Presenting Lily Mars (1943)

Judy Garland: Lily Mars

Photos 

Quotes 

• Lily Mars : Charles... Hey, Charlie! Wait for me!

  Charlie Potter : Never again you... you actress!

  [Charlie leaves] 

  Lily Mars : Poor Charles. He's so young. So very, young. And it hurts me to hurt him. But...

  [throws back her arms, sticks out her chest] 

  Lily Mars : What can I do?

• Davey : Lily, can I go to Mrs. Thornway's house with you?

  Lily Mars : No, Davey, dear. Her doorknobs might tempt you.

  Davey : Oh, they already have. Lily, please take me.

  Lily Mars : No.

  Davey : Well, then, could you, sort of, maybe, get one for me?

  Lily Mars : Of course not.

  Davey : Oh, but they're such super dupers!

• 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.

• Lily Mars : I don't feel bad, I just feel mad. Hopping mad!

• 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.

• Isobel Rekay : Tell me this: has John Thornway never done anything for you?

  Lily Mars : No, never.

  Isobel Rekay : Well, what reason does he give?

  Lily Mars : He doesn't like me.

• 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.

• Mike - Stage Doorman : Young lady, if you want to see Mr. Thornway, why don't you send your name into him?

  Lily Mars : Because I want to see him.

  Mike - Stage Doorman : Lady, that does not make sense.

  Lily Mars : It does to me. You see, we have a kind of a misunderstanding.

• Lily Mars : Hi yeah, Mike, what do you know?

  Mike - Stage Doorman : Everybody, but you.

• 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.

• Lily Mars : Well, there I was, He said do something. I didn't know what to do.

  Isobel Rekay : So you imitated me.

  Lily Mars : Well, Miss Rekay, anytime you want to, you can imitate me.

• 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.

• Lily Mars : [on the phone]  Yes, John. Yes, John. Oh, yes, John.

• Lily Mars : [singing]  Tom was hot, the tune was sweet, But he vamped it with a boogie beat, And the classic thing, Got a shot of swing! Beethoven turned gray, So did did Debussy and Bose, It was such a stew, Tch-Tchaikovsky said "I'm gonna sue!" And now that tune, that no one played , Has stepped right up and hit the hit parade...

• Isobel Rekay : You must try coming in through the door, sometime. It's so much simpler.

  Lily Mars : Yes, if you're invited.

• Lily Mars : Boost. Boost. Come on, Charlie. Boost. Boost!

• Mrs. Mars : Lily, you're something that's very wonderful to be.

  Lily Mars : What, Mama?

  Mrs. Mars : Nineteen.

  Lily Mars : Nineteen to nowhere.

  Mrs. Mars : Some very successful people didn't get their start until well past twenty.

  Lily Mars : Right now it looks like I'm going to be well past everything, before I get my chance to do what I've always dreamed of doing. Being an actress - and a good one too.

• Frankie : Lily, you know what you are?

  Lily Mars : Foolish?

  Frankie : You're me. The same eager, hopeful stage struck little hick I was a half century ago, with the same question to answer. What do you want?

  Lily Mars : I want to be an actress.

  Frankie : You know what I'd do if I were you?

  Lily Mars : Go home?

  Frankie : Lily, I think you are home. I know I am and I'd rather be here, even doing what I'm doing, than be anywhere else on earth. Because, this is where I belong.

• Lily Mars : [singing]  For songs are souvenirs, That live through the years, The grand old songs never die...

• Lily Mars : [singing]  When all the world goes wrong, A simple little song, Will always bring a rainbow smiling through...