Sullivan's Travels - 1/9 - Movie clip - With a little sex in it - 1941

l want this picture to be a commentary on modern conditions, stark realism, the problems that confront the average man. But with a little sex. A little, but l don't wanna stress it. l want this picture to be a document. l wanna hold a mirror up to life. l want this to be a picture of dignity, a true canvas of the suffering of humanity. But with a little sex in it. With a little sex in it. How about a nice musical? How can you talk about musicals at a time like this, with the world committing suicide, with corpses piling up in the street, with grim death gargling at you from every corner, with people slaughtered like sheep! Maybe they'd like to forget that. Then why'd they hold this one over for a fifth week J at the Music Hall for the ushers? lt died in Pittsburgh. Like a dog! What do they know in Pittsburgh? They know what they like. If they knew what they liked, they wouldn't live in Pittsburgh, that's no argument. lf you pandered to the public, you'd still be in the horse age. You think we're not? Look at Hopalong Cassidy. You look at him! We'd still be making Keystone chases, bathing beauties, custard pie operas. And a fortune! Fortune. Of course, l'm just a minor employee here, Mr. LeBrand. He's starting that one again. l wanted to make you something outstanding, something you could be proud of, something that would realize the potentialities of film as the sociological and artistic medium that it is. With a little sex in it. Something like... Something like Capra. l know. What's the matter with Capra? Look, you want to make O Brother, Where Art Thou? Yes. Now, wait a minute. Then go ahead and make it! At what you're getting, l can't afford to argue with you! That's a fine way to start a man out on a million dollar production! You want it, you got it! l can take it on the chin. l've taken it before. Not from me you haven't. Not from you, Sully, that's true. Not with pictures like So Long Sarong, Hey, Hey ín the Hayloft, Ants ín Your Plants of 1939. But they weren't about tramps, lockouts, sweatshops, people eating garbage in alleys and living in piano boxes and ash cans and... And phooey. They were about nice, clean young people who fell in Iove with laughter, and music and legs. Now, take that scene in Hey, Hey ín the Hayloft... But you don't realize conditions have changed. There isn't any work, there isn't any food. These are troublous times! What do you know about trouble? What do l know about trouble? Yes, what do you know about trouble? What do you mean, what do l know about trouble? Just what l'm saying. You wanna make a picture about garbage cans. What do you know about garbage cans? When did you eat your Iast meal out of one? What's that got to do with it? He's asking you! You want to make an epic about misery. You want to show hungry people sleeping in doorways. With newspapers around them! You want to grind 10,OOO feet of hard luck, and all l'm asking you is what do you know about hard luck? What do you mean, what do l know about hard luck? Don't you think l... No! What? You have not. l sold newspapers till l was 20, then l worked in a shoe store and put myself through law school at night. Where were you at 20? l was in college. When l was 13, l supported three sisters and two brothers and a widowed mother. Where were you at 13? l was in boarding school. l'm sorry. Well, you don't have to be ashamed of it, Sully. That's the reason your pictures have been so light, so cheerful, so inspiring. They don't stink with messages. That's why l paid you $500 a week when you were 24. $750 when you were 25. $1,OOO when you were 26. When l was 26 l was getting $18. $2,OOO when you were 27. l was getting $25 then. l just opened my shooting... $3,OOO after Thanks for Yesterday. $4,OOO after _nts ín Your Plants... l suppose you're trying to tell me l don't know what trouble is. Yes. In a nice way, Sully. Well you'!re absolutely right. l haven't any idea what it is. People always like what they don't know anything about. l certainly had a lot of nerve wanting to make a picture about human suffering. You're a gentleman to admit it, Sully, but then you are, anyway.