Daily Dialogue — July 24, 2019

Laurel Gray: [on a scene in Dix’s script] I love the love scene — it’s very good.
Dixon Steele: Well, that’s because they’re not always telling each other how much in love they are. A good love scene should be about something else besides love. For instance, this one. Me fixing grapefruit. You sitting over there, dopey, half-asleep. Anyone looking at us could tell we’re in love.

— In a Lonely Place (1950), screenplay by Andrew Solt, adaptation by Edmund H. North, story by Dorothy B. Hughes

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Screenwriter. Today’s suggestion by @wcmartell.

Trivia: In her essay “Humphrey and Bogey”, Louise Brooks wrote that more than any other role that Humphrey Bogart played, it was the role of Dixon Steele in this movie that came closest to the real Bogart she knew.

Dialogue On Dialogue: What Dix (Humphrey Bogart) is referring to — how a love scene should appear to be about something else — is what I call a B.O.B.: Bit Of Business. Give the actors something to do and use that as a point of focus to distract the audience from what’s really going on.