I did a double take when I heard that line. That fact that they even implied the word 'bitch' in a film from 1958 is hilarious! Very clever too because the dialogue just continued along as though she didn't say anything weird.
shareI just love that line! And I was quite shocked myself when I first saw it.
Marilyn Monroe: I don't want to be rich. I just want to be wonderful.
Such things did come up periodically in Production Code era dialog.
Another example, from The Women (1939):
"There is a name for you, ladies, but it isn't used in high society... outside of a kennel."
This line from BB&C *is* a good one, though.
I must be really really thick, but...I really don't get it? The only pun I get there is between casting a spell and spelling-writing. I know it's meant to have innuendo, everyone says so...but I'm just slow, can someone explain?
shareIf you replace the letter 'w' in 'witch' with a 'b,' what word do you get?
By the way, I didn't understand that line either until I visited this forum.
I see a red door and I want it painted black
No colors anymore I want them to turn black...
thanks!
I went and got the movie and it was revealed to me that BEFORE the "You never learned how to spell" the line is :" She's a witch". Eureka moment!
I thought the pun was in the " You just never learned how to spell" and was twisting my mind to find naughty words in it.
afraid I am with Mycrofette above here, The line (pretty much a throwaway line) makes little sense , well not as a joke. the girl messing with the Miro type painting obviously thinks that Gil is a bitch but why is that funny? Elsewhere when Gil is talking about her shoes there seems to be a jump-cut in the narrative although the background music is continuous. nice guitar playing by the way ...
^ yeah this is great
shareThere is a certain charm...coupled with a certain irritation ...in all these "old" censored American movies(roughly from 1934 through 1968) in which cuss words could not be used, so all sorts of "coded versions" had to be offered (as here.)
Worse, I thought was when the sentence STARTED with the cussing and then something would cut the person off:
"Why you son of a b---baby! How good to see you!"
It was as if the movies then existed in a world where not only did no one cuss, but a coded, cut-off "alternate type of talking" was undertaken. It wasn't real.
The big one for me in this regard is "Mister Roberts" the famous 1955 movie about life on a US Navy ship in WWII. You had all these sweaty, dirty brawny sailors saying things like "That's a bunch of crud." Really weird.