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 Introduction:
Film speeches are normally delivered orally and directed at an audience
of three or more people, although there can be exceptions. They are
usually persuasive-type speeches, either designed to promote or to dissuade,
and they are highly quotable.
Greatest Film Speeches and Monologues: Video store
chain Blockbuster Video (in the UK) held a series of polls in
late 2003 with its customers to determine the 20 Greatest Film Speeches
and Monologues in cinematic history. These are marked in the following
lists with this symbol --  and
by their original ranking number in the top 20. Although
there were some excellent choices in their poll, the results almost
completely ignored early films, and entirely disregarded films with
speeches made by female characters. Greatest Films has provided
this expanded listing of Best Film Speeches and Monologues here
of deserving, best film monologues and speeches.
Note: The films that are marked with
a yellow star 
are the films that "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the 100
Greatest Films.
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Film and Brief Title |
Speech |
Example |
Stage Door (1937)
 "The
Calla Lilies Are in Bloom Again"
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Rich/refined actress Terry Randall's
(Katharine Hepburn) performance on stage after her friend Kaye's
(Andrea Leeds) suicide: ("The calla lilies are in bloom again.
Such a strange flower, suitable to any occasion. I carried them
on my wedding day, and now I place them here in memory of something
that has died...Have you gathered here to mourn, or are you here
to bring me comfort?...(She touches the ring on her finger given
to her by Kaye) I've learned something about love that I never knew
before. That I never knew before. You speak of love when it's too
late. Help should come to people when they need it. Why are we always
so helpful to each other when it's no longer any use?...This is
my home. This is where I belong. Love was in this house once, and
for me it will always be here, nowhere else...One should always
listen closely when people say goodbye because sometimes they're,
they're really saying farewell"); this speech was followed
by her equally moving curtain call eulogy speech to modestly give
tribute to Kaye |
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Holiday (1938)
Why
Be a Drunk
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Sweet-tempered Edward 'Ned' Seton (Lew
Ayres) explanation to his eccentric sister Linda (Katharine Hepburn)
about why he's a drunk alcoholic: ("...Well, to begin with,
it brings you to life. And after a while, you begin to know all
about it. You feel...I don't know...important. (That must be good.)
It is. And then pretty soon, the game starts...A swell game. A terribly
exciting game. You see, you think clear and crystal, but every move,
every sentence is a problem. That gets pretty interesting. (You
get beaten though, don't you?) Sure, but that's good, too. Then
you don't mind anything, not anything at all. Then you sleep. A
long while, as long as you last... (Where do you end up?) Where
does anybody end up? You die. And that's all right, too...") |
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Dark Victory (1939)
Last
Dying Words
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Dying Judith Traherne's (Bette Davis)
comforting of her best friend Ann King (Geraldine Fitzgerald): ("Don't,
Ann. I'm happy, really I am. Now let me see, is there anything else?
Oh yes, one more thing. When Michael runs Challenger in the National,
oh, and he'll win - I'm sure he'll win - have a party and invite
all our friends. Now let me see, silly old Alec, if he's back from
Europe, Colonel Mantle and old Carrie and, oh yes, and don't forget
dear old Dr. Parsons. Give them champagne and be gay. Be very very
gay. I must go in now. Ann, please understand, no one must be here,
no one - I must show him I can do it alone. Perhaps it will help
him over some bad moments to remember it. Ann, be my best friend.
Go now. Please"); she then tells her maid Martha to leave her
to die in peace alone - with dignity: ("Is that you, Martha?
I don't want to be disturbed") |
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Gone
With the Wind (1939)
"I'll
Never Be Hungry Again!"
