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Continuing the countdown of the American Film Institute’s top 100 movie lines (from 2005, so more recent lines are not included), on their own at first to enable you to see if you can identify the film and the actor speaking the line, then followed by an identification and some trivia.
This week:
“It’s alive! It’s alive.”
“Well, nobody’s perfect.”
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49.
Line:
“It’s alive! It’s alive.”
Film:
Frankenstein
Year:
1931
Spoken by:
Colin Clive
Character:
Henry Frankenstein
Link to the line:
Original poster:
Trivia:
Expanded version of the above line:
Look! It's moving. It's alive. It's alive... It's alive, it's moving, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, IT'S ALIVE!
The Frankenstein monster in this film does not physically resemble the character in Mary Shelley's novel. Make-up artist Jack P. Pierce came up with innovations such as the monster's flat head, the bolts through the neck, the droopy eyelids, and the poorly-fitted suit. All future Frankenstein films have copied his model.
What are commonly called bolts on the neck of the monster are in reality electrodes.
The leading character of Mary Shelley's book, Dr. Victor Frankenstein, was renamed Henry because it was decided Victor would sound too "severe" and "unfriendly" to American audiences at the time.
The makeup used by Jack Pierce to create the monster is believed to have been based on Goya’s 1799 drawing The Chincillas, derived from a famous eighteenth century comedy. Goya depicts Spanish noblemen with padlocked brains. The figure on the left has many similarities to Boris Karloff’s monster:
There is a scene in the film where the monster plays with a little girl by a pond. She is throwing flowers in the pond, the monster emulates her and throws the girl into the pond, where she drowns. Audiences were not shown the giorl being thrown into the pond, only the people hunting down the monster fopr what he had done to the girl, resulting in audiences imagining something much worse.
Gallery:
While preparing to film the scene where the monster attacks Elizabeth, Mae Clarke admitted to Boris Karloff that she was worried that when she saw him in full makeup coming towards her, she might really be frightened. Karloff told her that throughout the scene he would wiggle his pinkie finger out of sight of the camera so that she could always see that, despite the horrific makeup, she could always see her friend Boris waving at her and letting her know that she was safe.
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48.
Line:
“Well, nobody’s perfect.”
Film:
Some Like It Hot
Year:
1959
Spoken by:
Joe E Brown
Character:
Osgood Fielding 111
Link to the line:
Original poster:
Trivia:
Two musos who witness a mob hit go on the lam disguised as women. Joe (Tony Curtis) falls for Sugar Kane Kowalczyk (Marilyn Monroe), whilst Jerry, disguised as Daphne (Jack Lemmon) is wooed by a millionaire, Osgood Fielding III. At the end of the film, Jerry comes up with a list of reasons why he and Osgood cannot get married, ranging from a smoking habit to infertility. Osgood dismisses them all; he loves Daphne and is determined to go through with the marriage. Exasperated, Jerry removes his wig and shouts, "I'm a man!". Osgood, unfazed, simply responds, "Well, nobody's perfect."
The film was produced in black and white, even though colour films were increasing in popularity. Despite Monroe's contract requiring colour film, she agreed to film in black and white after seeing that Curtis and Lemmon's makeup gave them a "ghoulish" appearance on colour film.
The film is also notable for featuring cross dressing, and for playing with the idea of homosexuality, which led to its being produced without approval from the Motion Picture Production Code. The Code had been gradually weakening in its scope during the early 1950s, due to increasing social tolerance for previously taboo topics in film, but it was still officially enforced. The overwhelming success of Some Like It Hot is considered one of the final nails in the coffin for the Hays Code.
Supposedly when Orry-Kelly was measuring all three stars for dresses, he half-jokingly told Marilyn Monroe, "Tony Curtis has a nicer butt than you," at which point Monroe pulled open her blouse and said, "Yeah, but he doesn't have tits like these!"
Marilyn Monroe required 47 takes to get "It's me, Sugar" correct, instead saying either "Sugar, it's me" or "It's Sugar, me". After take 30, Billy Wilder had the line written on a blackboard. Another scene required Monroe to rummage through some drawers and say "Where's the bourbon?" After 40 takes of her saying "Where's the whiskey?", 'Where's the bottle?", or "Where's the bonbon?", Wilder pasted the correct line in one of the drawers. After Monroe became confused about which drawer contained the line, Wilder had it pasted in every drawer. Fifty-nine takes were required for this scene and when she finally does say it, she has her back to the camera, leading some to wonder if Wilder finally gave up and had it dubbed.
The title of the film refers to the contemporary description of interpreting jazz music "hot" (improvisational) as opposed to "sweet" or "straight" (as written).
The now-famous closing line, "Nobody's perfect," was actually never intended to make the final film - it was apparently to be replaced by the writers once they thought of something they liked better. I.A.L. Diamond and Billy Wilder each credit the other for the genesis of the line. Wilder later fashioned his own epitaph with the similar line: "I'm a writer, but then nobody's perfect."
Gallery:
Some behind-the-scenes pics:
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