Summer and Smoke (1961)

Laurence Harvey: John Buchanan, Jr.

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Quotes 

• John Buchanan, Jr : You have a doppelganger, Miss Alma, and that doppelganger is *badly* irritated.

  Alma Winemiller : I have an irritated doppelganger? Oh, my goodness. How awful that sounds. What is it?

  John Buchanan, Jr : Oh, it's none of my business. You're not my patient.

  Alma Winemiller : Oh, now that's downright wicked of you to tell me I have something as awful-sounding as that and then not tell me what it is.

  John Buchanan, Jr : It means there's another person trapped inside you, Miss Alma, Another self. And that self is crying out to be freed.

• Alma Winemiller : I'd really begun to think you'd forgotten me.

  John Buchanan, Jr : Oh, I could never do that, Miss Alma.

  Alma Winemiller : I promised to write and keep you abreast of the events here at home. I did. You never answered.

• John Buchanan, Jr : Don't you know that you have the reputation for putting on airs a little? For gilding the lily.

• John Buchanan, Jr : Wear a hat with a plume!

  Alma Winemiller : But, I haven't got a hat with a plume!

  John Buchanan, Jr : Well, get one!

• John Buchanan, Jr : What is it that's troubling you, Nellie?

  Nellie Ewell : I don't know. I get these funny feelings.

  John Buchanan, Jr : Where and when?

  Nellie Ewell : Here. When I'm with a boy sometimes.

  John Buchanan, Jr : Oh?

  Nellie Ewell : Not really boys. Men. Especially if they're handsome.

  John Buchanan, Jr : And?

• John Buchanan, Jr : Sweet 16.

  Nellie Ewell : I'm 17, Dr. Johnny. Mother keeps me very well sheltered. Why - I really shouldn't tell you.

  John Buchanan, Jr : Oh, it's all right. I'm past 16, too.

  Nellie Ewell : Well, she wouldn't answer certain questions I'd asked, So I had to go to your father.

  John Buchanan, Jr : What kind of questions were they?

  Nellie Ewell : About the facts.

  John Buchanan, Jr : What facts?

  Nellie Ewell : The facts of life, naturally.

• John Buchanan, Jr : What are you trying to say, Miss Alma?

  Alma Winemiller : Why, I'm just reprimanding you, sir. Castigating you verbally, as it were.

• John Buchanan, Jr : Why is it that whenever we make love, you never make love without biting or scratching or leaving a little blood on me?

  Rosa Zacharias : Because I know I can't hold you and maybe I'm *angry*.

  [kiss] 

  John Buchanan, Jr : You're doing a better job of holding me than anyone else has.

  Rosa Zacharias : For how long, Johnny? One summer? Unless maybe I trap you.

  [pushes Johnny down, gets on top of him, gives him a long kiss] 

• John Buchanan, Jr : Unbutton your blouse.

  Alma Winemiller : Unbutton?

  John Buchanan, Jr : Your blouse. Here. Let me. Little pearl buttons.

• Alma Winemiller : Have you ever seen or looked at the picture of a gothic cathedral?

  John Buchanan, Jr : What about it?

  Alma Winemiller : How everything reaches up. How everything seems to be - straining for something out of the reach of stone or human fingers. Have you ever thought to look up, John? Look up. Who was it who said that beautiful thing: All of us are in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars?

  John Buchanan, Jr : Mr. Oscar Wilde.

  Alma Winemiller : Well, regardless of who said it, it's still true.

• John Buchanan, Jr : I'm hunting an elusive bird, Miss Alma. The bluebird of satisfaction.

  Alma Winemiller : Self-satisfaction?

  John Buchanan, Jr : Well, what other kind is there?

• John Buchanan, Jr : Miss Alma, did you know that time is one side of the four-dimensional continuum we're caught in?

  Alma Winemiller : What?

  John Buchanan, Jr : Did you know that the Magellanic clouds are 100,000 light years away from the earth? No? Well, that's something to think about when you start worrying about your heart, Miss Alma. That little red fist that keeps knocking, knocking against that big black door. Stop worrying about your heart, Miss Alma.

• John Buchanan, Jr : Some women are cold. Some women are what is called frigid.

  Alma Winemiller : Do I give that impression?

  John Buchanan, Jr : Yes. But under the surface, you have a lot of excitement - a great deal more than any other woman I've ever met. So much that you have to carry those sleepin' tablets with you. The question is why?

  [removes her hat] 

  John Buchanan, Jr : Miss Alma, Miss Alma, Miss Alma.

  [kiss] 

  Alma Winemiller : Not "Miss" anymore. Just Alma.