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One of the most famous, iconic speeches
in film history, Scarlett O'Hara's (Vivien Leigh) defiant vow to
survive, silhouetted against a sunset: ("As God is my witness,
as God is my witness, they're not going to lick me! I'm going to
live through this, and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry
again - no, nor any of my folks! If I have to lie, steal, cheat,
or kill, as God is my witness, I'll never
be hungry again.") |
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| "Tomorrow
Is Another Day!" |
The similarly famous closing monologue,
Scarlett's reaction to Rhett Butler's (Clark Gable) dismissive departure:
("Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn") after she begs
him to stay, while being reminded by voices of Tara's power: ("I
can't let him go. I can't. There must be some way to bring him back.
Oh I can't think about this now! I'll go crazy if I do! I'll think
about it tomorrow. But I must think about it. I must think about
it. What is there to do? What is there that matters?... Tara!...Home.
I'll go home, and I'll think of some way to get him back! After
all, tomorrow is another day!") |
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Mr.
Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Senate
Filibuster Speech
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Senator Jefferson Smith's (James Stewart)
filibuster speech with his exposition on moral integrity, American
democracy, and 'lost causes' before collapsing to the Senate floor:
("Great principles don't get lost once they come to light.
They're right here. You just have to see them again...You think
I'm licked. You all think I'm licked. Well, I'm not licked. And
I'm going to stay right here and fight for this lost cause, even
if this room gets filled with lies like these; and the Taylors and
all their armies come marching into this place. Somebody will listen
to me.") |
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The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Cowardly
Lion's Words on Courage
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The Cowardly Lion's (Bert Lahr) speech/song
on courage: ("What makes a King out of a slave? Courage! What
makes the flag on the mast to wave? Courage! What makes the elephant
charge his tusk in the misty mist, or the dusky dusk? What makes
the muskrat guard his musk? Courage! What makes the Sphinx the Seventh
Wonder? Courage! What makes the dawn come up like thunder? Courage!
What makes the Hottentot so hot? What puts the ape in ape-ricot?
What have they got that I ain't got?"); when the others reply
"Courage!", he sheepishly quips: "You can say that
again!" |
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Presentation
of Gifts by the Wizard |
The Wizard's (Frank Morgan) presentation
of gifts to the Scarecrow, Tin Woodsman, and the Cowardly Lion:
("Why, anybody can have a brain. That's a very mediocre commodity.
Every pusillanimous creature that crawls on the Earth or slinks
through slimy seas has a brain...", and "for meritorious
conduct, extraordinary valor, conspicuous bravery against Wicked
Witches, I award you the Triple Cross. You are now a member of the
Legion of Courage," and "Back where I come from, there
are men who do nothing all day but good deeds. They are called phila-,
er, er, philanth-er, yes, er, good-deed doers, and their hearts
are no bigger than yours. But they have one thing you haven't
got - a testimonial") |
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"There's
No Place Like Home" |
Dorothy Gale's (Judy Garland) "there's
no place like Home" speech upon returning from Oz: ("But
it wasn't a dream. It was a place. And you and you and you...and
you were there. But you couldn't have been could you? No, Aunt Em,
this was a real truly live place and I remember some of it wasn't
very nice, but most of it was beautiful -- but just the same all
I kept saying to everybody was "I want to go home," and
they sent me home! Doesn't anybody believe me? But anyway, Toto,
we're home! Home. And this is my room, and you're all here and I'm
not going to leave here ever, ever again. Because I love you all.
And... Oh Auntie Em! There's no place like home!") |
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Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940)
Lincoln-Douglas
Debates: Douglas
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The long speech by Presidential candidate
Stephen Douglas (Gene Lockhart) during the famed Lincoln-Douglas
debate: ("Like Brutus in Shakespeare’s immortal tragedy, Mr.
