Show Boat
1936
Mother: Did you understand the moral of the play, my dear? Young Girl: Oh,sure, ma. Did you see how he kissed her? Mother: Yes! I hardly thought that was in the best of taste!
Joe: (singing) I gits weary / An' sick o' tryin' / I'm tired o' livin' / An' scared o' dyin' / But Ol' Man River / He jes' keeps rollin' along!
Steve: You wouldn't call a man a white man that had Negro blood in him, would you? The Sheriff: No, I wouldn't; not in Mississippi. One drop of Negro blood makes you a Negro in these parts!
Joe: I just shell them peas. Queenie: You ain't pickin' them up. Joe: No, but I could've if you didn't. I could do a lotta things if it was necessary. Queenie: Then why don't you? Joe: It ain't necessary.
Parthy: I could say that my name was Bonaparte, and show you Napoleon's tomb; that wouldn't make him my grandfather would it?
Backwoodsman: Seein' as how this is the first show we ever seed, you better give me and my friend Zebe here the best two seats in the the-ay-ter.
Frank: But this is Confederate money! Backwoodsman: That's the kind they use in the hills, it's as good as yours, ain't it? Frank: But this quarter - it don't ring! Backwoodsman: Whaddaya want for two bits - sleigh bells?
Magnolia: I never complained. I've lived like this half the time - washing clothes, cooking food over a gas jet, but I loved him. And if all that came with him, I was willing to take care of it. I thought he knew that.
Julie: (singing) Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, I gotta love one man till I die, Can't help lovin' dat man of mine.
Julie: (singing) Oh, I can't explain. It's surely not his brain That makes me thrill. I love him Because he's - I don't know... Because he's just my Bill!
Julie: (to Magnolia) Once a girl like you starts to love a man, she don't stop so easy. Magnolia: Well, couldn't you stop loving Steve if he treated you mean? Julie: No, honey, no matter what he did.
Sam, Doorman at Trocadero: (referring to the idea of keeping an eye on Julie) Say, I'm a doorman, not a nursemaid!
Parthy: We don't usually pick up actors off the wharves, but we can't be choosy right now! Gaylord Ravenal: Madam, your courtesy is only exceeded by your charm.
Jim Green: Julie, let's hear the new song, will you? Julie: (half-drunk) I don't feel like singin'. Jim Green: Oh, don't you? What DO you feel like doing, Duchess? Julie: I feel like going off on a tear!
Pete: (showing Julie's picture to the Sheriff) See that? The Sheriff: Why that's Miss Julie LaVerne, ain't it? Pete: Yeah, that's what she calls herself, ever since she got married to a white man! The Sheriff: What d'ya mean? Pete: Frank, come over here; I want you to hear this. You too, Ellie. The Sheriff: Sit down and explain yourself. And you make sure you know what you're talkin' about.
(Parthy has just gone to bed, and Cap'n Andy is flirting with three chorus girls in a hotel lobby) Chorus Girl: Pops, who was that? Cap'n Andy Hawks: That was Parthenia, my wife. Chorus Girl: Oh, my mistake! Cap'n Andy Hawks: No... mine!
Gaylord Ravenal: (saying farewell to Kim before he deserts her and Magnolia) And when I'm gone, you'll think of me, won't you? Kim as a child: Of course I will. And when you're gone, I always do what you tell me. Gaylord Ravenal: What was that? Kim as a child: Don't you remember? Make-believe! Gaylord Ravenal: (touched and on the verge of tears) That's right. I gave you a system for having everything you want.