The February 14th Episodes - Louis Edmonds' Dialogue

Louis Edmonds' characters often got some of the best dialogue on DS - and the February 14th episodes were no exception. Two bits that I absolutely loved today:

Ep #167 - when Carolyn tells Roger that a seance might help Liz:

ROGER
(in outraged disbelief)

Help your mother?! Why not dance a voodoo dance around a hospital table, chanting semi-guttural noises?!

And Ep #428 - when Nathan claims to really be in love with Millicent:

JOSHUA
(aghast)

Forbes, you are too much of a swine to love anybody but yourself!

I was laughing hysterically after both of those. 


And on a side note, we've discussed this before, but it's interesting how often pig/swine references come up on DS as character putdowns. Of course, there's my favorite  - but in addition to Joshua's remark above, off the top of my head I recall that in Ep #790 Magda calls Gregory Trask a swine, in Ep #820 King Johnny calls Magda swine, in Ep #841 Petofi calls the gypsies swine, in Ep #1169 Gabriel calls Gerard a loathsome pig, and in Ep #1190 Gabriel likens being married to Edith to being married to a pig.  Someone at DS most defintely loved to use pig/swine expressions. 

Louis Edmonds' characters often got some of the best dialogue on DS - and the February 14th episodes were no exception. Two bits that I absolutely loved today:

Ep #167 - when Carolyn tells Roger that a seance might help Liz:

ROGER
(in outraged disbelief)

Help your mother?! Why not dance a voodoo dance around a hospital table, chanting semi-guttural noises?!

He DOES get the best lines. The shut down sound for my computer used to be his "And now to bed, with dreams of lovely young ladies jumping off cliffs and all sorts of ancestral excersizes."

I was about to ask you what your favorite was until I remembered the lovely pic that accompanied the montage a few weeks ago.

That is a lot of swine! I wonder which people would be more insenced at being called, a pig or swine? A pig brings to mind a fat animal, while swine brings to mind dirty, fat, smelly animals. (In my mind anyhow). So I think swine would be worse...

I also seem to remember in 1897 people commonly told Quentin "Well so-and-so, ie-not you, is a gentleman." I wonder if people really used that as an insult back in the day?

Louis Edmonds' characters often got some of the best dialogue on DS

Here, here!  One of my favorites, it's IMPOSSIBLE to pick just one, is in the episode, can't recall the number, when Roger comes back from a business trip and asks Carolyn if Willie and Jason are still around.  When she tells him Jason is still there but that Willie has left he says, "Oh, bravo!  You can't keep the jet-set down can you?  Did he accept an invitation from the prince and princess of Monoco or could he simply not stand another one of Mrs. Johnson's boiled dinners!?"  

Oh, and another one, when he tells Liz that they should invite Barnabas to stay at Collinwood and she asks how can they when "there are the two others" already staying there.  His retort was classic!  "Well, Barnabas is a blood cousin and I think he should be given more consideration than those two sea tramps!"  

One of my favorites is in PT 1970 when Roger comments that one should not mention Angelique and Maggie in the same breath--it's rather like comparing a sable to a mouse.  (I love the bitchy smirk Parker gives in response to that comment, too.)

I believe that Nancy Barrett was quoted in Craig Hamrick's fabulous biography of Big Lou that acting opposite Edmonds was often like being in a Noel Coward farce.  He brought such sharp, acid wit to his performances on Shadows.

G.

can't recall the number, when Roger comes back from a business trip and asks Carolyn if Willie and Jason are still around.  When she tells him Jason is still there but that Willie has left he says, "Oh, bravo!  You can't keep the jet-set down can you?  Did he accept an invitation from the prince and princess of Monoco or could he simply not stand another one of Mrs. Johnson's boiled dinners!?"

That would be Ep #214, shortly before Roger learns about Barnabas.

Oh, and another one, when he tells Liz that they should invite Barnabas to stay at Collinwood and she asks how can they when "there are the two others" already staying there.  His retort was classic!  "Well, Barnabas is a blood cousin and I think he should be given more consideration than those two sea tramps!"

And that would be Ep #218.

Speaking of the sea tramps, Roger is in rare form in every scene in which he's railing against Jason and Willie staying at Collinwood. I can't wait until I start to get to those eps in a bit longer than a month from now - particularly the scenes Roger shares with Jason because those two are so evenly matched when it comes to slinging barbs.

I believe that Nancy Barrett was quoted in Craig Hamrick's fabulous biography of Big Lou that acting opposite Edmonds was often like being in a Noel Coward farce. He brought such sharp, acid wit to his performances on Shadows.

That's an absolutely perfect description of what his performances were like.

it's interesting how often pig/swine references come up on DS

Yet another one in Ep #429 - while attempting to influence Peter to give up defending Vicki:

TRASK

Look around you! Poverty! Living in this shabby little room! Eating food barely fit for a swine! Wearing clothes that would disgrace a scarecrow!

Trask sure has Peter pegged. But then, as is seen in the slideshow, Peter gets him back equally as good:

1968: Ep #429 - Peter wonders if Trask ever stops to think what a waste it is for him
to sell out his life by trying to destroy everything he doesn't understand. ( One of
Peter's (and RD's) few great moments - even if he did confuse hypocrisy and
Hippocrates just a few seconds earlier.  )