How Well Do You Know Classic Hollywood? 5 Film Quotes to Test Yourself

Some movie lines have outlived the films around them. People who have never watched the full picture can still recite them at parties. That’s a strange kind of fame.

Here are five famous lines from Hollywood’s golden era. I won’t print them, so you can try to name the film from the scene and the clues alone. Each section adds a few verifiable facts about the film, including its place on the American Film Institute’s 2005 list of the greatest movie quotes.

The Farewell That Cost a Producer Money

Picture a Southern gentleman in the smoking ruins of his marriage. He tells the woman in front of him that he simply doesn’t care what happens to her. The film is Gone with the Wind, released in 1939, with Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh in the leading roles.

The line sits at the top of the AFI’s quote ranking. In its day it was risky, because the Production Code frowned on profanity, and the word at the end of the sentence was the sticking point. The code was amended so the word could stay, though producer David O. Selznick was reportedly fined for it.

A Toast in a Foggy Airport

Here the setting is wartime Morocco, and a cynical nightclub owner says goodbye to the woman he loved in Paris. He uses a casual phrase of affection, the kind of thing you’d say over a drink. Casablanca came out in 1942 and was directed by Michael Curtiz.

The AFI placed that line fifth on its list. The film also won the Oscar for Best Picture at the ceremony held in 1944. Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman were the stars, and the pairing is still one of cinema’s best known.

Leaving Kansas Behind

A young girl clutches her little dog and tells it they’ve landed somewhere very unlike home. The film is The Wizard of Oz, and Judy Garland played the girl. It arrived in 1939, the same year as Gone with the Wind, which makes that year a famously crowded one for great cinema.

The dog was played by a Cairn terrier named Terry, who was later renamed Toto. The AFI ranked this line fourth among its movie quotes. The film’s use of color, with a sepia opening giving way to Technicolor, still gets discussed in film classes.

Ready for the Camera After All These Years

A faded silent film star descends a staircase, convinced the public is waiting for her return. She addresses an imaginary camera crew, and the moment is both grand and unsettling. Sunset Boulevard, directed by Billy Wilder, premiered in 1950.

Gloria Swanson played Norma Desmond, and she had been a real silent era star, which added a layer of irony to the casting. The AFI placed this closing line seventh on its list. The story is narrated by a dead man, an unusual choice that Wilder made work.

The Boxer Who Could Have Been Somebody

Two brothers sit in the back of a car, and one of them mourns the career he gave up under pressure. He says he might have been a contender, and that he ended up as nothing much. The film is On the Waterfront, released in 1954 and directed by Elia Kazan.

Marlon Brando played the part and won the Oscar for Best Actor. The film took eight Academy Awards in total, including Best Picture. The AFI ranked the line third, just behind a pair of Godfather era entries in the overall standings.

Answers at a Glance

The five films are Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, The Wizard of Oz, Sunset Boulevard and On the Waterfront. They span 1939 to 1954, roughly fifteen years of studio system filmmaking.

Four of them appear in the AFI’s top ten quotes, and Sunset Boulevard sits among them at seventh. If you matched three or more, you know your classics well.