Rhapsody in Blue (1945)

Robert Alda: George Gershwin

Photos 

Quotes 

• Oscar Levant : If I had your talent, I'd be a pretty obnoxious fella. What do you call yourself?

  George Gershwin : George Gershwin, it's my real name.

  Oscar Levant : Mine's Oscar Levant. I'm thinking of changing it.

• Prof. Franck : Is your work the best? As good as you can do?

  George Gershwin : Well of course, not yet.

  Prof. Franck : Or are you just making a fortune?

  George Gershwin : What's wrong with a fortune, if it helps me get on?

  Prof. Franck : Come here, my boy. Look:

  Prof. Franck : [Indicating a portrait on the fireplace mantle]  This is Franz Schubert. He was a songwriter too. He died young. At 32. For years he wore the same old faded necktie. But in the land that nurtured him, he was a voice that will never be silenced.

  Prof. Franck : [now indicating a carved bust]  Here, Richard Wagner. At rehearsals of his great opera "Rienzi," Richard Wagner hid in the wings, while the singers ate their luncheon. He didn't have a lunch - just dreams of the music of the future.

  Prof. Franck : [now indicating another carved bust]  Beethoven. He never asked himself, "Is this a hit?" He said, "This is the way it must be done."

• George Gershwin : Your Bolero. Monsieur Ravel, how much I'd like to study with you.

  Maurice Ravel : If you study with me, you will only write second-rate Ravel instead of first-rate Gershwin.

• George Gershwin : It's only with my music that I can prove my right to live. I must write!

• Julie Adams : What if this show is a flop?

  George Gershwin : We'll do others. I haven't got time for flops.

• George Gershwin : I'm alright! My headaches gone, and I can play!

  Ira Gershwin : Don't overdo it, George.

  Oscar Levant : Take it easy, fella'.

  George Gershwin : Why should I take it easy? I feel wonderful! Now we can finish the score of the picture and get on with something else. I'd like to try a ballet, or maybe a string quartet, or better yet... I'd like to set The Gettysburg Address to music.

• George Gershwin : I've found you can live in a penthouse, surrounded by people, and still be alone.

• George Gershwin : Well, how do you like my music?

  Max Dreyfus : Well, how do you like it?

  George Gershwin : Me?

  Max Dreyfus : Yes, you.

  George Gershwin : Well, I wrote it. Of course I like it.

  Max Dreyfus : Don't say of course. I've written plenty I didn't like at all.

• Max Dreyfus : [occurs at about 1:49:45, after success 'Of Thee I Sing', George wants to write an opera, pushing people to continue working at 4 a.m]  Well, George, what is it you're trying to forget?

  George Gershwin : Forget?

  Max Dreyfus : Don't tell me you've turned yourself into a dynamo just for the fun of grinding out one hit after another. Success is coming out of your ears. Why don't you relax and just be a human being again?

  George Gershwin : I don't know what you're talking about.

  Max Dreyfus : I'm talking about you. I can see a boy way down in those streets who dreamed himself a long way from the ground he started on. Came up like an elevator. Now he's looking for new buttons to push. Seems to have an idea that happiness is vertical. And the last stop is heaven.

• Prof. Franck : [Indicating an autographed manuscript]  Eh? You see that? It wasn't a hit at first. It was a manuscript of Johannes Brahms.

  George Gershwin : You knew him?

  Prof. Franck : Yes, he gave it to me in Vienna. Once I hoped to reach his greatness. But one pupil like you makes up for a lifetime of disappointments.

  George Gershwin : [shaking his head]  Professor Franck... you overestimate my future.

  Prof. Franck : Oh, I have such hopes for you, my boy. America is a growing country. A mixture of things very old, with more that is new. Your nature has the same contradictions: the lamb, and the wolf. Ideals, and material ambitions. If you can make them both serve, George, you can give America her voice.

• Ira Gershwin : Mr. Music.

  George Gershwin : Mr. Words.

• George Gershwin : Well, what do know? At last I got the job. Relief pianist at a theater.

  Ira Gershwin : Who do you relieve?

  George Gershwin : Chico Marx.

  Ira Gershwin : Chico! He's the best pianists in the whole neighborhood.

• George Gershwin : I've got ideas that are different. When I once get started, nothing will ever stop me.

• George Gershwin : I don't want to be just a concert pianist. I want to use the piano as a stepping stone!

