The death of John Barrymore made us think again for a minute of F. Scott Fitzgerald. They were very different men: a lot alike. Un...doubtedly, they both worked hard, but there was the same sense of a difficult technique easily mastered (too easily perhaps); there was the same legend of great physical magnetism, working incessantly for its own destruction; there was the same need for public confession, either desperate or sardonic; and there was always a good deal of time wasted, usually accompanied by the sweet smell of grapes. We have seen Scott Fitzgerald when everything he said was a childish parody of his own talent, and the last time we saw John Barrymore he was busy with a sick and humiliating parody of his. The similarity probably ends there. Up to the day he died, we believe, Fitzgerald still kept his original and eager devotion to his profession, along, we like to think, with the strict confidence that he might still achieve the strict perfection that was so often almost his. Barrymore, on the other hand, had given up long ago.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It shrinks my liver, doesn't it? It pickles my kidneys. Yeah. But what does it do to my mind? It tosses the sandbags overboard so ...the balloon can soar. Suddenly, I'm above the ordinary. I'm competent, supremely competent. I'm walking a tightrope over Niagara Falls. I'm one of the great ones. I'm Michelangelo molding the beard of Moses. I'm Van Gogh, painting pure sunlight. I'm Horowitz playing the "Emperor Concerto." I'm John Barrymore, before the movies got him by the throat.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
For an actress to be a success, she must have the face of Venus, the brains of a Minerva, the grace of Terpsichore, the memory of ...a Macaulay, the figure of Juno, and the hide of a rhinoceros.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
That big gun in your hand makes you look grown up--you think! I'll bet you spend hours posing in front of a mirror holding it, try...ing to look tough!... You scum!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Johnny Rocco: Yeah, yeah, that's me. Sure, I was all of those things. And more! When Rocco talked everybody shut up and listened! ...What Rocco said went! Nobody was as big as Rocco! It'll be like that again only more so. I'll be back up there one of these days, and then you're really gonna see something! James Temple (with contempt): If the time ever comes when your kind can walk a city street in daylight with nothing to fear from the people.... Frank McCloud: The time has come, Mr. Temple. It's here.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Flaemmchen: Did you ever see a stenographer with a decent frock on? The Baron: I have indeed.... Flaemmchen: One she'd bought herself? The Baron: Oh, I see what you mean.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Grusinskaya: You must go now. The Baron: I'm not going. You know I'm not going. Oh, please let me stay.... Grusinskaya: But I want to be alone. The Baron: That isn't true. You don't want to be alone. You were in despair just now. I can't leave you now. You mustn't cry anymore. You must forget. Let me stay for just a little while. Ahh, please let me stay. Grusinskaya: For just a minute then.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »