Gone with the Wind (1939)
Clark Gable: Rhett Butler - Visitor from Charleston
Photos
Quotes
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Scarlett : Rhett, Rhett... Rhett, if you go, where shall I go? What shall I do?
Rhett Butler : Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.
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Rhett Butler : No, I don't think I will kiss you, although you need kissing, badly. That's what's wrong with you. You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how.
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Rhett Butler : You're like the thief who isn't the least bit sorry he stole, but is terribly, terribly sorry he's going to jail.
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Scarlett : Sir, you are no gentleman.
Rhett Butler : And you, Miss, are no lady.
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Rhett Butler : I can't go all my life waiting to catch you between husbands.
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Scarlett : What are you doing?
Rhett Butler : I'm leaving you, my dear. All you need now is a divorce and your dreams of Ashley can come true.
Scarlett : Oh, no! No, you're wrong, terribly wrong! I don't want a divorce. Oh Rhett, but I knew tonight, when I... when I knew I loved you, I ran home to tell you, oh darling, darling!
Rhett Butler : Please don't go on with this, Leave us some dignity to remember out of our marriage. Spare us this last.
Scarlett : This last? Oh Rhett, do listen to me, I must have loved you for years, only I was such a stupid fool, I didn't know it. Please believe me, you must care! Melly said you did.
Rhett Butler : I believe you. What about Ashley Wilkes?
Scarlett : I... I never really loved Ashley.
Rhett Butler : You certainly gave a good imitation of it, up till this morning. No Scarlett, I tried everything. If you'd only met me half way, even when I came back from London.
Scarlett : I was so glad to see you. I was, Rhett, but you were so nasty.
Rhett Butler : And then when you were sick, it was all my fault... I hoped against hope that you'd call for me, but you didn't.
Scarlett : I wanted you. I wanted you desperately but I didn't think you wanted me.
Rhett Butler : It seems we've been at cross purposes, doesn't it? But it's no use now. As long as there was Bonnie, there was a chance that we might be happy. I liked to think that Bonnie was you, a little girl again, before the war, and poverty had done things to you. She was so like you, and I could pet her, and spoil her, as I wanted to spoil you. But when she went, she took everything.
Scarlett : Oh, Rhett, Rhett please don't say that. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry for everything.
Rhett Butler : My darling, you're such a child. You think that by saying, "I'm sorry," all the past can be corrected. Here, take my handkerchief. Never, at any crisis of your life, have I known you to have a handkerchief.
Scarlett : Rhett! Rhett, where are you going?
Rhett Butler : I'm going back to Charleston, back where I belong.
Scarlett : Please, please take me with you!
Rhett Butler : No, I'm through with everything here. I want peace. I want to see if somewhere there isn't something left in life of charm and grace. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Scarlett : No! I only know that I love you.
Rhett Butler : That's your misfortune.
[Rhett turns to walk down the stairs]
Scarlett : Oh, Rhett!
[Scarlett watches Rhett walk to the door]
Scarlett : Rhett!
[runs down the stairs after Rhett]
Scarlett : Rhett, Rhett!
[catches him as he's walking out the front door]
Scarlett : Rhett... if you go, where shall I go, what shall I do?
Rhett Butler : Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.
[Rhett walks off into the fog]
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Rhett Butler : Would you satisfy my curiosity on a point which has bothered me for some time?
Scarlett : Well, what is it? Be quick!
Rhett Butler : Tell me, Scarlett, do you never shrink from marrying men you don't love?
Scarlett : How did you ever get out of jail? Why didn't they hang you?
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Scarlett : Rhett, don't. I shall faint.
Rhett Butler : I want you to faint. This is what you were meant for. None of the fools you've ever know have kissed you like this, have they? Your Charles, or your Frank, or your stupid Ashley.
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Scarlett : [pleads with Rhett as he is about to leave to join the Confederate Army] Oh, Rhett! Please, don't go! You can't leave me! Please! I'll never forgive you!
Rhett Butler : I'm not asking you to forgive me. I'll never understand or forgive myself. And if a bullet gets me, so help me, I'll laugh at myself for being an idiot. There's one thing I do know... and that is that I love you, Scarlett. In spite of you and me and the whole silly world going to pieces around us, I love you. Because we're alike. Bad lots, both of us. Selfish and shrewd. But able to look things in the eyes as we call them by their right names.
Scarlett : [struggles] Don't hold me like that!
Rhett Butler : [holds her tighter] Scarlett! Look at me! I've loved you more than I've ever loved any woman and I've waited for you longer than I've ever waited for any woman.
[kisses her forehead]
Scarlett : [turns her face away] Let me alone!
