The Barefoot Contessa (1954)

Ava Gardner: Maria Vargas

Photos 

Quotes 

• Maria Vargas : To a girl with nothing a man with hundreds is just as rich as a man with millions.

• Maria Vargas : In Hollywood, it is not easy to become a star.

  Harry Dawes : Ah, where is it easy?

• Maria Vargas : Can you teach me to act, Mr. Dawes?

  Harry Dawes : If you can act, I can help you. If you can't nobody can teach you.

• Harry Dawes : My name is Harry Dawes.

  Maria Vargas : Harry Dawes? Harry Dawes? Did you not once direct Jean Harlow and Carole Lombard?

  Harry Dawes : You must have gone to the movies when you were a very little girl. How did you know my name? Only one out of 10,000 moviegoers...

  Maria Vargas : Oh, I can name to you Lubitsch and Fleming and Van Dyke and La Cava

  Harry Dawes : You didn't think I was dead too, did you?

• Maria Vargas : In Hollywood, it is not easy to become a star.

  Harry Dawes : Ah, where is it easy?

  Maria Vargas : In Madrid, here at least I'm a little star. Why should I take the chance that I lose it?

• Harry Dawes : Do you know who Mr Kirk Edwards is?

  Maria Vargas : I have heard of him. He is the owner of Texas.

  Harry Dawes : That is correct. Recently, however, Mr. Edwards decided to produce motion pictures and for that purpose he's just bought California, too.

  Maria Vargas : And now he wants to buy me.

• Oscar Muldoon : Something to eat, Señorita? Ah, Waiter! Mangiare? Poco di vino , Señorita?

  Maria Vargas : Do you speak Spanish, Señor?

  Oscar Muldoon : Oh, just a couple of words.

  Maria Vargas : Not even that. One of them is Italian. Speak only English, please.

• Maria Vargas : Why did not Mr Kirk Edwards come to ask me himself?

  Harry Dawes : Well, I'm sure he would have been delighted! But, after all, since I'm the Director...

  Maria Vargas : Do all Directors come to ask young women to sit with their Producers?

• Maria Vargas : The man with the sweat was more pleasant.

  Harry Dawes : Not really.

• Maria Vargas : I do not say this with pride, Mr Dawes. Nor do I want it to sound like one of the foolish things we laugh at in the movies. But no man has ever paid for me and I do not think any man ever will.

• Oscar Muldoon : Afraid you'll be lonely, far away in Hollywood? There's no reason why, after a time, we can't send for your mother. After all, a girl likes to have her mother with her. Right?

  Maria Vargas : I would not like to have my mother with me.

  Kirk Edwards : Why not?

  Maria Vargas : Because, I do not like my mother.

• Maria Vargas : Like a baby who needs a light on in the dark, I need to be loved when I'm hiding in the dirt - and afraid.

• Maria Vargas : Key light? What is that?

  Harry Dawes : Oh, that's your own special light when the stage is all lit up. The light that shines only on you,

  Maria Vargas : Like the moon.

  Harry Dawes : Like the moon. You have to learn how to find this light out of all the other lights. How never to lose it. How to make it do things for your eyes and your lips and your hair.

  Maria Vargas : But, this is not acting.

  Harry Dawes : No, this is not acting.

• Harry Dawes : Her name is Jerry.

  Maria Vargas : She has the name of a man.

  Harry Dawes : There is no further resemblance.

• Maria Vargas : Love. It is a kind of sickness. And, as I have said, I cannot bear to be with sick people. But when the sick one is yourself, you cannot run away.

• Maria Vargas : When I was a little girl, like so many others, there was no money to buy shoes for me. And when the bombs came, in the civil war, I used to bury myself in the dirt of the ruins to be safe. I would lie there, safe in the dirt - and wiggle my toes and listen to the noise - and dream of someday being a fine lady, in fine shoes. I hate shoes, Mr Dawes. I wear them to dance and to show myself. But, I feel afraid in shoes. And I feel safe with my feet in the dirt.

• Maria Vargas : I have no fear of Mr Kirk Edwards. America is a very rich and powerful country; but, you have no monopoly on evil men. I have known them since I was a very little girl.

• Maria Vargas : Mr Dawes, do you think really that I could be a star?

  Harry Dawes : Well, there's one phrase I've avoided like the plague; because, it never worked out. With you, I think it would. You - couldn't miss.

  Maria Vargas : I think that I am pretty enough. But, I would not want to be that kind of star.

• Harry Dawes : What are you afraid of?

  Maria Vargas : The same as everybody else. The same as you. Of being exposed and unprotected. Like Mr Kirk Edwards without his money. Like you, as you used to be without your drink - or now without your script girl, who loves you. Like me, in my shoes and on display for men and women to examine - for different reasons.

• Harry Dawes : Many men must be in love with you.

  Maria Vargas : In the dirt, it's hard to tell.

  Harry Dawes : Haven't you been in love?

  Maria Vargas : From the dirt, it's easy to look into the clouds.

• Maria Vargas : I am ready, Mr Dawes.

  Harry Dawes : You forgot your shoes.

  Maria Vargas : No. I did not forget them.

• Maria Vargas : Always, Kirk, you choose exactly the wrong moment to play dictator with me.

• Harry Dawes : Where are you, Maria?

  Maria Vargas : Half in the dirt and half out.

• Harry Dawes : It's not going to be easy.

  Maria Vargas : Has it been, up till now?

• Maria Vargas : I do not like Mr. Kirk Edwards.

  Harry Dawes : You're starting at the end of a long, long line.

  Maria Vargas : Somehow, to me, he is not a healthy man. Somehow he's sick. And I cannot bear to watch sick people be sick.

• Maria Vargas : America is a very rich and powerful country, but you have no monopoly on evil men. I have known this since I was a very little girl.

• Kirk Edwards : I'm sure you don't mean that. Every mother should be loved.

  Maria Vargas : If they deserve it.

  Oscar Muldoon : We can work all that out later, too

• Maria Vargas : Harry, I think that I should go home.

  Harry Dawes : Well, this is your home.

  Maria Vargas : This is an ugly house in bad taste which I rent, containing a bed to sleep on, when I rest. Chairs to sit on and a stove to keep we warm when I rest.