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The Long, Hot Summer (1958)
In Martin Ritt's sultry southern romantic melodrama
that adapted a melange of William Faulkner stories - a film that
was made during the passionate courtship of the two main performers
(in their first film together before their marriage in the same year
as the film's release):
- the opening scene, introducing the character of
sexy, determined and virile drifter-sharecropper Ben Quick (Paul
Newman), an arsonist suspect, who was hitchhiking when he was picked
up in a convertible by Clara Varner (Joanne Woodward) and her sister-in-law
Eula (Lee Remick), and taken to Frenchman's Bend, Mississippi;
as he left their car, Eula mentioned to Ben how they were related
to the town's influential patriarch Will Varner (Orson Welles): "We
two girls most particularly belong to Varner"
- after becoming a sharecropper on a vacant farm owned
by the Varners, Ben met up again with Clara; he interpreted her coldness
because he was "mean and dirty" ("You correct me if
I'm wrong, but I have the feelin' I rile ya. I mean, me being so
mean and dirty and all"); she told him off: "I've spent
my whole life around men who push and shove and shout and think they
can make anything happen just by bein' aggressive. And I'm not anxious
to have another one around the place"
- the scene of Ben's introduction to Varner, who owned
all the town's businesses; Ben claimed he had a "reputation
for being a dangerous man" as a disreputable, suspected barnburner;
the domineering Varner replied: ("You're a young, dangerous
man. I'm an old one. You don't know who I am. I better introduce
myself. I'm the big landowner and chief moneylender in these parts.
I'm commissioner of the elections and veterinarian. I own the store
and the cotton gin and the grist mill, and the blacksmith shop, and
it's considered unlucky for a man to do his tradin' or gin his cotton
or grind his meal or shoe his stock anywhere else. Now, that's who
I am"); Ben responded: "You talk a lot"; Varner threatened
Ben, knowing of his father's reputation of being an arsonist: ("Well,
yes, I do, son. But I'm done talkin' to you except for passing you
on this piece of information. I built me a new jail in my courthouse
this year, and if during the course of your stay here, something,
anything at all should happen to catch fire, I think you oughta know
that in my jail, we never heard of the words 'habeas corpus.' You'd
rot"); Ben asked instead for a decent job: ("Well, a smart
man, he'd give me a job...None of this weed-scratchin'. I'm talkin'
about a job that'll give me a white shirt and a black tie and three
squares. You've got a place in your store and several other spots
where you could use me. And you'd be writing yourself a fire insurance
policy into the bargain"); when Ben wanted a yes or no answer
right away, Varner called him "mighty bushy-tailed for a beginner"
- the sequences of the reckless Ben's many unsubtle
advances toward 23 year-old old-maid schoolteacher Clara Varner,
the daughter of Ben's rich boss Will, with Clara's repeated turn-downs
and Ben's seductive come-ons; on the porch after dinner, she called
herself "just plain skittish" - he suggested that she loosen
up: ("Let's go get in that old Lincoln car of yours and we'll
go and plow up the countryside. Let's go holler off a bridge good
and loud") - or if she just wanted quiet: ("You want quiet?
Let's go find us a needle in a haystack"); she demurely declined:
("Mr. Quick, those are all lovely, colorful suggestions, but
I'm afraid if I started out to follow you, I would hear the starch
in my petticoat begin to rustle and I'd know I was out of character");
he challenged her and then became impertinent about her genteel Southern
beau Alan Stewart (Richard Anderson): ("Get out of character,
lady. Come on. Get way out....You'll never know till you try...But
if you're savin' it all for him, honey, you've got your account in
the wrong bank")
- in a department store after closing time, with lots
of on-screen chemistry, Ben was able to successfully proposition
Clara for a kiss: ("Aw, school is out, Miss Clara. Them blinds
are drawn, night's fallen. Nobody here to see if you make a mistake.
You put them things down, Miss Clara, 'cause I'm gonna kiss you.
