See!

[lococardinal]

Actually I'm not sure if it should be see! or see? Anyone know when they stopped using this word to end a statement?

 

As an example in High Sierra when Bogart said to Lupino "you're not in my plans see!(?)

 

Or the many times Edward G Robinson would use it. Did mainly tough guys use the word at the end of a statement? I think I remember it being used by regular characters as well. Did people in real life use the word see that way, or was it just in the movies?

 

Can anyone think of any other words or phrases not used anymore?

[kenwal34]

How about THE CATS PAJAMAS to describe someone whose smartly dressed or STINKO for a really drunk person?

[pgm80s]

Or how about beginning a sentence with SAY!

 

or ginger peachy

[Jamie]

Or even: "there." or "There!"

[classicsfan1119]

Hi "Loco..."! When the word "See?" was used at the end of a statement, it was considered to be a question...kind of like saying "Get it?" It was used a lot by characters in "tough guy" roles, and quite successfully too, to indicate that these hardened guys simply did not mince words or have an ounce of politeness in them. And, as often happens during the same era, the public easily picks up this kind of lingo and also uses it. I still hear it being used by some people today!

 

I don't think anyone uses "Say," to begin a sentence anymore...at least not as frequeltly as it was once used in movies and by the public, but I still prefer it to "Dude,". ;)ML

 

 

[slappy3500]

"Why I outtgah...."

[therealfuster]

"see" at the end of a sentence, with Eddie G. Robinson.

 

But I'm sure he was not the only one to say it.

 

Another word used in a lot of Thirties films is "swell", as a compliment and not as in "We're a couple of swells".

 

I really like to see old newsreels with people being interviewed, who were not famous to hear how they pronounce words. That old film footage from the time of Dillinger is interesting.

 

They say "gay" a lot in old films, as in gay divorcees, gay blade and a few other things, but would be surprised to see its evolution I bet.

[path40a]

Getting "tight" for drinking till one's drunk.

[loveoldmovies04]

Path, I thought of the same one as you "getting tight" I mainly think of love affair or an affair to remember when he comes to see her in the end of the movie and they use this phrase, I love that scene.

[ayresorchids]

To me, the most interesting one of all is "make love." Watching classic movies one hears fully clothed women asking fully clothed men, "Are you making love to me?"

 

I am told that this once meant, "flirting with," or "wooing," rather than the ultimate act of love, but it always makes me wonder: what was the euphemism for "have sex with" back then? There must have been one.

 

And when did "make love" change its meaning?

 

 

[sagebrush522]

Excellent question about "make love". I can only really remember it being used in that way in thirties films. Does anyone recall that usage in a 40s film? It may well have been banned when the Hays office tightened up on film censorship in 1933.

 

Ariel

[lococardinal]

In the Abbott & Costello movie "Mexican Hayride" there's a scene where Luba Molina asks Lou Costello why he won't make love to her. Lou who has a spring from a sofa stuck to the back of his pants tells her something's holding him back.

[deeanddaisy666]

I love hearing archaic phrases and words in old movies, such as 'gosh' or 'golly' or 'by gum'. I think Kate Hepburn used all three of those at one time or another.

 

I too liked the way actresses used to ask 'are you making love to me', it was sooo innocent. But I too wonder what the pertinent 1930/1940 phrase was to indicate making love.

 

Speaking of A&C, I remember in the Monster A&C, Costello says to Dracula's lady conquest, "I'll bite" and she says "No, I will".

[pgm80s]

I just finished watching "Now, Voyager" for the first time tonite and noticed that Bette Davis uses the phrase "making love" a few times throughout the movie.

[deeanddaisy666]

Okay, see, if I were head of programming at TCM, I would have included, after Now Voyager, the Warner Bros. Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs is strumming a banjo...in drag...under water...and singing 'Wrong, would it be wrong to love?'...

 

inspired lunacy, those cartoons were.

 

P.S. I still can't edit, but do my eyes deceive me, or did I just open another window, and my login was constant. Saints preserve us.

[moviegeek3000]

I talk like old school gangsters all the time, see?

 

Say copper, you on the level?

 

 

 

 

[nickdimeo]

How about the ever popular...SQUAWK! "Quit that squawking of your's!"

[ayresorchids]

And ya better not squeal, see? 'Cause if I savvy that ya squealed and I end up in the slammer, I'll find ya after I'm sprung and you'll be pushin' up daisies, see?

 

Speaking of those marvelous Warner Brothers cartoons, my husband and I were listening to a Mel Blanc imitation of Al Jolson recently. He sounded just like Edward G. Robinson getting down on one knee to sing!

[brackenhe]

I just heard one on Midnight Mary. Someone was calling a girl "that dame." Boy, would I like to the a "dame."

[slappy3500]

Cheese it!! It's the cops!

[path40a]

"Judas Priest", which I heard most recently while watching Kitty Foyle, which I also found amusing 'cause Ms. Rogers playing a 15 year old in that one preceeded her character pretending to be such a couple of years later in The Major and the Minor.

[bggalaxy]

I heard "Why I outta..." in the Big Sleep last night (tape).

[deeanddaisy666]

W.C. Fields used to get around the censors with disguised expletives such as 'Godfrey Daniel', and others I can't now remember.

 

Speaking of expletives, I watched 'The Front Page' all the way through for the first time. This was the 1931 version with Pat O'Brien and at the end, when Hildy's boss is about to have him restrained, Adolph Menjou says to the person on the phone: "The Son of a ***** stole my watch!".

 

Funny thing is, it sounded as if the film was scratched. I guess Breen started his foul censoring at that time, but it appears this was one movie that didn't censor itself before it was released. Intersting.

[brackenhe]

Speaking of The Front Page, someone deliberately flips the bird to someone and it was censored. No way would that have passed the board 3 years later.

[ayresorchids]

In Swing Time, a policeman gets on Victor Moore's nerves, and he says something as the cop starts to cross the street. We don't hear it because of a horn or construction noise or something (and I'd love for a lip reader to tell me what it is that Moore really mouths). When the cop turns to ask threateningly, "What did you say?", Moore responds, "I said: Watch out for the great big ditch."

 

Similarly, Astaire and Rogers have this conversation in Top Hat before she realizes he has taken over for and is impersonating the driver of her hansom cab:

 

FA: Well, you see, Miss, the 'orse is kind of tired today, on account of 'aving run The Grand National on Friday.

GR: Do you mean to tell me that this is a race horse?

FA: Yes, Miss. And oy've got 'is pedigree, too. 'Is sire was Man O' War!

GR (impressed): Well! And who was his dam?

FA: Beg pardon, Miss?

GR: I said, who was his dam?

FA: Oh, I don't know, Miss--'e didn't give a

 

[CLUNK!] goes the tiny trap door that separates them, but you still hear him say it--four years before Rhett Butler!