Rhett Butler : [forces her to look him in the eyes] Here's a soldier of the South who loves you, Scarlett. Wants to feel your arms around him, wants to carry the memory of your kisses into battle with him. Never mind about loving me, you're a woman sending a soldier to his death with a beautiful memory. Scarlett! Kiss me! Kiss me... once...
[he kisses her]
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Scarlett : Rhett, how could you do this to me, and why should you go now that, after it's all over and I need you, why? Why?
Rhett Butler : Why? Maybe it's because I've always had a weakness for lost causes, once they're really lost. Or maybe, maybe I'm ashamed of myself. Who knows?
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Scarlett : I only know that I love you.
Rhett Butler : That's your misfortune.
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Rhett Butler : Take a good look my dear. It's an historic moment you can tell your grandchildren about - how you watched the Old South fall one night.
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Rhett Butler : With enough courage, you can do without a reputation.
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Rhett Butler : I'm very drunk and I intend on getting still drunker before this evening's over.
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Rene Picard : $20. $20 for Miss Maybelle Merriwether.
Tony Fontaine : $25 for Miss Fanny Elsing.
Dr. Meade : Only $25 to give?
Rhett Butler : $150 in gold.
Dr. Meade : For what lady, sir?
Rhett Butler : For Mrs. Charles Hamilton.
Dr. Meade : For whom, sir?
Rhett Butler : Mrs. Charles Hamilton.
Dr. Meade : Mrs. Hamilton is in mourning, Captain Butler. But I'm sure any of our Atlanta belles would be proud to...
Rhett Butler : Dr. Meade, I said Mrs. Charles Hamilton.
Dr. Meade : She will not consider it, sir.
Scarlett : Oh, yes, I will.
[Aunty Pittypat faints]
Rhett Butler : [after the dance starts] Well, we've sort of shocked the Confederacy, Scarlett.
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Rhett Butler : So, you see I shall have to marry you.
Scarlett : I've never heard of such bad taste.
Rhett Butler : Would you be more convinced if I fell to my knees?
Scarlett : Turn me loose, you varmint, and get out of here!
Rhett Butler : Forgive me for startling you with the impetuosity of my sentiments, my dear Scarlett. I mean, my dear Mrs. Kennedy. But it cannot have escaped your notice that for some time past the friendship I have felt for you has ripened into a deeper feeling. A feeling more beautiful, more pure, more sacred. Dare I name it? Can it be love?
Scarlett : Get up off your knees! I don't like your common jokes!
Rhett Butler : This is an honorable proposal of marriage made at what I consider a most opportune moment. I can't go all my life waiting to catch you between husbands.
Scarlett : You're coarse, and you're conceited. And I think this conversation has gone far enough.
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Rhett Butler : Did you ever think of marrying just for fun?
Scarlett : Marriage, fun? Fiddle-dee-dee. Fun for men you mean.
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Scarlett : [Rhett has heard Scarlett's and Ashley's fight] and Sir you should have made your presence known
Rhett Butler : In the middle of that beautiful love scene. Now that wouldn't have been very tactful would it?
Scarlett : Oh! You sir are no gentlemen.
Rhett Butler : And you Ms. are no lady.
[She is shocked and hurt]
Rhett Butler : Don't think I hold that against you. Ladies have never held any appeal for me
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Scarlett : But you are a blockade runner.
Rhett Butler : For profit, and profit only.
Scarlett : Are you tryin' to tell me you don't believe in the cause?
Rhett Butler : I believe in Rhett Butler, he's the only cause I know.
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Rhett Butler : And those pantalettes, I don't know a woman in Paris who wears pantalettes.
Scarlett : Oh Rhett, what do they - you shouldn't talk about such things.
Rhett Butler : You little hypocrite. You don't mind my knowing about them, just my talking about it.
Scarlett : But really Rhett, I can't go on accepting these gifts although you are AWFULLY kind.
Rhett Butler : I'm not kind, I'm just tempting you.
Scarlett : Well if you think I'll marry you just to pay for the bonnet I won't.
Rhett Butler : Don't flatter yourself. I'm not a marrying man.
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Gerald O'Hara : [the men are discussing the prospect of going to war with the North] And what does the captain of our troops say?
Ashley : Well, gentlemen, if Georgia fights, I go with her. But like my father I hope that the Yankees let us leave the Union in peace.
Man : But Ashley, Ashley, they've insulted us!
Charles Hamilton : You can't mean you don't want war!
Ashley : Most of the miseries of the world were caused by wars. And when the wars were over, no one ever knew what they were about.
Gerald O'Hara : [the other men protest] Now gentlemen, Mr. Butler has been up North I hear. Don't you agree with us, Mr. Butler?
Rhett Butler : I think it's hard winning a war with words, gentlemen.
Charles Hamilton : What do you mean, sir?
Rhett Butler : I mean, Mr. Hamilton, there's not a cannon factory in the whole South.
