Lady with Red Hair (1940)

Claude Rains: David Belasco

Quotes 

• David Belasco : The scene is finished... either applaud or get out of the way.

• Mrs. Leslie Carter : Actors aren't supposed to be human beings, are they? They're strange animals always on exhibition.

  David Belasco : Caroline!

  Mrs. Leslie Carter : Why people love to admire them as they would a good bit of horseflesh, or a brilliant peacock spreading its feathers.

• David Belasco : How do you do, Mrs. Carter? Many young beginners come to me for advice. I tell them all the same thing... Work, work, work. See good plays and well trained actors, especially mine. Keep your health, keep your figure, hang onto your money. And while you have it, don't lend it to actors. That covers all - I think. This has been a pleasure, Mrs. O'Conner.

• Mrs. Leslie Carter : I should be best in comedy; but, that remains with you. You see, Mr. Fairchild's sufficiently interested to finance the whole arrangement.

  David Belasco : Has he seen you act?

  Mrs. Leslie Carter : Oh, I never have! But, I have the one great essential.

  David Belasco : Genius.

  Mrs. Leslie Carter : Determination!

• David Belasco : I found a new play for you Caroline. A great play.

  Mrs. Dudley : My daughter isn't interested.

  David Belasco : Not interested? Since when? But, of course, she's interested. Sit down. Let me tell you. It's perfect for you! You're a poor little French peasant. But, beautiful! Oh, so beautiful! And you're in love - with a young student. Romance. Beautiful. Exquisite romance! Act 2. Paris. Wonderful evenings on Montparnasse. Watching the stars flicker over the spires of Sacré-Coeur. Ecstasy! Sheer ecstasy! Oh, and then the lights of Paris dazzle you. And you want to become a part of them. You do a foolish, tragic thing.

• David Belasco : I want you to read some lines for me.

  Mrs. Peabody : I will not. I'm a cook!

  David Belasco : How'd you know you're not an actress?

  Mrs. Peabody : I've seen some of yours. And I'm not that kind of a cook!

• David Belasco : The words don't matter. Give me the gay spirit. Now, come on! Again, again.

• David Belasco : Stop it! Stop it! You're just a clumsy clothes horse with a million elbows.

  Mrs. Leslie Carter : What's wrong with my elbows?

  David Belasco : Everything! You act with them, think with them, talk with them. Pretty soon you'll be sticking them in the eyes of the audience.

• David Belasco : Why can't you relax?

  Mrs. Leslie Carter : Well, how can anyone relax with you?

  David Belasco : You could relax in an earthquake if you'd only do what I tell you.

• David Belasco : Don't be frightened. Drop everything. Your parts. Your arms. Your legs. Your brain. What ever you got. Now, may I? Relax! That's it. That's it. Now, just remember, you're suspended by a rope in the center of your head to the ceiling. You're walking on air. You're not self-conscious. You're not awkward now, are you? You can be frightened to death; but, you can make an entrance and hold any audience. They can hiss at you, yell at you, throw dead cats at you; but, they can't destroy your poise! If you just remember you're suspended from the ceiling by the red hair of your head.

• David Belasco : Why do these places always smell either of cabbage or cauliflower?

• David Belasco : Where are you going?

  Mrs. Leslie Carter : To get married and then to Scranton with my husband.

  David Belasco : Married? Husband? Scranton? Scranton! I might have expected this. Good-bye!

• David Belasco : Get this into your head: there's nothing so selfish as art - and to succeed you have to sacrifice everything to it! Every interests in friends, home life, domesticity, love. You've got to be selfish! Self-centered. Hard. Can you do it?

• David Belasco : Did you imagine, my dear child, that you are pleading with your lover?

  Mrs. Leslie Carter : I was trying to.

  David Belasco : I beg to contradict you, Mrs. Carter. You were trying to render she is only a bird in a gilded cage and you are doing that atrociously!

  Mrs. Leslie Carter : Oh, I don't know what I'm doing now!

  David Belasco : Well, so long as we're honest about it, there's hope!

• David Belasco : Please try it again and suffer. Suffer even more than I am suffering now.

• David Belasco : Caroline, you've conquered New York. That means you've conquered the world. You can have anything you want.

• David Belasco : That theatre's an illusion, Madam. It's best for those outside not to know too much about it.

  London Party Guest : But, it's so fascinating. For instance, where do you get your wonderful ideas?

  David Belasco : They usually emerge like mermaids out of a sea of perspiration.

• David Belasco : When I found you on my doorstep like a drowned puppy in the rain, what landed you there? Genius? Or, was it cheap emotionalism? Unbridled temper? And the assurance of a foolish young woman. I took these very qualities that had made your life a failure. I gave them discipline, balance, purpose, and turned them into an art - until the whole world could see the *genius* that I had built up in you. And now you're flaunting it in my face.

  Mrs. Leslie Carter : So, I was just part of your puppet show, was I? And you pulled the strings.

  David Belasco : Yes. I pulled the strings.