Popcorn Is Fine for This Movie Buff, but Hold the Fava Beans

The other day I saw two women, well educated by appearance and demeanor, talking excitedly as they left the theater at the Buena Park Mall. I asked them what movie they were so enthused about.

“We just saw ‘Shine’,” one of them said, “and it was just marvelous.”

Here were two people who likely have never heard of Jean Claude Van Damme or would shudder at something like “Booty Call.” Yet they have a common bond with all other movie fans: For 96 minutes in a darkened theater, they’d been transported to a world they enjoyed that left them immensely satisfied.

“Shine” is nominated for seven Academy Awards Monday night, and I know these two will be rooting for it.

Per household tradition, my wife and I, along with our teenage son, will be captivated by the Academy Awards ceremony on TV. We’ll pull out score sheets for our annual pick-the-winners contest. My wife always wins, of course. She studies up on the Vegas odds and news about the documentaries and foreign entries.

Many of us can readily say that movies are a major part of our entertainment. My wife and I get so wrapped up in a good film we often sit a seat apart, to leave room for our joint bucket of popcorn.

I grew up in a one-theater town in Indiana. We watched everything that came through, the good, the bad, and, yes, the ugly. But some movies are so good they never leave you. The upcoming Academy Awards got me thinking about great movie lines I’ve enjoyed over the years.

*

I’ll list some of my favorites; I hope it will lead you to think of some of your own. Take a guess which movies these lines come from. (Answers in the Wrap-Up.) My wife says my choices are way too easy for any real quiz, but here goes:

1. “You know how to whistle, don’t you? Just put your lips together and blow.”

2. “I don’t think you’re the kind who likes to be married.”

“But I’ve been married twice.”

“See what I mean.”

3. “I’d love to kiss you but I just washed my hair.”

4. “Why can’t a woman be more like a man?”

5. “You talking to me? I don’t see anyone else around. You must be talking to me. Are you talking to me?”

6. “It’s not just Kris [Kringle] on trial. It’s kindness and joy and love and all the other intangibles.”

7. “I used to be Snow White. But then I drifted.”

8. “How often do you have sex?”

He, to his analyst: “Hardly ever. I’d say three times a week.”

She, to her analyst: “Constantly. I’d say three times a week.”

9. “Now I want you to remember, that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. You won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.”

10. “I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.”

11. “You think I’m licked. Well I’m not licked. I’m going to stay right here and fight for this lost cause. Even if this room gets filled with lies like these. Somebody will listen to me. Somebody.”

12. “We’ll always have Paris.”

Wrap-Up: If you haven’t already guessed where those movie quotes came from, here are the answers.

1. Lauren Bacall, in her first movie with her future husband, Humphrey Bogart, “To Have and Have Not” (1944). I’m sure you’ve noted she’s a favorite to receive her first Academy Award tonight.

2. Eva Marie Saint and Cary Grant in Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” (1959). It was during the love sparks before the bad guys forced them to climb down the faces at Mt. Rushmore.

3. I once heard Bette Davis say this was her all-time favorite movie line. She delivered it playing a flirt in “Cabin in Cotton” (1932).

4. Rex Harrison in “My Fair Lady” (1964). My wife and I had the pleasure of seeing Harrison perform “Professor Higgins” in the stage version. I always thought the line quoted here epitomized his difficulty understanding Eliza Doolittle.

5. Robert DeNiro in “Taxi Driver” (1976). I doubt many movie lines have been repeated as often by movie fans.

6. My wife and I have a running battle which was the greatest movie ever made--1946’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” (my choice) or 1947’s “Miracle on 34th Street” (hers). I’ve included John Payne’s line defending Santa Claus out of deference to my wife.

7. I have to confess: I have no memory which movie this line came from. I heard Mae West say it in one of her films years ago and I’ve never heard anything since I thought so deliciously witty.

8. This one comes from Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall.” I watched it again with my son the other night. I’d almost forgotten how marvelous Allen’s writing was. But maybe you have to be a Woody Allen fan. My son couldn’t understand why I roared with laughter when Allen says, “I’m not afraid of spiders. I’ve been killing them since I was 30.”

9. George C Scott as General George S. Patton. From the opening scene in “Patton” (1970).

10. Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter’s great line from “Silence of the Lambs.” (1990). My wife says this one was too easy, but it’s so fiendishly delightful I couldn’t help myself. I haven’t eaten fava beans since.

11. Jimmy Stewart in the closing scene from “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” (1939)--the second greatest movie ever made.

12. Humphrey Bogart to Ingrid Bergman in “Casablanca” (1943). No four words forming a single sentence ever said so much.

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com