Sweet Smell of Success
“Cat’s in the bag and the bag’s in the river.”
“That kid is dumb on matinee days only. Otherwise he’s got a head.”
“I’d hate to take a bite out of you. You’re a cookie full of arsenic.”
“My left hand hasn’t seen my right hand in twenty years.”
“Watch me run the fifty-yard dash with my legs cut off!”
“That’s fish four days old. I won’t buy it.”
“From now on, the best of everything’s good enough for me.”
Yeah, I love the over-the-top dialogue in this great, fun film.
Here are a couple I just thought of that had a “realistic” type of great dialogue:
500 Days of Summer
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
There aren’t any particularly quotable moments from either of those movies. The dialogue is just so good and so believable and so average, in a wonderful way that just perfectly captures romance and struggling with real human issues and feelings. Anyone else agree with these choices?
I agree strongly with the POV that the other type of “good dialogue” like from Tarantino or Coen Brothers is usually very good because of how “hyper real” or witty or clever or stylized it is.
The Maltese Falcon had a lot of very good dialogue. Network had some world class dialogue.
I know what you mean. I wish I had a nickel for every time one of my dead father’s POW friends told me a story about sticking my great-grandfather’s wristwatch up his ass.
Lots of good movies mentioned so far. I’ll add two more, both westerns:
Silverado
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
+1 for Double Indemnity which has the best dialog in a film noir and arguably the best ever.
Jim Broadbent was lucky in that he was playing one of the great geniuses of the English language. I love the rhythm of the language in this film:
Gilbert: You have my sympathies, Lely. But unfortunately your avocation as an actor compels you on occasion to endure the most ignominious indignities…as Grossmith will doubtless testify.
George Grossmith: Without question, sir.
I think Tombstone could qualify as well, or at least every line of it written for Doc Holliday.
The dialogue in High Fidelity is all fantastic, but it comes from a fantastic writer, Nick Hornby.
I’d nominate This Is Spinal Tap… Like the Mike Leigh films already mentioned, the dialogue is largely improvised which gives it a very real feel.
You’d likely have quite a few nickels, for the value of “old person’s story with TMI.” If I had a nickel for every such story from my grandparents and uncles and their cronies, I wouldn’t be rich - but if I put them in a sock I could do some damage.
Coen Brothers’ True Grit. Every single character is on point in that movie.
It’s interesting you bring up Diner because in that film, there is a character who does nothing but speak dialogue from perhaps the best-written American film ever: the brilliant Sweet Smell of Success
And I notice Fiddle Peghead beat me to it.
I’m glad to see so many recommendations for Sweet Smell of Success, as we recently picked up a copy and will watch it this weekend. Haven’t seen it before.
I will say again…the classic Jack Nicholson films of the 70’s. For some reason they are nit easily available to watch. They are far more realistic and edgy than modern PC/corporate films.
Beat me to it. Brilliant.
I’m surprised it hasn’t been mentioned, and maybe it’s just me, but I don’t recall anything I’ve watched that has had me consistently rewinding scenes just to hear the dialogue over again like HBO’s Deadwood. Maybe it’s the complexity of the vocabulary combined with the setting and character histories that makes it so riveting, but I found the dialogue in many, many scenes absolutely brilliant.
Comedy:
The Apartment
Bringing Up Baby
Drama:
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
As Good As It Gets
Good one!
The one Oscar I was pulling for the year it came out was “Best Original Screenplay” for The Usual Suspects. The unfolding of the story comes mostly through dialogue, and it keeps you on the edge of your seat.