Hold Back the Dawn (1941)

Charles Boyer: Georges Iscovescu

Photos 

Quotes 

• Georges Iscovescu : [to Emmy]  You needn't be afraid, Miss Brown. Not a bit. You see, we are like ... two trains, halted for a moment at the same station. But we're going in different directions. We can't change our course, any more than we can hold back the dawn.

• Emmy Brown : This is America! For the Rockefellers and the Joneses. For the Mcgonigles and the Frankfurters. For the Jeffersons and the Slavinskies. You see, its, its like, um, like a lake. Clear and fresh and it'll never get stagnant while new streams are flowing in.

  Georges Iscovescu : Well, your people are building pretty high dams to stop those streams.

  Emmy Brown : Just to keep out the scum, Georges.

• Georges Iscovescu : [having just let Anita know that he prefers the company of Emmy]  You've got enough money to get you back to New York. I'll find you there when I'm ready.

  Anita Dixon : Thanks! You just stand right in the middle of Times Square ... and whistle!

• Georges Iscovescu : Emmy, I've always been full of words. You know, big ones, fancy ones. Just one more word: thanks.

  Emmy Brown : No. You see, I come from a small town. We don't have any of those fine hotels. We eat at the drugstore. But, we leave a tip just the same.

• Georges Iscovescu : My own name is George Iscovescu. I was born in Romania. But, I have spent most of my life in Paris and Biarritz... at the Lido; you know, following the seasons, going where rich people went to - rich women to be exact... My papers give my occupation as a dancer, which is correct, in a general way. It was an easy life - if you had a deep voice and you knew how to look at the woman. But, the war came.

• Georges Iscovescu : So, I went to Mexico, to a little town that straddles the border to California. There is a wire fence. You can see right through it into the United States. If you're an American or if you have a visa, you just walk in. Yes, the wire fence - don't let them tell you its only twelve feet high, its a thousand miles high!

• Georges Iscovescu : You needn't be afraid. Its like a classroom, isn't it? The pupils and their teacher, the rules of deportment, schedules, discipline. You are very conscientious, Miss Brown. No infringement of the regulations for you. No abandons. No violent desires. If you found one in your sober little mind, you would tell it to go and stand in the corner, wouldn't you Miss Brown?

  Emmy Brown : I don't know?

• Georges Iscovescu : Your husband?

  Anita Dixon : No. No, O'Shaughnessy was a jockey from Caliente. Five foot three. Once over the border, I went to a judge. I said, a woman wants a man, not a radiator cap! Divorce granted, fifty dollars.

• American Immigration Official : I see from your questionnaire that you wish to enter the United States permanently.

  Georges Iscovescu : Yes sir.

  American Immigration Official : That will require a quota number. Do you know what a quota is?

  Georges Iscovescu : No.

  American Immigration Official : Every year, the United States permits the entrance of about 150,000 immigrants. That number is proportioned among the various European countries. You were born in Bucharest; so, you come under the Romanian quota.

  Georges Iscovescu : Yes.

  American Immigration Official : The Romanian quota is very small, very crowded.

  Georges Iscovescu : Well, that means I have to wait?

  American Immigration Official : Between five and eight years, Mr. Iscovescu.

• Georges Iscovescu : [Stuck in Mexico awaiting a visa to immigrate to the U.S]  There is a fence back there, you Americans make a very definite point of it.

• Georges Iscovescu : Tequila.

  Mexican Bartender : Tequila!

• Georges Iscovescu : What did she say? You just marry an American. Its as easy as that. Five to eight years for idiots, maybe. Get ahold of a wedding ring and you can swing right over the fence. Just get into a good suit of clothes, shave, go on, go ahead, What do they call it? The pursuit of happiness?

• Georges Iscovescu : I'm sorry, madame. In Europe, we respect the institution of marriage.

• Georges Iscovescu : Just look at me, Miss Brown. Keep looking at me. It's like a sudden breeze in a stifling day.

• Georges Iscovescu : I am in your debt. For there is no way I can pay you for the loveliness of these few minutes. I thank you, Miss Brown.

  [Kisses her hand] 

  Emmy Brown : You're the strangest man.

  Emmy Brown : Perhaps, the loneliest man.

• Emmy Brown : Good night.

  Georges Iscovescu : It's better than good! Somehow, these walls will not seem so empty inside. You will be here very close to me. Breathing in the same night.

  Emmy Brown : Yes. Good night.

  Georges Iscovescu : Good night.

• Anita Dixon : Hello, Georges.

  Georges Iscovescu : What are you doing here?

  Anita Dixon : Your door was unlocked. I just dropped in to borrow a cup of sugar.

• Georges Iscovescu : What do you want?

  Anita Dixon : I've been thinking about you all day. The way you used to hold me away from you when we danced. Those gigolo eyes of yours. You cold, selfish...

  Georges Iscovescu : Oh?

  Anita Dixon : Haven't you ever loved anybody in your life?

  Georges Iscovescu : I want you to go, Anita.

  Anita Dixon : Georges...

  Georges Iscovescu : You're wasting my time.

• Anita Dixon : I'll give you anything. Anything you want.

  Georges Iscovescu : Anything, anything?

  Anita Dixon : Anything.

• Emmy Brown : [Waking in morning]  What is it? What are you doing here? You have no right to be here.

  Georges Iscovescu : Of course, I have no right to be here. No right to sit watching your face, longing to write it a poem. No right to listen to disturb your heart. No right to tell you that - I love you very much.

• Emmy Brown : Oh, please don't come near.

  Georges Iscovescu : You needn't be afraid, Miss Brown. Not of a dead man. I am dead, you see. I've asked myself a thousand times why they shouldn't bury me. Why I should go on breathing and talking and walking - when I was dead. Perhaps I know now. Perhaps it was - to see the sunrise once more, to hear enchantment in a woman's voice, to feel her yearnings, the warmth of her lips.

• Georges Iscovescu : It is not this kiss I want, it is *all* your kisses.

• Georges Iscovescu : You see how wild a dream can be? But, you are wise and sane and cool.

  [Kiss] 

  Georges Iscovescu : You needn't be afraid, Miss Brown.

• Anita Dixon : Start with champagne, it will be champagne all the way!

  Georges Iscovescu : [Takes a sip of the champagne]  I hope it will be a better vintage.

  Anita Dixon : It will be.

• Anita Dixon : Only the very rich will get a crack at Georges and Anita. We'll be very expensive, I'm afraid.

  Georges Iscovescu : They can deduct us from their income tax.

  Anita Dixon : You make a wonderful deduction.

• Emmy Brown : I don't worry about you. Only for one thing, Georges.

  Georges Iscovescu : Yes?

  Emmy Brown : You smoke too much.

• Georges Iscovescu : I don't quite know how to say it. That hot July afternoon, it was like kissing fresh snow. I could feel her hand trembling on my shoulder. From the church behind us, came the breathe of innocence.

• Georges Iscovescu : She kept talking about a United States, about Boulder Dam and how her brother went to school with a very famous man by the name of Joe DiMaggio and what the FHA is and what the word swell means. That's exactly what she was: swell.

• Georges Iscovescu : Do you believe in premonitions? When a black wave breaks over you and you suddenly know something terrible's going to happen? In my ears was the screeching of brakes, of tires taking a wild curve, before my eyes, with the foot on the gas pedal, pressing it down.

• Georges Iscovescu : Remember? Remember the rain beating on the windshield that night and the wiper going and the word it spoke: together, together, together, together, together. Breathe, darling, we're together, together. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe...