The Reluctant Dragon (I) (1941)

Robert Benchley: Robert Benchley

Photos 

Quotes 

• [after watching a sound effects recording session for a cartoon train] 

  Doris : How did you like it?

  Robert Benchley : Oh, fine, fine. Only after all, wouldn't it be a lot easier just to wreck a real train?

• Robert Benchley : [about Donald Duck; chuckling]  He kills me. Only I can't understand a thing he says.

• Robert Benchley : Very good. I like the way you handle that fowl language.

  Clarence Nash : [as Donald Duck]  Foul language? Why the very idea!

• [first lines] 

  Mrs. Benchley : [Reading]  "So they set off up the hill, arm in arm, the knight, the dragon, and the boy. The lights in the little village began to go out one by one."

  [Is interrupted by a toy rifle going off] 

  Mrs. Benchley : "But there were stars and a late moon as they climbed the downs together."

  [Toy rifle again] 

  Mrs. Benchley : Robert, please.

  [Pan to Robert Benchley lying on a raft in the pool, with the toy rifle] 

  Robert Benchley : Go on, I can hear in any position.

  [Shoots a dart at a duck decoy in the pool] 

  Mrs. Benchley : [Continues reading]  "And as they turned the last corner and disappeared from view, snatches of an old song were borne back on the night breeze. I can't be certain which of them was singing, but I think it was the dragon."

  Robert Benchley : Go on, I'm listening.

  Mrs. Benchley : That was the end, and a very lovely end, too.

  Robert Benchley : Yeah, charming, charming. It's funny. No matter which way I aim, I always hit the same duck.

  Mrs. Benchley : Robert, I have a wonderful idea. We'll sell this book to Walt Disney.

  Robert Benchley : Well, you can't. It belongs to your nephew.

  [Looks at rifle] 

  Robert Benchley : So does this, too. I wonder what he'd take for it.

  Mrs. Benchley : I mean the idea, for a movie. I'm sure if you went to his studio and suggested it to him, he'd jump at it.

  Robert Benchley : Me suggest a story to Walt Disney? Why, I hardly know him.

  Mrs. Benchley : Well, you hardly knew me when you suggested marriage.

  Robert Benchley : Yeah, look at the trouble I got into. He can't listen to every crackpot with a wild idea.

  Mrs. Benchley : You might be the exception. All you would have to do would be to go to his studio and show him the book.

  Robert Benchley : I wouldn't dream of it!

  Mrs. Benchley : They're always open to new ideas. Get your things on, and stop shilly-shallying.

  Robert Benchley : [Stands up on raft]  I am not shillying and I am not shallying. But once and for all, I will not go to the studio. I will not make myself look ridiculous.

  [Falls through] 

  Robert Benchley : [Bubbles come out of his mouth]  And that's final.

• Doris : [Holding up a cel of Bambi in front of her]  Like it?

  Robert Benchley : I'd be all right if you could get that reindeer out of the way.

  Doris : I'll see if I can scare up the background that goes with it.

  Robert Benchley : Nothing wrong with the one I just saw.

  Doris : [a man hands her a painting]  Thanks. This is his background. He fits right on top of it, like this. There.

  Robert Benchley : And very cunning, too. I'd like to take him home with me.

  [Bambi suddenly comes to life and hides behind a rock in the background] 

  Robert Benchley : What do you know? He took me seriously.

• [Benchley is watching a camera man shooting cels of Donald Duck] 

  Robert Benchley : Yeah, but he still doesn't move.

  Donald Duck : Just a minute, big boy. Give me time, give me time!

  [Benchley laughs in astonishment] 

  Donald Duck : Look, I'll show ya. I'll show ya. Now look. First my foot is up here, see?

  Robert Benchley : Uh-huh.

  Donald Duck : Then, it's down here, understand?

  Robert Benchley : Now I get it.

  Donald Duck : Like this...

  Robert Benchley : Yeah.

  Donald Duck : And this...

  Robert Benchley : I see.

  Donald Duck : And that. See?

  Robert Benchley : Sure.

  Donald Duck : When I do it faster, I'm walking. Get it?

  Robert Benchley : Yeah, certainly.

• [last lines] 

  Mrs. Benchley : So while you were shilly-shallying, they made the picture. I never knew it to fail. In all the years that I've known you, you've always been too late. Really, Robert, I can't understand why you're forever letting these opportunities slip through your fingers. Anyone would've thought of it in time, months ago. But you...

  [sighs] 

  Mrs. Benchley : Well, why don't you say something?

  Robert Benchley : [as Donald Duck]  Aw, phooey!

  [quacking furiously] 

  Robert Benchley : Phooey!

• [Robert Benchley and his wife are driving to the Disney studio] 

  Robert Benchley : It's a wild goose chase, that's what it is. I don't imagine he's out here in the first place.

  Mrs. Benchley : Where else would he be?

  Robert Benchley : You know these movie producers; New York, Saratoga, Palm Beach...

  Mrs. Benchley : Hollywood.