in the future. You
are interested in the unknown, the mysterious, the unexplainable;
that is why you are here. And now for the first time we
are bringing to you the full story of what happened on
that faithful day. We are giving you all the evidence,
based only on the secret testimonies of the miserable souls
who survived this terrifying ordeal. The incidents, the
places, my friends, we can not keep this a secret any longer;
let us punish the guilty, let us reward the innocent. My
friends, can your heart stand the shocking facts about
the grave robbers from outer space?
|
|
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Screenwriter(s): Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond
Bad
Luck "Fuzzy End of the Lollipop" Speech
Band singer and ukulele player Sugar Kane/Kowalczyk
(Marilyn Monroe) gave a 'fuzzy end of the lollipop' speech
about bad luck, mostly with saxophone players, to Josephine
(Tony Curtis) in the Ladies' Room of the train during a late-night
party with the other girls. As she chipped away at a block
of ice, she described how she was an abused, melancholy alcoholic
running away from all-male bands. Sugar confessed that she
had always had bad luck with her lovers, when she easily turned
weak from music ("All they have to do is play eight bars
of 'Come to Me, My Melancholy Baby' and my spine turns to custard").
She talked to him about how she inevitably weakened and fell
for male saxophone players in male groups and then ended up
being dumped by them:
I'm not very bright, I guess...just dumb.
If I had any brains, I wouldn't be on this crummy train
with this crummy girls' band...I used to sing with male
bands but I can't afford it anymore...That's what I'm running
away from. I worked with six different ones in the last
two years. Oh, brother!...I can't trust myself. I have
this thing about saxophone players, especially tenor sax...I
don't know what it is, they just curdle me. All they have
to do is play eight bars of 'Come to Me, My Melancholy
Baby' and my spine turns to custard. I get goose pimply
all over and I come to 'em...every time...
That's why I joined this band. Safety first.
Anything to get away from those bums...You don't know what
they're like. You fall for 'em and you really love 'em -
you think this is gonna be the biggest thing since the Graf
Zeppelin - and the next thing you know, they're borrowing
money from you and spending it on other dames and betting
on horses...Then one morning you wake up, the guy is gone,
the saxophone's gone, all that's left behind is a pair of
old socks and a tube of toothpaste, all squeezed out. So
you pull yourself together. You go on to the next job, the
next saxophone player. It's the same thing all over again.
You see what I mean? Not very bright...
I can tell you one thing - it's not gonna happen
to me again - ever. I'm tired of getting the fuzzy end of
the lollipop.
|
|