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Jonathan: Don't worry. Some of the best movies are made by people working together who hate each other's guts.
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'Gaucho': Don't talk like that about Georgia - or Jonathan. He's a great man!
Lila: Hah hah. There are no great men, buster! There's only men!
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'Gaucho': To give truth to a performance, there's nothing like love.
Georgia: Love is for the very young.
Lila: Love is for the birds!
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Harry Pebbel: I've told you a hundred times. I don't want to win awards. Give me pictures that end with a kiss and black ink on the books.
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Jonathan: If you dream, dream big.
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Georgia: Jonathan, will you marry me?
Jonathan: Not even a little bit.
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Rosemary: James Lee, you have a very naughty mind... I'm happy to say.
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Jonathan: Because he was a drunk, you're a drunk. Because he loved women, you're a tramp. But you forget one thing: he did it with style.
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Georgia: People who knew my father give me the extra work and a line to say every now and then. I drink what I want, I see who I want. Who knows? Someday I may even get married, to a nice, upright, assistant's assistant.
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Jonathan: [to Georgia] Well, congratulations, you've got it all laid out for you, so you can wallow in pity for yourself. The betrayed woman. The wounded doe with all the drivel that goes with it going through your mind right now. Oh, he doesn't love me at all. He was lying. All those lovely moments, those tender words... He's lying. He's cheap and cruel. Well, maybe I like Lilas. Maybe I like to be cheap once in a while! Maybe everyone does, or don't you remember?
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Lila: I forgot to tell you, Georgia. I saw the picture. Thought you were swell.
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James Lee: My first novel, on which I had labored for seven years, was just out. Surprisingly for a scholarly work on early Virginia, it was doing a brisk nationwide sale - possibly because it was liberally peppered with sex. Because, after all, early Virginia was liberally peppered with sex. Could that have been why Hollywood bought it?
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James Lee: I started to work.
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Jonathan: [whistles] Gentlemen! There seems to be an honest difference of opinion.
Harry Pebbel: There is.
Jonathan: It looks as though we'll have to make a compromise.
Harry Pebbel: You bet we will.
Jonathan: The compromise, gentlemen, is this: Harry, shut your penny-pinching mouth and build him his platform!
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James Lee: Yes, this is James Lee Bartlow... Paris?... Mr. Shields!... is Mr. Shields paying for this call?... All right, put him on... Hello, Jonathan? Drop dead.
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Jonathan: Look. Put five men dressed like cats on the screen, what do they look like?
Fred: Like five men dressed like cats.
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Jonathan: When an audience pays to see a picture like this, what are they paying for?
Fred: To get the pants scared off of 'em.
Jonathan: And what scares the human race more than any other single thing?
[crosses to wall switch and turns out the light]
Fred: The dark!
Jonathan: Of course. And why? Because the dark has a life of its own. In the dark, all sorts of things come alive.
Fred: Suppose... suppose we never do show the cat men. Is that what you're thinking.
Jonathan: Exactly.
Fred: No cat men!
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Fred: [after Jonathan's father dies broke and disgraced] Are you going to change your name?
Jonathan: Change it? I'm gonna ram the name of Shields down their throats!
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Fred: Jonathan is more than a man, he's an experience. And he's habit-forming. If they could ever bottle him, he'd outsell ginger ale.
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Jonathan: [to Georgia about her screen test] And I know I'm right about you. I gave you no help. The test was atrocious, but bad as it was, it proved one thing: when you're on the screen, no matter who you're with, what you're doing, the audience is looking at YOU. That's star quality... Lorrison quality.
The Bad and the Beautiful Quotes
Extended Reading
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Language: English Release date: February 9, 1953