Sparkle (1976)

Dwan Smith: Delores

Photos 

Quotes 

• Delores : Oh, Mom, you don't have to iron our clothes. We're old enough to iron for ourselves. You iron enough for them people you work for. You ain't our maid.

  Effie : Well, I enjoy ironing clothes for those I love.

  Delores : I suppose you love them crackers you work for out on Long Island too.

  Effie : You better hush your mouth. Go get your homework before I give you this iron in a place you won't forget.

• Effie : [Effie comes in and hears a hallway door close]  Delores? Is that you?

  Delores : Yeah, Mama.

  [coming in the front room with a suitcase] 

  Effie : Where you going?

  Delores : I'm leaving, Mama.

  Effie : You're leaving for where?

  Delores : I'm leaving and I'm going away.

  Effie : What do you mean?

  Delores : I mean... I can't live like this anymore, Mama. I gotta find another way.

  Effie : Well, whatever troubles you got here

  [crossing to the living room and taking off her coat] 

  Effie : are going right with you and that suitcase.

  [she sits on the couch] 

  Delores : You don't understand, Mama.

  [sets down her suitcase] 

  Delores : Like, there's education like there never was before. Mama, we don't have to slaves to the white establishment anymore.

  [Effie gets up and starts straightening up the room] 

  Delores : We don't have to live off what the white man throws our way. Thanking him for his chicken-shit pay and chicken-shit jobs. We don't have to run around shining his shoes and driving his cars and cleaning his floors and being his ma - ...

  Effie : [facing Delores]  Go on, now, say it. Being their maid. Hmm?

  Delores : Yeah, Mama. Being their maid.

  [near tears] 

  Delores : Mama, I seen you, ever since I was a little kid, getting up in the middle of the night to take the subway to ride for two hours to go to their house, to do their cooking and to do their ironing and do their cleaning and wash the shit out of their toilet. And for what, Mama? For WHAT?

  [Delores picks up her suitcase and heads for the door] 

  Delores : Bye.

• Delores : Why do you keep on doing that to your hair?

  Sister : It wouldn't hurt you to get a little glamour, honey. You don't see no kink on Miss Marilyn "S-for-Sexy" Monroe, do you?

  Delores : Marilyn Monroe is a cracker. If you keep on doing that to your hair - it's not natural. It's not natural.

• Sister : [singing]  And when we touch

  Sister , Sparkle , Delores : Our hearts move at a steady pace

  Sparkle , Delores : Oh, oh, yeah

  Sister : I'm tryin' hard not to show

  Sister , Sparkle , Delores : The blushin' over my face

  Sister : Ooh baby, you bring out the woman in me...

• Sister , Sparkle , Delores : [singing]  And now you jump, We're gonna shake a little funk, You're doing fine, And now you're right on time, Have a ball, I hope my mama don't call, Know the rules, We're gonna keep it in the groove, Baby, you're all for me, Cause your moving just sets me free, I love the way you party hard, Don't want nothing to tear us apart, Tell you now, I ain't too proud too beg, Hope my partner loves to shake a leg...

• Sister , Sparkle , Delores : [singing]  Living in a world of ghetto life

  Sister : Everyone seems so uptight, But, nothing's wrong

  Sparkle , Delores : Nothing's wrong

  Sister : And it's alright

  Sparkle , Delores : It's alright

  Sister : With my man

  Sparkle , Delores : My man

  Sister : I like the ways we have our fun, His loving ways send me on and on, With my man

  Sister , Sparkle , Delores : People out there can understand, I'm giving him something he can feel...

• Delores : You gonna let that nigga kill you?

  Sister : It ain't nothin' a little makeup can't cover.

• Delores : What else is that nigga pushin' into you besides his fist?