Johnny Guitar (1954)

Joan Crawford: Vienna

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Vienna : [Spoken to Johnny Guitar, with a certain scornful bitterness]  A man can lie, steal... and even kill. But as long as he hangs on to his pride, he's still a man. All a woman has to do is slip - once. And she's a "tramp!" Must be a great comfort to you to be a man.

• Johnny : How many men have you forgotten?

  Vienna : As many women as you've remembered.

  Johnny : Don't go away.

  Vienna : I haven't moved.

  Johnny : Tell me something nice.

  Vienna : Sure, what do you want to hear?

  Johnny : Lie to me. Tell me all these years you've waited. Tell me.

  Vienna : [without feeling]  All those years I've waited.

  Johnny : Tell me you'd a-died if I hadn't come back.

  Vienna : [without feeling]  I woulda died if you hadn't come back.

  Johnny : Tell me you still love me like I love you.

  Vienna : [without feeling]  I still love you like you love me.

  Johnny : [bitterly]  Thanks. Thanks a lot.

• Vienna : Down there I sell whiskey and cards. All you can buy up these stairs is a bullet in the head. Now which do you want?

• Vienna : Sam, light a lamp and hang it outside.

  Sam : [Reluctant, since a fierce storm is blowing outside]  Nobody'll be in in this weather.

  Vienna : And if they do, how can they find the place? Just hang a lamp!

  Sam : [Meekly, to the two men in the kitchen]  Never seen a woman who was more of a man. She thinks like one, acts like one, and sometimes makes me feel like I'm not.

• Vienna : [Referring to her long-ago love for Johnny Guitar]  When a fire burns itself out, all you have left is ashes.

• Vienna : You shouldn't have come back, Tom.

  Old Tom : I won't be in the way.

  Vienna : I can't have anyone here.

  Old Tom : Nobody notices me. I'm just part of the furniture.

• Vienna : You haven't changed at all, Johnny.

  Johnny : What made you think I had?

  Vienna : In five years, a person should learn something.

  Johnny : Five years ago, I met you in a saloon; now I find you in one. I don't see much change.

  Vienna : Except I *own* this one.

• Johnny : There's nothin' like a good smoke and a cuppa' coffee. You know, some men got the craving for gold and silver. Others need lotsa' land, with herds of cattle. And then there's those that got the weakness for whiskey, and for women. When you boil it all down, what does a man really need? Just a smoke and a cup of coffee.

  Marshal Williams : And who are you?

  Johnny : The name, sir, is Johnny Guitar.

  Dancin' Kid : [Scornfully]  That's no name!

  Johnny : [Cooly]  Anybody care to change it?

  Vienna : I hired you to play the guitar, not insult my customers.

  Johnny : Well, if these are your customers, I'm not so sure I'll take this job.

  Vienna : That's pretty strong talk for a man who doesn't wear a gun.

• Vienna : Boys who play with guns have to be ready to die like men.

• Emma : I'm going to kill you.

  Vienna : I know. If I don't kill you first.

• Vienna : If you remember, McIvers gave me 24 hours to close. I drew out my own money, paid off my boys... and I'm closed. You can't buy a drink or turn a card. I'm sitting here in my own house, minding my own business, playing my own piano. I don't think you can make a crime out of that.

• Mr. Andrews : [Dining privately with Vienna in her upstairs room]  Tell me, why did you pick this spot to build? How could you possibly know that the railroad was coming this way?

  Vienna : Some time ago I ran into your surveyor and... we exchanged confidences. When the railroad comes through here, how much do you think this property will be worth?

  Mr. Andrews : What's Albuquerque worth?

  Vienna : How would you like to share in it? I'll need all the help I can get.

  Mr. Andrews : I couldn't help you. I'm not very handy with a gun.

  Vienna : I'm offering you an opportunity to get rich!

  Mr. Andrews : An opportunity to get killed would be more accurate.

• Johnny : [Mining crews are blasting up in the nearby hills, making the roads impassable]  They're closing the pass. If you're thinking of running, it's a little late. I've got a hunch the posse will be droppin' in on ya' before night. Same people who paid you a visit yesterday, only they won't be the same. A posse isn't people. I've ridden with 'em, and I've ridden against 'em. A posse is an animal that moves like one and thinks like one.

