William Holden: Bernie Dodd

The Country Girl

Bernie Dodd

Georgie Elgin: Let's say I try my small way to help.
Bernie Dodd: That's what my ex-wife used to keep me reminding of, cheerfully. She had a theory that behind every great man there was a great woman. She also was thoroughly convinced that she was great and all I needed to qualify was guidance on her part.
Georgie Elgin: Still does not prove that the theory is completely wrong. I imagine one can go through history and find a few good examples.
Bernie Dodd: It's a pity that Leonardo da Vinci never had a wife to guide him, he might have really gotten somewhere.

Bernie Dodd: Does your wife really want you to play this part?
Frank Elgin: Yeah, she's all for it.
Bernie Dodd: I was just wondering. The day I met her, she seemed a little difficult about terms and rather domineering, I thought.
Frank Elgin: She wasn't always like that.
Bernie Dodd: Oh I know, I know. They all start out as Juliets and wind up as Lady Macbeths.

Georgie Elgin: Frank's on stage.
Bernie Dodd: I know. I want to talk to you.
Georgie Elgin: The last time we talked, Mr. Dodd, you reduced me to tears. I promise you, it won't happen again.

Georgie Elgin: Mr. Cook seems to be almost what the bad fairy promised Frank at his cradle.
Bernie Dodd: Oh, he's not too bad. Gruff, but with a heart of stone.

Georgie Elgin: How's Frank?
Bernie Dodd: Okay. How's it been back here?
Georgie Elgin: He was a little uneasy with the curtain going up so late.
Bernie Dodd: If only the first few rows had the balcony's manners, what a wonderful world this would be.

Bernie Dodd: This isn't "Student Prince" or "Blossom Time". The guy who plays this part has to act while he's singing and sing while he's acting.

Philip Cook: He's too old for the part.
Bernie Dodd: Get a couple of hairpieces. It will make him look ten years younger.

Bernie Dodd: I'm just trying to find out if you were ever an actress?
Georgie Elgin: Oh, no. Not me. Thank you. I'm just a girl from the country. The theatre and its people have always been a complete mystery to me. They still are.

Bernie Dodd: Dreiser, Balzac, Montaigne. Who reads these books?
Georgie Elgin: I do.
Bernie Dodd: I'm afraid to ask you if you enjoy them. You'd bite my head off. Montaigne's too polite for me.
Georgie Elgin: That doesn't surprise me.

Georgie Elgin: You're even younger than I thought.
Bernie Dodd: And you try to look like an old lady. You're not. You shouldn't wear your hair like that. There are two kinds of women: those who pay too much attention to themselves and those who don't pay enough.
Georgie Elgin: [sarcastically] Say, that's quite a pearl of wisdom. May I quote you?

Bernie Dodd: It's bad enough to go to Hollywood to cast. Now you suggest I go to heaven!

Bernie Dodd: What is this? I come up here with the best intentions in the world and suddenly I find I'm victimizing you.
Frank Elgin: Can I get a word in?
Bernie Dodd: What did I bring you? A basket of snakes?

Bernie Dodd: They can get awful bent out of shape, can't they? You know, my wife was so twisted, she once said to me, "I hope your next play's a flop, so the world can see how much I love you even though you're a failure."

Bernie Dodd: Frank? Having trouble at home?
Frank Elgin: No, nothing like that. What's the matter? Don't you believe me?
Bernie Dodd: Everyone has trouble at home. The only ones who deny it are those that have too much of it.

Georgie Elgin: You're sure I'm not in the way?
Bernie Dodd: No, no. We're just closing up shop, giving it back to the theatre ghosts.
Georgie Elgin: There's nothing quite so mysterious and silent as a dark theatre. A night without a star.

Georgie Elgin: I try to be careful, Mr. Dodd, but being an actor's wife is not the easiest of jobs. If I tell him he's magnificent, he says I'm not honest. If I tell him he's not magnificent, he says I don't love him.
Bernie Dodd: Why don't you tell him he's good but can be better.
Georgie Elgin: Is that what the critics will tell him?
Bernie Dodd: Are you a critic or a wife?