• George Gershwin : Work is a compulsion. It's an obsession. And there's so much I want to do.

  Ira Gershwin : What are you trying to prove, Georgie? You've already done...

  George Gershwin : Don't you see, Ira? It's only with my music that I can prove my right to live. I must write... and I can't even hear it inside me anymore.

• George Gershwin : I see you've learned to play with both hands.

  Oscar Levant : I took the liberty of recording our rhapsody.

• George Gershwin : Maybe way down deep, I'm just a family man - without a family.

• George Gershwin : How long have you known Mr. Dreyfus?

  Oscar Levant : Never met him in my life.

  George Gershwin : But you just called him by his first name.

  Oscar Levant : It's better than swearing. In this town, if you don't call a man by his first name, he doesn't publish your music. They don't publish mine anyway. But it's still a good theory.

• Christine Gilbert : You're happy.

  George Gershwin : When you're around I am.

  Christine Gilbert : No. You don't need anyone or anything. Whatever you touch turns to gold. You're happy every hour.

• Julie Adams : My name is Julie Adams and I live at the Studio Art Club.

  George Gershwin : My name is George Gershwin and I live in the Bronx.

• Prof. Franck : For whom will you compose? For ragtime dancers - or for musicians?

  George Gershwin : I don't know - maybe both. It seems like everything I hear sticks in my head. I want to make those sounds come down through my fingers and into the keys.

• Julie Adams : I'm afraid you'll burn yourself out.

  George Gershwin : Don't worry about me. See that? The longest life line you ever saw.

• Prof. Franck : Look. This is Franz Schubert. He was a songwriter, too. He died young, at 32. For years, he wore the same old faded necktie. But in the land that nurtured him, he was a voice that will never be silenced. Here, Richard Wagner. At rehearsals of his great opera "Rienzi", Richard Wagner hid in the wings while the singers ate their luncheon. He didn't have a lunch - just dreams of the music of the future. Beethoven. He never asked himself, "Is this a hit?" He said, "This is the way it must be done."

  George Gershwin : In time, I'll write the way I feel.

• Paul Whiteman : I think I'm going to give a jazz concert smack-dab in Aeolian Hall. I'm going to make a lady out of jazz.

  Ira Gershwin : The "Blue Monday Blues" in Aeolian Hall?

  Paul Whiteman : Better than that. George, I want you to write a serious concert piece. Based on the blues.

  George Gershwin : A serious piece that's blue, too? Blue themes and jazz rhythms? Of course.

  Max Dreyfus : You'll lose your shirt, Whiteman. Those highbrows will laugh you right out of Aeolian Hall.

  George Gershwin : A Rhapsody in Blue.

• Ira Gershwin : The nearer we get to the coast, the faster the train goes.

  George Gershwin : Speed, how I love it. Listen to the wheels, Ira. Gotta-make-time, gotta-make-time,gotta-make-time, gotta-make-time.

  Oscar Levant : [from outside the door of the cabin, pretending to be a porter, singing]  Folks with plenty of living, de locks on de door.

  [knocks, talking] 

  Oscar Levant : De Porter, sah.

  George Gershwin : And what critics said "Porgy and Bess" was too high brow?

  Ira Gershwin : Come in.

  Oscar Levant : [George and Ira laugh to see it's Oscar]  Ya sah. Ya sah. Ya sah.

• George Gershwin : Chris, you will come to New York?

  Christine Gilbert : It would serve you right if I did.

• George Gershwin : You were swell, Julie. Swell.

• Paul Whiteman : I may be kind of batty, but this looks mighty good to me.

  Max Dreyfus : Why, it's as blue as blue Monday.

  Ira Gershwin : Hey, that's a good title.

  George Gershwin : Not bad. "Blue Monday Blues". Let's go down on the stage and run it through.

• George Gershwin : You take me for some kind of curiosity?

  Christine Gilbert : That's stimulating, George. Your interest in me is the same, you know. Whatever I do or say, you think is exotic. I've never thought of myself as exotic.

• Christine Gilbert : I know the real thing when I see it; but, I can't put it on canvas.

  George Gershwin : Maybe that's because you're too critical. Why don't you let yourself go?

  Christine Gilbert : That, too, is easier for you than for me.

• George Gershwin : My fingers wouldn't obey.

• George Gershwin : I'm beginning to understand. That painting for you is like music for me.

  Christine Gilbert : If that were true, I'd be the happiest woman in the world.