Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)

Jean Arthur: Louise 'Babe' Bennett, a) Mary Dawson

Photos 

Quotes 

• Louise "Babe" Bennett : Mabel, that guy's either the dumbest, stupidest or the most imbecilic idiot in the world or else he's the grandest thing alive. I can't make him out... I'm crucifying him.

  Mabel Dawson : People have been crucified before.

  Louise "Babe" Bennett : Why? Why do we have to do it?

  Mabel Dawson : You started out to be a successful newspaper woman, didn't ya?

  Louise "Babe" Bennett : Yeah, then what?

  Mabel Dawson : Search me? Ask a gypsy.

  Louise "Babe" Bennett : Here's a guy that's wholesome and fresh. To us, he looks like a freak. Do you know what he told me tonight? He said when he gets married, he wants to carry his bride over the threshold in his arms.

  Mabel Dawson : The guy's balmy.

  Louise "Babe" Bennett : Is he? I thought so too. I tried to laugh, but I couldn't. It stuck in my throat.

  Mabel Dawson : Aw, cut it out, will ya. You'll get me thinking about Charlie again.

  Louise "Babe" Bennett : He's got goodness, Mabel. Do you know what that is? No, of course you don't. We've forgotten. We're too busy being smart alecks. Too busy in a crazy competition for nothing.

• John Cedar : Your Honor, what she is saying has no bearing on the case. I object!

  Judge May : Let her speak!

  Babe Bennett : I know why he won't defend himself! That has a bearing on the case, hasn't it? He's been hurt, he's been hurt by everybody he met since he came here, principally by me. He's been the victim of every conniving crook in town. The newspapers pounced on him, made him a target for their feeble humor. I was smarter than the rest of them: I got closer to him, so I could laugh louder. Why shouldn't he keep quiet - every time he said anything it was twisted around to sound imbecilic! He can thank me for it. I handed the gang a grand laugh. It's a fitting climax to my sense of humor.

  John Cedar : Why, Your Honor, this is preposterous.

  Babe Bennett : Certainly I wrote those articles. I was going to get a raise, a month's vacation. But I stopped writing them when I found out what he was all about, when I realized how real he was. He could never fit in with our distorted viewpoint, because he's honest, and sincere, and good. If that man's crazy, Your Honor, the rest of us belong in straitjackets!

  John Cedar : Your Honor, this is absurd. The woman's obviously in love with him.

  Babe Bennett : What's that got to do with it?

  John Cedar : Well, you are in love with him, aren't you?

  Babe Bennett : What's that got to do with it?

  John Cedar : You are, aren't you?

  Babe Bennett : Yes!

  John Cedar : Your honor, her testimony is of no value. Why shouldn't she defend him? It's the typical American womanhood. The instinct to protect the weak.

• Longfellow Deeds : You know the poem I told you about? It's finished. Would you like to read it? It's to you.

  Babe Bennett : Yes. Of course.

  Longfellow Deeds : You don't have to say anything, Mary. You can tell me tomorrow what you think.

  Babe Bennett : I tramped the Earth with hopeless feet / searching in vain for a glimpse of you / Then heaven thrust you at my very feet / a lovely angel, too lovely to woo / My dream has been answered, but my life's just as bleak / I'm handcuffed and speechless in your presence divine / For my heart longs to cry out. If it only could speak / I love you, my angel. Be mine. Be mine.

• Louise "Babe" Bennett : [Taking Mr. Deeds to see Grant's Tomb]  To most people, it's an awful let-down... To most people, it's a washout.

  Longfellow Deeds : Well, that depends on what they see.

  Louise "Babe" Bennett : Now what do you see?

  Longfellow Deeds : Me? Oh I see a small Ohio farm boy becoming a great soldier. I see thousands of marching men. I see General Lee with a broken heart surrendering. And I can see the beginning of a new nation, like Abraham Lincoln said. And I can see that Ohio boy being inaugurated as President. Things like that can only happen in a country like America.

• Babe Bennett : He's got goodness, Mabel. Do you know what that is? No, of course you don't. We've forgotten. We're too busy being smart alecks. Too busy in a crazy competition for nothing.

• MacWade : [reading from the newspaper]  "'I play the tuba to help me think.' This is one of the many startling statements made by Longfellow Deeds, New York's new Cinderella Man, who went out last night to prove that his uncle, M. W. Semple, from whom he inherited 20 million dollars, was a rank amateur in the art of standing the town on its cauliflower ear." Cinderella Man! That's sensational, Babe. Sensational!

  Babe Bennett : High-powered acting, believe me.

  MacWade : Get it?

  Babe Bennett : I was the world's sweetest ingenue.

  MacWade : Is he really that big a sap?

  Babe Bennett : He's the original. There're no carbon copies of that one.

  MacWade : Cinderella Man - Babe, you've stuck a title on that hick that will stick to him the rest of his life!

• Babe Bennett : Got any news? I mean, eh, has anything exciting been happening lately?

  Longfellow Deeds : Sure. I met you.

• Babe Bennett : I used to love to go fishing with my father. You know, that's funny. He was a lot like you, my father was. He talked like you too. Sometimes he'd let me hold the line while he smoked and we'd just sit there for hours. And, after awhile, for no reason, I'd go over and kiss him and sit on his lap. He never said very much. But, once I remember him saying,"No matter what happens, honey, don't complain."

• Babe Bennett : I've got to see him.

  County Hospital Guard : Now, listen sister, for the fourteenth and last time, he don't want to see nobody.

  Babe Bennett : Well, well will you just give him my name?

  County Hospital Guard : Listen, Toots, just between us, there ain't a thing in the world the matter with that guy until I mention your name. Then, he goes haywire!

• Babe Bennett : He's honest and sincere and good! If that man's crazy, your honor, the rest of us belong in straight-jackets!

• John Cedar : You are in love with him, aren't you?

  Babe Bennett : What's that got to do with it?

  John Cedar : You are, aren't you?

  Babe Bennett : Yes!

  John Cedar : Your honor, her testimony is of no value. Why shouldn't she defend him? It's the typical American womanhood. The instinct to protect the weak.

• [after being made fun of by members of high society] 

  Longfellow Deeds : It's easy to make fun of somebody if you don't care how much you hurt 'em. I think your poems are swell, Mr. Brookfield, but I'm disappointed in you. I know I must look funny to you, but maybe if you went to Mandrake Falls you'd look just as funny to us. Only nobody would laugh at you and make you feel ridiculous, 'cause that wouldn't be good manners. I guess maybe it is comical to write poems for postcards, but a lot of people think they're good. Anyway, it's the best I can do. So if you'll excuse me, we'll be leaving. I guess I found out that all famous people - aren't big people.

  [the high society members fall silent, then break into raucous laughter] 

  Longfellow Deeds : [turning back to them]  There's just one thing more. If it weren't for Miss Dawson being here with me, I'd probably bump your heads together.

  Babe Bennett : [brightly]  Oh, I don't mind!

  Longfellow Deeds : [beat]  Then I guess maybe I will.