  John Buchanan, Jr : "Miss" suits you better, Miss Alma.

  [kiss] 

• Alma Winemiller : A minister's daughter is no different from any other young lady - who wishes to remember that she is a lady.

  John Buchanan, Jr : There are other things between a man and a woman besides respect. Did you know that, Miss Alma?

  Alma Winemiller : Yes.

  John Buchanan, Jr : There's such a thing as - conjugal relations.

  Alma Winemiller : Thank you for telling me that so frankly.

  John Buchanan, Jr : Some women surrender to the desires of their husbands - out of a sense of duty. Sheer duty. Go through life never knowing what a - what a beautiful, wonderful, exciting thing it can be.

  [kiss] 

  Alma Winemiller : But love is what you bring to it. There are some people who just bring their bodies. But there are some people - there are some women, John, who can bring their hearts to it, also. Who can bring their souls to it.

  [John lays Alma down and moves on top of her] 

  John Buchanan, Jr : Souls again? Your name is Alma. Alma is Spanish for soul.

  [kisses her forehead] 

  John Buchanan, Jr : Sometime, I'd like to show you. A chart of the human anatomy.

  [kisses her cheek] 

  John Buchanan, Jr : And maybe you can show me where that beautiful soul is located.

  [long kiss on her lips] 

  John Buchanan, Jr : You're trembling.

  Alma Winemiller : I can't help it.

• John Buchanan, Jr : It's no fun holding hands with gloves on, Miss Alma.

• John Buchanan, Jr : Has anyone ever slipped downhill as fast as I have this summer? Like a greased pig.

• John Buchanan, Jr : I'm glad you ran away from me that night at the casino.

  Alma Winemiller : What?

  John Buchanan, Jr : If I'd have made love to you, I'd have felt guilty - guilty of desecration. Yes, isn't that funny? I'm more afraid of your soul. than you're afraid of my body.

• John Buchanan, Jr : You talk about weakness. You think you're stuffed with rose leaves?

• John Buchanan, Jr : Quiet! Now, listen to the anatomy lecture. This is the brain - which is hungry for something called truth. And doesn't get much, but keeps on feeling hungry. This middle is the belly - which is hungry for food.

  [points to the crotch] 

  John Buchanan, Jr : And here - hungry for love. Because it is sometimes lonesome. I've fed all three, As much of all three as I wanted or as much as I could. You've fed none! Nothing! Well, maybe your belly a little, But love or truth - nothing but hand-me-down notions, attitudes, poses! You can go now. The anatomy lecture's over.

  Alma Winemiller : So that is your high conception of human desires? What you have here is not the anatomy of a beast, but a man. And I reject your opinion of what love is and the kind of truth you believe the brain to be seeking. There's something not on that chart.

  John Buchanan, Jr : You mean the part that Alma's Spanish for, do you?

  Alma Winemiller : Yes - the soul. It's not shown on the anatomy chart, But it's there just the same. It's somewhere - not seen, but there. And it is *that* that I loved you with, John.

• Alma Winemiller : Sometimes it takes a tragedy like this to make a weak person strong.

  John Buchanan, Jr : More platitudes. You white-blooded spinster. You so-right people. Pious, pompous mumblers. Preachers and preachers' daughters. All muffled up in worn-out magic!

• John Buchanan, Jr : He's dead. Dead of good works. Dead of a meddling telephone call. Dead by the hand of a hysterical old maid. Terrified of the animal in herself. Unable to bear the animal in others. He's dead.

• John Buchanan, Jr : I've settled with life on fairly acceptable terms. Isn't that all a reasonable person can ask?

  Alma Winemiller : No. I think he can ask for much more. I think he can ask for the coming true of his most improbable dreams.

  John Buchanan, Jr : It's best not to ask for too much.

  Alma Winemiller : Oh, I disagree. I say ask for all. And, of course, be prepared to get nothing.

• Nellie Ewell : Want a peppermint drop? They make your mouth sweet.

  John Buchanan, Jr : Oh.

  Nellie Ewell : I always take one when I hope to be kissed.

  John Buchanan, Jr : I might take you up on that.

  Nellie Ewell : Scared?

• John Buchanan, Jr : I thought it was a puritanical ice that glittered like flame. Now I believe it was flame, mistaken for ice.

• John Buchanan, Jr : Your eyes and your voice are the two most *beautiful* things I've ever known, and also the warmest. Although they don't seem to be set in your body at all.

• John Buchanan, Jr : At the moment, I'm a doctor on leave. On leave from ice packs, quinine and bedpans.