Lincoln is an honorable man. But also like Brutus, he is adept at
the art of inserting daggers between an opponent’s ribs just when
said opponent least expects it. Behold me, ladies and gentleman,
I am covered with scars") |
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Lincoln-Douglas
Debates: Lincoln |
Abraham Lincoln's (Raymond Massey) rebuttal
to Douglas: ("As a nation, we began by declaring 'all men are
created equal.' There was no mention of any exception to that rule
in the Declaration of Independence. But we now practically
read it 'all men are created equal except Negroes.' If we are to
accept this doctrine of race or class discrimination, what is to
stop us in the future from decreeing 'all men are created equal
except for Negroes, foreigners, Catholics, Jews,' or just 'poor
people'"?) |
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Foreign Correspondent (1940)
"Call
to Arms" Exhortation to a "Sleeping" America
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Johnnie Jones's (Joel McCrea) famous
"call to arms" closing monologue to a "sleeping"
America: ("It's death coming to London...It's too late to do
anything here now except stand in the dark and let them come. It's
as if the lights were all out everywhere, except in America. Keep
those lights burning there! Cover them with steel! Ring them with
guns! Build a canopy of battleships and bombing planes around them!
Hello, America! Hang on to your lights. They're the only lights
left in the world") |
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The
Grapes of Wrath (1940)
"I'll
Be There"
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Tom Joad's (Henry Fonda) "I'll be
there" farewell speech to his mother Ma Joad (Jane Darwell):
("...I'll be all around in the dark. I'll be ever'-where -
wherever you can look. Wherever there's a fight so hungry people
can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy,
I'll be there. I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad - I'll
be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry an' they know supper's
ready. An' when the people are eatin' the stuff they raise, and
livin' in the houses they build - I'll be there, too.") |
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The Great Dictator (1940)
"Look
Up, Hannah" Democracy Speech
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Adenoid Hynkel's (Charlie Chaplin) passionate,
out-of-character "Look up, Hannah" democracy speech in
the film's closing, to confront the imminent threat to world civilization
from the Nazis: ("You, the people, have the power to make this
life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure.
Then in the name of democracy, let us use that power. Let us all
unite....Look up, Hannah! The clouds are lifting! The sun is breaking
through! We are coming out of the darkness into the light!...") |
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Knute Rockne: All American
(1940)
"Win
Just One for the Gipper" Half-time Pep Talk
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Coach Knute Rockne's (Pat O'Brien) inspirational
halftime pep-talk to his players, quoting a popular teammate,
George Gipp (Ronald Reagan), who died young of pneumonia: ("None
of you ever knew George Gipp. It was long before your time. But
you all know what a tradition he is at Notre Dame. And the last
thing he said to me: 'Rock,' he said, 'sometime, when the team
is up against it, and the breaks are beating the boys, tell 'em
to go out there with all they got and win just one for the Gipper'")
[This speech was memorably parodied in Airplane! (1980),
when Dr. Rumack (Leslie Nielsen) exorted Ted Striker (Robert Hays):
"And win just one for the Zipper!", while accompanied
by the Notre Dame fight song] |
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Rebecca (1940)
Opening
Voice-Over
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One of the most famous opening monologues
in film history, delivered (in voice-over) by the second Mrs. de
Winter (Joan Fontaine): ("Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley
again. It seemed to me I stood by the iron gate leading to the drive,
and for a while I could not enter for the way was barred to me.
Then, like all dreamers, I was possessed of a sudden with supernatural
powers and passed like a spirit through the barrier before me. The
drive wound away in front of me, twisting and turning as it had
always done. But as I advanced, I was aware that a change had come
upon it. Nature had come into her own again, and little by little
had encroached upon the drive with long tenacious fingers, on and
on while the poor thread that had once been our drive...") |
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Urging Her to Commit Suicide |
The chilling scene in which Mrs. Danvers
(Judith Anderson) urged the second Mrs. de Winter (Joan Fontaine)
to commit suicide by jumping from the second story window: ("Why
don't you go? Why don't you leave Manderley? He doesn't need you.
He's got his memories. He doesn't love you - he wants to be alone
again with her. You've
nothing to stay for. You've nothing to live for really, have you?
Look down there. It's easy, isn't it? Why don't you? Why don't you?
Go on. Go on. Don't be afraid!") |
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BEST FILM SPEECHES AND MONOLOGUES