  Vienna : [Dismissively]  They're men with itchy fingers and a coil of rope around their saddle horns, lookin' for somebody to hang. And after riding a few hours they don't care much WHO they hang. You haven't told me a thing I don't know.

• Dancin' Kid : How did it feel with that rope around your neck, Vienna?

  Vienna : [Sarcastically]  Try it sometime.

• Johnny : What's eating the fancy man?

  Vienna : I don't know. What's your trouble, Kid?

  Dancin' Kid : I'm in no trouble, he is. Fooling with a strange woman can bring a man a lot of grief.

  Johnny : [to Vienna]  Are you a strange woman?

  Vienna : Only to strangers.

• Vienna : Sit down, Johnny. We've both done a lot of living. Our problem now is how to do a little more.

• Vienna : Eddie, that's last month's paper. How many times do you have to read it?

  Eddie : I like to know what's happening in the world, outside.

  Vienna : There'll be plenty happening here soon. Just worry about that.

• Marshal Williams : [the posse has come to Vienna's, demanding the whereabouts of the Dancin' Kid's gang]  We came for the Kid and his bunch.

  Vienna : [Calmly sitting and playing the piano]  That's what you said yesterday.

  Marshal Williams : We came for you too, Vienna.

  Vienna : [Still playing the piano, unperturbed]  Why? I had nothing to do with robbing the bank. Every man here knows that. I don't have to hold up banks. All I have to do is sit here and wait for the railroad to come through. And that is my intention.

• Dancin' Kid : [Seeing, for the first time, Johnny Guitar wearing a gun, and not realizing who he really is]  Well, look at Mr. Guitar! All dressed up and looking mighty dangerous.

  Johnny : What did you want to tell me?

  Dancin' Kid : [Mockingly, and completely unaware that Johnny Guitar is actually an extremely capable gunfighter]  Oh, I'm too scared, now that you've gotta' gun.

  Vienna : You better lay off him, Kid.

  Dancin' Kid : I wouldn't hurt him.

  Vienna : I wasn't thinking of *you* hurting *him.*

  Dancin' Kid : Oh, you mean he might shoot himself in the leg, trying to draw?

  [chuckles rudely] 

  Vienna : No... but if I were you, I wouldn't fool around with Johnny Logan.

  Dancin' Kid : [Stunned]  Are you... Johnny Logan?

  Johnny : That's the name, friend.

• Vienna : The railroad's sending in people by tens, twenties, hundreds, and thousands! You can't keep them all out! Tell them, Mr. Andrews!

  Mr. Andrews : I think you put it rather well.

  John McIvers : You're not buildin' no depot here.

  Mr. Andrews : That's for Vienna to decide.

  Vienna : [Brief pause]  Vienna decided!

• Mr. Andrews : I wish you luck, Vienna, for whatever it's worth.

  Vienna : Thanks, Mr Andrews, but I'm not trusting to luck. A good gunfighter doesn't depend on four-leaf clovers.

• Marshal Williams : We got enough trouble, Vienna. Don't you give us none.

  Vienna : The only trouble we have here is what you've brought in.

• Emma : I wouldn't spit on him. Oh, he was always eyeing me. I never told my poor brother because Len would have killed him. That's why he held up the stage and killed my brother, because now he thinks he can get me. That's why.

  Vienna : You've got it a little twisted, haven't you, Emma? Now you think you can get him.

  Emma : She's crazy.

  Vienna : You want the Kid, and you're so ashamed of it, you want him dead!

• Emma : You don't hear so good. We don't want you here.

  Vienna : You don't own the earth! Not this part of it.

  John McIvers : You stay, and you'll keep only enough of it to bury you in.

  Vienna : I intend to be buried here - in the 20th century.

• Mr. Andrews : That's for Vienna to decide.

  Vienna : Vienna decided.

• Emma : You can't shoot all of us.

  Vienna : Two of you will do.

  Emma : You don't have the nerve.

  Vienna : Try me.

• Vienna : Play something for me, Mr. Guitar.

  Johnny : Anything special.

