Top Movie Quotes: 63-61

Continuing the countdown of the American Film Institute’s top 100 movie lines (2005 list).

The next 3 in the countdown appear below.

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63. "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. Aren't you?”

Spoken by Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin Braddock,

The Graduate, 1967

Movie trivia:

• Although Mrs. Robinson is supposed to be much older than Benjamin, Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman are just under six years apart in age. He looked naturally boyish, and she was made up to look older. For the same reason, Bancroft was only 8 years older than her "daughter" Katharine Ross, William Daniels (Mr. Braddock) only 10 years older than his "son" Hoffman.

• Mike Nichols said that the use of images to suggest Ben is "underwater" and out of his depth in life --e.g., the fish tank, the pool, the scuba outfit--was deliberate, although he didn't care if anyone noted this or not. He also emphasized the use of glass as barriers with people cut off from each other and the life around them.

• Mike Nichols has stated that the scene of Ben's seduction by Mrs. Robinson "was all about him being stalked....We talked about it being a jungle, and it was a jungle. There were all these plants and the Beverly Hills garden behind the glass that surrounded the sun porch. And we talked about her being the tiger in the jungle and she had a tiger-striped dress on and it was all built to be a trap, a tender trap. We wanted to find a way to express the fact that she was being provocative... And there was her leg and it was up and it seemed logical."

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62. “What a dump."

Spoken by Bette Davis as Rosa Moline,

Beyond the Forest, 1949

Movie trivia:

• Bette Davis was so unhappy about making this movie that she told Jack Warner: "If you want me to finish the film, let me out of my contract". Warner was only too happy to accept, because Davis was his highest-paid star and her last few movies had been unsuccessful.

• Bette Davis thought Joseph Cotten was all wrong for the role of her husband, saying: "He's adorable. What in the world would she leave him for?"

• In "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" Martha repeatedly asks George for the name of the movie where Bette Davis says, "What a dump!"

I confess that my only acquaintance with this line is from "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and that I have never seen the Bette Davis from whence it originates (I know that sentence sounds ponderous but that way I didn't finish on a preposition).  

Here's a link to a clip of the Bette Davis original line:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3zShjyaTr8

And here to the Liz Taylor version from "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWoAOohbr5M

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61. "Say 'hello' to my little friend!"

Spoken by Al Pacino as Al Capone,

Scarface, 1983

Movie trivia:

• When director Brian De Palma submitted the film to the MPAA, they gave it an "X rating". He then made some cuts and resubmitted it a second time; again the film was given an "X rating" (one of the reasons apparently being that Octavio the clown was shot too many times). He yet again made some further cuts and submitted it a third time; yet again it was given an "X". De Palma refused to cut the film any further to qualify it for an R. He and producer Martin Bregman arranged a hearing with the MPAA. They brought in a panel of experts, including real narcotics officers, who stated that the film was an accurate portrayal of real life in the drug underworld and should be widely seen. This convinced the 20 members of the ratings board to give the third submitted cut of the film an "R rating" by a vote of 18-2. However, De Palma surmised that if the third cut of the film was judged an "R" than the very first cut should have been an "R" as well. He asked the studio if he could release the first cut but was told that he couldn't. However since the Studio execs really didn't know the differences between the different cuts that had been submitted, De Palma released the first cut of the film to theaters anyway. It wasn't until the film had been released on videocassette months later that he confessed that he had released his first unedited and intended version of the film.

• Tony's "little friend" is an M16 assault rifle with an M203 40mm grenade launcher attached to the barrel.

• According to the "scorecard" feature on the Platinum Edition DVD, the word "fuck" and its derivatives are used 226 times for an average of 1.32 fucks per minute.