Man : What difference does that make, sir, to a gentleman?
Rhett Butler : I'm afraid it's going to make a great deal of difference to a great many gentlemen, sir.
Charles Hamilton : Are you hinting, Mr. Butler, that the Yankees can lick us?
Rhett Butler : No, I'm not hinting. I'm saying very plainly that the Yankees are better equipped than we. They've got factories, shipyards, coalmines... and a fleet to bottle up our harbors and starve us to death. All we've got is cotton, and slaves and... arrogance.
Man : That's treacherous!
Charles Hamilton : I refuse to listen to any renegade talk!
Rhett Butler : Well, I'm sorry if the truth offends you.
Charles Hamilton : Apologies aren't enough sir. I hear you were turned out of West Point, Mr. Rhett Butler. And that you aren't received in a decent family in Charleston. Not even your own.
Rhett Butler : I apologize again for all my shortcomings. Mr. Wilkes, Perhaps you won't mind if I walk about and look over your place. I seem to be spoiling everybody's brandy and cigars and... dreams of victory.
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Rhett Butler : You still think you're the cutest trick in shoe leather.
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Rhett Butler : Why, all we have is cotton and slaves and arrogance.
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Rhett Butler : A cat's a better mother than you.
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Rhett Butler : Open your eyes and look at me. No, I don't think I will kiss you. Although you need kissing badly. That's what's wrong with you. You should be kissed and often and by someone who knows how.
Scarlett : And I suppose you think you're the proper person.
Rhett Butler : I might be... if the right moment ever came.
Scarlett : You're a conceited, blackhearted varmint Rhett Butler. I don't know why I let come and see me.
Rhett Butler : I'll tell you why, Scarlett. Because I'm the only man over sixteen and under sixty who's around to show you a good time.
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Rhett Butler : Now that you've got your lumber mill and Frank's money, you won't come to me as you did to the jail, so I see I shall have to marry you.
Scarlett : I never heard of such bad taste.
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Rhett Butler : You can come to my hanging and I'll remember you in my will.
Scarlett : The only thing I'm afraid of is they won't hang you in time to pay the taxes on Tara!
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Scarlett : Now I didn't come to talk silliness about me, Rhett. I came 'cause I was so miserable at the thought of you in trouble. Oh, I know I was mad at you the night you left me on the road to Tara, and I still haven't forgiven you!
Rhett Butler : Oh, Scarlett! Don't say that!
Scarlett : Well I must admit I might not be alive now, only for you. And when I think of myself with everything I could possibly hope for, and not a care in the world... And you here in this horrid jail... and not even a human jail, Rhett, a horse jail!
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[Dropping Scarlett at Ashley's birthday party]
Rhett Butler : You go into the arena alone. The lions are hungry for you.
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Rhett Butler : How fickle is woman.
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Bonnie Blue Butler : London Bridge? Will it be falling down?
Rhett Butler : Well, it will if you want it to, darling.
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Scarlett : You low-down, cowardly, nasty thing you! They were right! Everybody was right! You - You aren't a gentleman.
Rhett Butler : A minor point at such a moment. Here, if anyone lays a hand on that Nag shoot him but don't make a mistake and shoot the Nag.
Scarlett : Go on! I want you to go! I hope a cannonball lands slap on you! I hope your blown into a million pieces! I...
Rhett Butler : Nevermind the rest. I follow your general idea. And when I'm dead on the altar of my country I hope your conscience hurts you. Goodbye, Scarlett.
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Rhett Butler : What a woman.
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[to Scarlett]
Rhett Butler : I've always thought a good lashing with a buggy whip would benefit you immensely.
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Rhett Butler : [when Scarlett throws a vase] Has the war started?
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Mammy : She says she's comin'. I don't know why she's comin', but she's a-comin'.
Rhett Butler : You don't like me, Mammy.
Mammy : Hmph!
Rhett Butler : Now don't you argue with me. You don't. You really don't.
[laughs]
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Tom - Yankee Captain : Don't touch him. He's under arrest!
Rhett Butler : Now, Tom! What do you want to arrest him for? I've seen him drunker! I've seen you drunker! And you've seen me...
Tom - Yankee Captain : He can lie in the gutter for all I care! I'm not a policeman.
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Rhett Butler : Don't give yourself airs, Scarlett.
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Rhett Butler : [to Scarlett] Open your eyes and look at me. No, I don't think I will kiss you, although you need kissing badly.
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Rhett Butler : The right moment everyday.
Scarlett : You're a conceited, black heated vulture and I don't know I let you come in and see me.
Rhett Butler : I'll tell you why, Scarlett. The war can't last much longer.
Scarlett : Really, Rhett. Why?
Rhett Butler : There's a little battle going on right now.
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Rhett Butler : The Cause. The cause of living in the past is dying right in front of us.