I'm gonna show you how simple it is. You please me, and I'll please
you. (She slapped him) Oh, I know what's troublin' you. It's all
those boys hollerin' for Eula every night. And Eula with her hair
hangin' down and Jody with his shirt off, chasin' her. And your old
man at 60 and he's callin' on his lady love"); she submitted
to a kiss and a close hug
Department Store: Ben Propositioning Clara for
a Kiss
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- after their kiss, she reluctantly admitted: ("All
right. You proved it. I'm human"); he replied: ("Yes, ma'am,
you're human all right"); and then he sarcastically talked about
his bad reputation when she angrily accused him of being a barn burner:
("Well, you hit on it. I can see my white shirt and my black
tie and my Sunday manners didn't fool you for a minute. Well, that's
right, ma'am. I'm a menace to the countryside. All a man's gotta
do is just look at me sideways, and his house goes up in fire. And
here I am, livin' right here in the middle of your peaceable little
town. Right in your backyard, you might say. Guess that oughta keep
you awake at night"); she turned and ran out of the store
- and slightly later, Ben's shirtless delivery of a
speech to Clara from her porch, as she lay in bed within view: ("You
look mighty pretty with them readin' glasses on. You look pretty
with them off. You look mighty young there, Miss Clara all curled
up in your bed like you just washed your hands and brushed your teeth
and said your prayers like a little girl. I'll bet you was a mighty
appealin' little girl. I'll bet your hair hung in a tangle down your
back. I'll bet you knew where to look for robins' eggs and blackberries.
I'll bet you had a doll with no head on it. There's a church bazaar
comin' up next week. Now, you wear a white dress and a ribbon in
your hair and I'll waltz you around under the moon. (She turned out
her light) Clara? Clara. Clar-ar-ar-a")
- the scene "in the woods" (at a picnic table
away from the crowds) after the romantically-persistent and aggressive
Ben bid on Clara's boxed chicken supper basket and won it for an
exorbitant $50 dollars, after which she made a memorable speech to
him about not wanting him for marriage: ("You got some foolish
ideas about me, Mr. Quick. I am no tremblin' little rabbit full of
smolderin', unsatisfied desires... I'm a woman, full-grown, very
smart and not at all bad to look at... And I expect to live at the
top of my bent with no help from you....You are barkin' up the wrong
girl, Mr. Quick, because it will never be you.... I don't know what
arrangement you think you have with my father, but you'll find you
have no bargain with me.... You have been hoodwinked, Mr. Quick.
For once in your crafty life, you have been had...You're too much
like my father to suit me, and I'm an authority on him....I gave
up on him when I was nine years old and I gave up on you the first
time I ever looked into those cold blue eyes.... I've got everything
right, Mr. Quick....Mr. Quick, I am a human being. Do you know what
that means? It means I set a price on myself, a high, high price.
You may be surprised to know it, but I've got quite a lot to give.
I've got things I have been savin' up my whole life, things like
love and understanding and, and jokes and good times and good cooking.
I'm prepared to be the queen of Sheba for some lucky man or at the
very least, the best wife that any man could hope for. Now, that's
my human history, and it's not gonna be bought and sold and it's
certainly not gonna be given away to any passin' stranger")
- in response, he spitefully spoke back with some hostility:
("All right. Then run, lady. And you keep on runnin'! Buy yourself
a bus ticket and disappear. Change your name, dye your hair, get
lost! And then maybe, just maybe, you're gonna be safe from me");
by film's end, as Ben was about to leave town, Clara made it clear
that she would join him
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Suspected Arsonist and Hitchhiker Ben Quick (Paul Newman)
with Clara and Eula
Clara Varner Telling Off Ben
Ben Threatened by Domineering Patriarch Will Varner
Ben with Schoolteacher-Spinster Clara Varner
Ben's Shirtless Speech Delivery to Clara
Winning Clara's Boxed Chicken Supper Basket
Clara to Ben: "You are barkin' up the wrong
girl, Mr. Quick, because it will never be you..."
Ben to Clara: "All right. Then run, lady..."
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