42nd Street (1933) - Quotes

Marriage Perspectives and Future Consequences

Ann Lowell: [singing] Matrimony is baloney.

Lorraine Fleming: She'll be wanting alimony in a year or so;

Ann Lowell, Lorraine Fleming: Still they go and shuffle, shuffle off to Buffalo.

Ann Lowell: When she knows as much as we know, she'll be on her way to Reno,

Lorraine Fleming: While he still has dough; she'll give him the shuffle

Ann Lowell, Lorraine Fleming: When they're back from Buffalo.

Ann Lowell: I'll bet that she's the farmer's daughter

Lorraine Fleming: And he's that well-known traveling man;

Ann Lowell: He once stopped down at the farm house,

Lorraine Fleming: That's how the whole affair began!

Ann Lowell: He did right by little Nelly, with a shotgun at his bel... tummy, How could he say "No?

Ann Lowell, Lorraine Fleming: He just had to shuffle, shuffle off to Buffalo.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

A Chance Encounter Over a Match

Slim Murphy: Hey got a match?

Pat Denning: Yep... why I guess so... yeah.

Slim Murphy: Don't happen to know a guy named Pat Denning do ya?

Pat Denning: Why yes.

Slim Murphy: We got a message for him. This guy Pat Denning's a pretty wise mug but he ain't wise enough and if he don't lay off that Dorothy Brock dame, it's gonna be just too bad... for Denning, get me?

Pat Denning: Alright I'll tell him.

Slim Murphy: [punches Pat in the mouth and Pat falls down] Yeah well... That's so ya don't forget.

Mug with Murphy: Yeah

Peggy Sawyer: Ohhhhh Pat... Pat... Pat... who were they?

Pat Denning: Friends... with good advice.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

A Memorable Reference to Anytime Annie

Lorraine: You remember Anne Lowell?

Andy Lee: Not Anytime Annie? Say, who could forget er? She only said "No" once, and THEN she didn't hear the question!

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Commentary on Loraine's Drinking Habits

Jerry: It seems that little Loraine's hit the bottle again.

Mac Elroy: Yah, the peroxide bottle.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Reflections on Motherhood and Sacrifice

Ann Lowell: [to chorus girl] It must have been hard on your mother, not having any children.

Inspiring Competition for Success

Dorothy Brock: Now go out there and be so swell that you'll make me hate you!

Ambition and Determination in Show Business

Julian Marsh: [[w:AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes|American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotations] * Bolded portion ranked #87 in the ] in American cinema.

The Weight of Responsibility and Ambition

Julian Marsh: Sawyer, you listen to me, and you listen hard. Two hundred people, two hundred jobs, two hundred thousand dollars, five weeks of grind and blood and sweat depend upon you. It's the lives of all these people who've worked with you. You've got to go on, and you've got to give and give and give. They've got to like you. Got to. Do you understand? You can't fall down. You can't because your future's in it, my future and everything all of us have is staked on you. All right, now I'm through, but you keep your feet on the ground and your head on those shoulders of yours and go out, and Sawyer, you're going out a youngster but you've got to come back a star!

Commitment to a Challenging Rehearsal Schedule

Julian Marsh: [He brandishes his cigarette] All right, now, everybody. Quiet, and listen to me. Tomorrow morning, we're gonna start a show. We're gonna rehearse for five weeks and we're gonna open on scheduled time. - And I mean scheduled time. You're gonna work and sweat and work some more. You're gonna work days and you're gonna work nights. And you're gonna work between time when I think you need it. You're gonna dance until your feet fall off and you're not able to stand up any longer. BUT five weeks from now, we're going to have a show! Now, some of you people have been with me before. You know it's gonna be a tough grind. It's gonna be the toughest five weeks that you ever lived through. Do you all get that? Now anybody who doesn't think he's gonna like it had better quit right now. What do I hear? Nobody? Good. Then that's settled. We start tomorrow morning.

Marsh's Last Chance for Success

Julian Marsh: [to his financiers] You'll get your Pretty Lady. You haven't got anything to worry about. I'm not gonna let you down because I can't afford to. I've given everything I've had to that gulch down there and it's taken all I had to offer. Oh, it paid me, sure, in money I couldn't hang on to - fair-weather friends, women, headlines! Hah! Why even the cops and the newsboys recognize me on sight. Marsh, the Magnificent. Marsh the Slave-Driver! Actors tell ya how Marsh drove em and bullied em and even tore it out of em! And maybe there's a few that'll tell ya how Marsh really made em. And they've all got somethin to show for it - except Marsh.Well, this is my last shot! I'll make a few more actors. But this time, I'm gonna sock my money away so hard that they'll have to blast to find enough to buy a newspaper. That's why I'm goin ahead with Pretty Lady. And Pretty Lady's got to be a hit. It's my last show and it's got to be my best. You're counting on me. Well, I'm counting on Pretty Lady, because it's got to support me for a long time to come.