|
 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.
Key to Iconic Symbol:
 - Entries in Blockbuster Video's Top 20 Best Film Speeches and Monologues with ranking number (#)
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 |
The Seven Year Itch (1955)
 Summer
Rituals in NYC
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The opening monologue by the Narrator
(Joshua Logan) about the virtually identical summer rituals of the
Manhattan Indians and the Manhattanites 500 years later: ("...Every
July when the heat and the humidity on the island became unbearable,
they would send their wives and children away for the summer, up
the river to the cooler highlands, or if they could afford it, to
the seashore. The husbands of course, would remain behind on the
steaming island to attend to business - setting traps, fishing,
and hunting. Actually, our story has nothing whatsoever to do with
Indians. It plays 500 years later...") |
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| Virtues
of Nudity and Naturism |
A middle-aged waitress' (Doro Merande)
espousal of the virtues of nudity and naturism to Richard Sherman
(Tom Ewell): ("...Clothes are the enemy. Without clothes, there
would be no sickness, there'd be no war. I ask you, sir: Can you
imagine two great armies on the battlefield, no uniforms, completely
nude? No way of telling friend from foe, all brothers together") |
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Invasion of the Body Snatchers
(1956)
Haunting
Voice-Over Narration
|
Dr. Miles Bennell's (Kevin McCarthy)
haunting opening voice-over about how the town had changed, and
how his office had been besieged by patients in a near epidemic
during his absence: ("It started - for me, it started - last
Thursday, in response to an urgent message from my nurse, I hurried
home from a medical convention I'd been attending. At first glance,
everything looked the same. It wasn't. Something evil had taken
possession of the town...") |
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Frantic
"You're Next!" Warning |
The doctor's equally
haunting frantic, panicked highway rant as he desperately tries
to warn motorists of the omnipresent danger -- especially after
seeing a flatbed truck loaded with alien pods: ("Help! Wait!
Stop. Stop and listen to me!...These people who're coming after
me are not human!...Look, you fools. You're in danger. Can't you
see? They're after you. They're after all of us. Our wives, our
children, everyone. They're here already. YOU'RE NEXT!") |
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It Conquered the World (1956)
Eulogy
About Man's Place in the Universe
|
In Roger Corman's sci-fi/horror B-movie,
Dr. Paul Nelson's (Peter Graves) surprisingly potent eulogy for
Dr. Tom Anderson (Lee Van Cleef) and his thoughts on Man's place
in the universe in a closing montage: ("He learned almost too
late that man is a feeling creature... and because of it, the greatest
in the universe. He learned too late for himself that men have to
find their own way, to make their own mistakes. There can't be any
gift of perfection from outside ourselves. And when men seek such
perfection... they find only death... fire... loss... disillusionment...
the end of everything that's gone forward. Men have always sought
an end to the toil and misery, but it can't be given, it has to
be achieved. There is hope, but it has to come from inside, from
Man himself") |
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Moby Dick (1956)
The
Battle of Good vs. Evil
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In Nantucket before sailing, Father
Mapple's (Orson Welles) long, stirring, ranting sermon about the
battle of good vs. evil in the soul of man, with nautical metaphors,
reference to St. Paul, and inspired by the Jonah and the whale tale:
("...Jonah did the Almighty's bidding. And what was that, Shipmates?
TO PREACH THE TRUTH IN THE FACE OF FALSEHOOD. Now Shipmates, woe
to him who seeks to pour oil on the troubled waters when God has
brewed them into a gale. Yea, woe to him who, as the Pilot Paul
has it, while preaching to others is himself a castaway. But delight
is to him who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth
stands forth his own inexorable self, who destroys all sin, though
he pluck it out from the robes of senators and judges! And Eternal
Delight shall be his, who coming to lay him down can say:
- O Father, mortal or immortal, here I die.
I have driven to be thine,
more than to be this world's or mine own,
yet this is nothing
I leave eternity to Thee.
For what is man that he should live out the lifetime
of his God?") |
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The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Welcome
to British POWs
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Japanese Colonel Saito's (Sessue Hayakawa)
threatening, ominous address to recently-captured British POWs in
his jungle camp: ("...A word to you about escape. There is
no barbed wire, no stockade, no watchtower. They are not necessary.
We are an island in the jungle. Escape is impossible. You would
die. Today you rest. Tomorrow you begin. Let me remind you of General's...motto:...