  Vienna : Just put a lot of *love* in it.

• Vienna : If you're smart, you'll ride out of here and keep on riding and you won't come back.

  Dancin' Kid : That's what I should do; but, I never do what I should.

  Vienna : Well, it's your funeral.

  Dancin' Kid : Don't bury me, yet.

• Turkey Ralston : If you're going to stay here, you're going to need somebody to sort of look after you. So, I'm staying with you.

  Vienna : If you look after me, who's going to look after you?

  Turkey Ralston : You talk like I was a boy. I'm a man.

  Vienna : Every man's entitled to be a boy for a little while.

• Vienna : I'm not ashamed of how I got what I have. The important thing is, I've got it.

• Johnny : Five years is a long time. There must have been quite a few men in between.

  Vienna : Enough.

• Johnny : This is all Emma needs. Why does she hate you so?

  Vienna : She's in love with the Kid.

  Johnny : Last night, she was trying awful hard to get him hung.

  Vienna : He makes her feel like a woman and that frightens her.

• Vienna : You *are* gun-crazy. You'll never be any different. It was a mistake to send for you, Johnny. You can pick up your pay now.

• Vienna : I know when I know you know I'm innocent. Yet, you stand there in your funeral clothes. Like vultures! Waiting for another corpse.

• Johnny : You wouldn't shoot a man in the back?

  Dancin' Kid : In front of Vienna? Why, she'd never forgive such bad manners.

  Vienna : You'd better stick to your dancing, Kid. You'll live longer.

• Vienna : [Looking down at the deserted gambling area of her saloon]  Spin the wheel, Eddie.

  Eddie : [Perplexed]  What for? There's no customers.

  Vienna : I like to hear it spin.

  [Eddie drops his paper and gives the roulette wheel a good spin] 

• Vienna : Who are you?! And you, and you, to break into my house with your angry faces and evil minds?!

• Vienna : Stop feeling so sorry for yourself! You think you had it rough? I didn't find this place. I had to build it. How do you think I was able to do that?

  Johnny : I don't want to know.

  Vienna : But I want you to know. For every board, plank and beam in this place...

  Johnny : I heard enough!

  Vienna : No, you're going to listen.

  Johnny : I told you I don't want to know any more!

  Vienna : You can't shut me up, Johnny. Not any more.

  [Tearfully] 

  Vienna : Once I would have crawled at your feet to be near you. I searched for you in every man I met.

  Johnny : Look, Vienna. You just said you had a bad dream. We both had, but it's all over.

  Vienna : No, not for me.

  Johnny : It's just like it was five years ago. Nothing's happened in between.

  Vienna : Oh, I wish...

  Johnny : Not a thing. You've got nothing to tell me because it's not real. Only you and me, that's real.

• Vienna : Is that a proposal?

  Johnny : A man's gotta stop somewhere. This seems as good a spot as any.

  Vienna : That's just about the most touching speech a woman ever listened to.

• Vienna : Someone holds up the stagecoach, your brother is killed, and all you can think about is hanging the Dancin' Kid. You know he didn't do it. You all know it.

• Dancin' Kid : I always wanted to shoot me a guitar man.

  Vienna : That's a worthy ambition.

• Johnny : You hired me to do a job.

  Vienna : Is that all you came here for -- to do a job?

• Vienna : Why did you come back for me?

  Johnny : First chance I ever had to be a hero. I couldn't pass it up.

• Vienna : Keep the wheel spinning, Eddie.

• Vienna : Eddie, you can stop spinning the wheel.

• Dancin' Kid : What do you see you don't like?

  Vienna : Nothing. As a matter of fact I like you.

  Dancin' Kid : But, not enough, huh?

  Vienna : Not *that* much.

  Dancin' Kid : I remember differently.

  Vienna : You remember, I don't. That's the way it goes.

• Vienna : Where are your guns?

  Johnny : In my saddlebag.

  Vienna : Suppose you leave them there. I'll tell you when to use them.

  Johnny : You're the boss.

• Johnny : Why me?

  Vienna : Maybe I'll need a gunfighter.

• Vienna : I'll have to turn him over to the posse.

• Vienna : Vienna's is closed, Mr. Logan.