Presenting Lily Mars (1943)

Van Heflin: John Thornway

Photos 

Quotes 

• Mrs. Thornway : John, he died several years ago.

  John Thornway : Oh, he did? I'm sorry to hear that.

  Mrs. Thornway : He left a wife and five children. Nobody knows how they manage, but they do. Everybody in Midhaven worries about the Marses... except the Marses.

• John Thornway : There's a Lily Mars in every town and they're all alike - so full of hope and so hopeless. Now, I'll tell you what you do, Mother. Let her down easy, but do it so she'll stay down.

  Mrs. Thornway : But she won't, she'll bounce right up again. You don't know Lily.

• John Thornway : Miss Mars, I give an actress a job for only one reason and that is that she is the best I can get for the part. Miss Mars, I have neither the wish, the time, nor the patience to teach anybody how to act.

• John Thornway : You father brought me into the world.

  John Thornway : That is not one of the qualifications, Miss Mars, for success on the stage.

• Lily Mars : "Look not so pale Macbeth! Come, man. Put on your nightgown and - come to bed. To bed. To bed! Listen, there's a knock at the gate. Come. Give me your hand. What is done, cannot be undone. Come. To bed. To bed! *To bed!*" How was I, Mr. Thornway?

  John Thornway : Awful.

  Lily Mars : Well, what did I do wrong?

  John Thornway : Everything.

• Isobel Rekay : Oh, the lonely weeks on the road in Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Cincinnati, Chicago...

  John Thornway : Pittsburgh?

  Isobel Rekay : Yes, Pittsburgh.

  John Thornway : What was that big pig iron man doing? Helping you think of me?

  Isobel Rekay : Oh, I had to have a little fun - innocent.

• John Thornway : Go away you pest!

  Isobel Rekay : [knocking at the door]  What's the matter, Johnny? Let me in.

  John Thornway : [opens door]  Isobel... angel!

  Isobel Rekay : Angel, pest. Pest, angel. Make up your mind, Johnny.

  John Thornway : Well, it's angel.

• John Thornway : I don't care where it is or how many other people are there, I'm going to take you across my knee and *spank* the acting out of you.

  Lily Mars : Oh?

  [places both of her hands over her bottom] 

  John Thornway : Now, go on, beat it.

• John Thornway : Well, you low-minded snoopers. Of all - you ought to be ashamed of yourselves.

• Lily Mars : When I was singing you looked so interested.

  John Thornway : I am not.

  Lily Mars : So human!

  John Thornway : I am not.

• Lily Mars : All right, over I go. But, you're going to have to boost me. Come on, boost!

  [John lefts her up] 

  Lily Mars : You're afraid of me.

  John Thornway : I'm what?

  Lily Mars : You are.

  John Thornway : Well, that's one thing I didn't know till now.

  Lily Mars : There are a lot of things you don't know about yourself. One of them is why you're making me go back over that wall.

  John Thornway : [puts Lily back on the ground]  Well, that is one thing I do know, young lady, it's to teach you a lesson.

  Lily Mars : Just like a naughty little girl. I know why you treat me as a child. It's because you're afraid to think of me as a woman.

  [moves closer] 

  Lily Mars : All right, boost.

• John Thornway : Some of the girls live in a boarding house they affectionately call the "Incubator." It's reasonable. It's respectable. But, where you live and what you do outside of the theater is strictly your own affair. Miss Mars, you understand, don't you?

  Lily Mars : Absolutely. You want me to live in an incubator and not to bother you.

  John Thornway : Yes. Yeah, that's the gist of it.

• John Thornway : What goes on here?

  Owen Vail : Our star has suddenly decided she doesn't like the third act.

  Isobel Rekay : I hate it. It doesn't march along, it - it dribbles.

• John Thornway : Let's get to work. Well, here's how it goes. Stefan enters. I'm Stefan. Nadina is singing, that's you, you're Nadina. Now, you can't go on with the gay songs, so you break it.

  Owen Vail : [singing effeminately]  Oh, I'm a gypsy, I oh-oh-oh-oh-oh...

• Owen Vail : If you keep on being so chummy with that - that babe from the woods...

  John Thornway : I am not chummy with Miss Mars. Isobel's imagining things.

  Owen Vail : John, about such things, women do not imagine, they know. I don't know how they know; but, they know.

• John Thornway : [Lily walks in, shocked, at the conversation John and Owen are having, not realizing they are running through a scene where John is playing Stefan and Owen is playing Nadina]  You mustn't cry.

  Owen Vail : [effeminately]  Why are you here? Go away. Leave me alone.

  John Thornway : No.

  Owen Vail : What do you want?

  John Thornway : First, I want to tell you that you're beautiful. And then I want to take you in my arms.

  Owen Vail : Oh, Stefan.

• Lily Mars : May I say something?

  John Thornway : I know of no way of stopping you.

• Owen Vail : Tell me, Miss Mars, what's wrong with it?

  Lily Mars : Well, to me it just - just - fizzles out.

  Owen Vail : Fizzles?

  Lily Mars : Just fizzles out...

  John Thornway : Stop fizzling!

• John Thornway : Its time all young actresses should be in bed.

  Lily Mars : Well, I was in bed; but, I couldn't sleep. I just tossed and tossed. Whenever I'm worried, I just toss and toss and toss.

  John Thornway : Well, that's very interesting; but, what's worrying you?

  Lily Mars : Our show.

• John Thornway : I'm not going to do it unless I can do it right.

  Lily Mars : John, I've been thinking that, maybe I...

  John Thornway : I know what you've been thinking.

  Lily Mars : [smiles]  I believe I could - do it.

• Scotty - Stage Manager : Is there anything I can do, John?

  John Thornway : Yeah, Scotty. You can go out and get drunk, for me.

  Owen Vail : Anything I can do, John?

  John Thornway : You can help Scotty.

  Leo : Anything *I* can do?

  John Thornway : Yeah, you help the two of them.

• Owen Vail : Think it over John. It's an awful big gamble.

  John Thornway : What's show business?

• John Thornway : Look, darling, try to remember, you're a mature Russian princess, on your honeymoon; not a village belle on a hayride.

• John Thornway : Lady Macbeth is walking in her sleep. She is talking to herself - *not* to a boyfriend in the gallery. She is a strong woman. She has murdered a king, so she can become a queen. But, her conscience has crept into her dreams and is gnawing at her mind. Gnawing like a relentless rat. Gnawing. Gnawing. And you play her as if she were a high school girl with a belly ache.