'Be happy in your work.' Dismissed.") |
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The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
"I
Still Exist!" Speech
|
Scott Carey's (Grant Williams) final
narrated soliloquy as he shrinks out of sight: ("So close --
the infinitesimal and the infinite. But suddenly, I knew they were
really the two ends of the same concept. The unbelievably small
and the unbelievably vast eventually meet, like the closing of a
gigantic circle. I looked up, as if somehow I would grasp the heavens
... the universe ... worlds beyond number ... God's silver tapestry
spread across the night. And in that moment, I knew the answer to
the riddle of the infinite. I had thought in terms of Man's own
limited dimension. I had presumed upon Nature. That existence begins
and ends is Man's conception, not Nature's. And I felt my body dwindling,
melting, becoming nothing. My fears melted away, and in their place
came -- acceptance. All this vast majesty of creation -- it had
to mean something. And then I meant something too. Yes, smaller
than the smallest, I meant something too. To God, there is no zero.
I STILL EXIST!")
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Sweet Smell of Success
(1957)
Hunsecker's
Degrading of Falco
|
Powerful columnist J. J. Hunsecker's
(Burt Lancaster) critical, vitriolic and degrading description of
press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis): ("Mr. Falco, let it
be said at once, is a man of forty faces, not one. None too pretty
and all deceptive. You see that grin? That's the, uh, that's the
charming street-urchin face. It's part of his helpless act..."), before challenging him with the famous line: "Match
me, Sidney". |
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| Farewell
to a Possessive Brother |
Susan Hunsecker's (Susan Harrison)
quiet, firm farewell to her powerful but possessive brother J. J.,
who tried to end her relationship with jazz musician Steve Dallas
(Martin Milner), before she walks into the bright sun as an independent
woman: ("I'd rather be dead than living with you. For all the
things you've done, J.J., I know I should hate you. But I don't.
I pity you") |
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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
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?") |
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The Last Hurrah (1958)
Stealing
the Food of One's Employer
|
Aging, Eastern city Irish-American
political boss Mayor Skeffington's (Spencer Tracy) story, told to
his idealistic nephew Adam Caulfield (Jeffrey Hunter), a newspaper
reporter, about how his Irish immigrant mother, when working as
a maid, was fired for stealing her employer's food |
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Vertigo
(1958)
"You
Found Me" Letter
|
Judy's/Madeleine's (Kim Novak) letter
written to Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart), and read in voice-over:
("Dearest Scottie. And so you found me. This is the moment
that I 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...") |
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Ben-Hur
(1959)
SlaveMaster's
Judgment of Slave 41
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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.") |
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Compulsion (1959)
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 concedes that his clients are guilty and instead makes
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") |
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Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959)
Introduction
of a Film About Grave Robbers From Outer Space
|
The bizarre, rambling opening speech
by psychic Criswell (as himself) that introduces 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?") |
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Some Like It Hot (1959)
Bad
Luck "Fuzzy End of the Lollipop" Speech
|
Sugar Kane's (Marilyn Monroe) 'fuzzy
end of the lollipop' speech about bad luck, mostly with saxophone
players: ("You fall for 'em. You really love 'em, you think
'This is going to be the biggest thing since the Graf Zeppelin.'
The next thing you know...") |
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Elmer Gantry (1960)
"Love
is the Mornin' and the Evenin' Star"
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Huckster Elmer Gantry (Burt Lancaster) in a speakeasy
demonstrates his high-energy eloquence with words in this impromptu
Christmas sermon while collecting from patrons: ("...You
think, uh, religion is for suckers and easy marks and molly-coddlers,
eh? You think Jesus was some kind of a sissy, hey? Well, let me
tell you, Jesus wouldn't be afraid to walk into this joint or
any other speakeasy to preach the gospel. Jesus had guts. He wasn't
afraid of the whole Roman army. (Pointing to a picture) Think
that quarterback's hot stuff? Well, let me tell you, Jesus would
have made the best little All-American quarterback in the history
of football. Jesus was a real fighter - the best little scrapper,
pound for pound, you ever saw. And why, gentlemen? Love, gentlemen.
Jesus had love in both fists! And what is love? Love is the mornin'
and the evenin' star. It shines on the cradle of the Babe. Hear
ye, sinners. Love is the inspiration of poets and philosophers.
Love is the voice of music. I'm talkin' about divine love - not
carnal love") |
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| "You're
All Sinners" |
Gantry turns into an evangelizing, Bible Belt
revivalist preacher with tremendous showmanship, and rolled up
shirt-sleeves. He preaches hellfire and brimstone, thumps his
Bible, performs miracles, and leads repentant sinners to conversion
in the Bible Belt tent meetings: ("Sin. Sin, Sin. You're
all sinners. You're all doomed to perdition. You're all goin'
to the painful, stinkin', scaldin', everlastin' tortures of a
fiery hell, created by God for sinners, unless, unless, unless
you repent" - also his preaching against the sin of boozing: "As long as I got a foot, I'll kick booze. And, as long as I got a fist, I'll punch it. And, as long as I got a tooth, I'll bite it. And, when I'm old and gray and toothless and bootless, I'll gum it till I go to heaven and booze goes to hell") |
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BEST FILM SPEECHES AND MONOLOGUES