MovieChat Forums > North by Northwest (1959) Discussion > "You won't be satisfied until I play dea...

"You won't be satisfied until I play dead........"


"......your very next role. You'll be quite convincing I assure you"

This has to be one of the greatest exchanges ever in any film. In fact the whole auction house scene is one of the best scenes every in any film

"Looks like we're shy one horse". "No. You brought two too many"

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Such a prophetic line, also. In his next role, he does play dead (in the restaurant) and he does convince Van Damm.

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"With such expert playacting you make this very room a theater."

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It all ties together rather nicely, doesn't it? Theater, role-playing, performance.

Plus, Vandamm's "your very next role" punch-line comes off a longer speech about the various roles that "Kaplan"(Thornhill) has played, including "the peevish lover, stung by jealousy and betrayal." Why, Vandamm could have been a screenwriter! Not to mention, Vandamm suggests that Kaplan "should get a little less training from the CIA , and more from the Actor's Studio." Actor's Studio alumni Eva Marie Saint and Martin Landau are standing right there!

What I also like about this exchange:

Grant: I suppose the only role that will satisfy you is when I play dead.
Mason: Your very next role. You'll be quite convincing, I assure you.

IS

a super-elegant version of what a "modern-day" villain would say:

Mason: You're DEAD, blanker-blanker, you hear me? DEAD!!

Same effect, same meaning, just much more charming.

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I love the similar exchange in Goldfinger;

007: You expect me to talk?

Goldfinger: No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!

What I Love about Gert Frobe's delivery of that line is how he can just barely stifle his laughter.

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007: You expect me to talk?

Goldfinger: No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!

What I Love about Gert Frobe's delivery of that line is how he can just barely stifle his laughter.

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Possibly the most famous hero/villain exchange in Bond...and it plays at a Hitchcockian level of sophistication. Alas, too often the Connery Bonds had things like Bond firing a scuba spear gun spear into an adversary and saying "He certainly got the point."

Weird: I rather find the "theme" of that Goldfinger/Bond exchange to be echoed years later when psycho mobster Michael Madsen tells a hostage policeman in "Reservoir Dogs": "I'm not going to torture you to get information from you. I don't need information from you. I'm just going to torture you because I want to torture you."

(All paraphrased.)

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Some friend often quoted a line from a James Bond character(villain or Q or M, I don't know) as follows: "Your powers of observation do you credit, Mr. Bond."

I use this on people as a joke when they notice something I don't.

I don't know if the line is really from a Bond movie or not.

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Thats so meta :) !

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