Finian's Rainbow (1968)

Petula Clark: Sharon McLonergan

Photos 

Quotes 

• Finian McLonergan : America is full of millionaires.

  Sharon McLonergan : But Father, are there no ill clad or ill housed in America?

  Finian McLonergan : Aye, but they're the best ill clad and the best ill housed in the world.

• Finian McLonergan : What do you think makes America different from Ireland?

  Sharon McLonergan : It has more Irishmen?

• Sharon McLonergan : [looking in Finian's bag]  It's gold!

  Finian McLonergan : Aye, it's a pot of gold.

  Sharon McLonergan : And you stole it!

  Finian McLonergan : I did not steal it! I only borrowed.

  Sharon McLonergan : Who did you borrow it from?

  Finian McLonergan : Why do you want to know?

  Sharon McLonergan : So we can lend it right back to him, that's why!

  Finian McLonergan : That's impossible! He's not mortal.

  Sharon McLonergan : You killed him!

  Finian McLonergan : Of course not! He never was mortal. He's a leprechaun.

  Sharon McLonergan : A leprechaun?

  Finian McLonergan : Of course! Who else would have gold in Ireland?

• Senator Billboard Rawkins : You've been violating the law, here.

  Finian McLonergan : Since when?

  Senator Billboard Rawkins : This afternoon. I just finished drafting this.

  Senator Billboard Rawkins : [reading]  Local ordinance number 7428: be it known that in the county of Rainbow Valley, it is a felony for members of the Caucasian and Negro races...

  Finian McLonergan : But it seems to me that this law could not be a legal law...

  Senator Billboard Rawkins : Of course it's legal! I don't know where you immigrants get these radical, foreign ideas!

  Sharon McLonergan : From a wee book the immigration officer handed us. It's called 'The United States Constitution.'

  Finian McLonergan : Haven't you read it?

  Senator Billboard Rawkins : I don't have time to read it, I'm too busy defending it!

• Woody Mahoney : How'd you get so pretty? And so rich?

  Sharon McLonergan : Well, you see, in Glocca Morra, where we come from, there's an old legend, and it says: 'You'll never grow old and you'll never grow poor, if you look to the rainbow, beyond the next moor.'

  Woody Mahoney : That's a lovely legend.

  Sharon McLonergan : Aye.

  Woody Mahoney : I wonder who thought it up.

  Sharon McLonergan : My father: Finian McLonnergan.

• [Sharon pulls Og out of a well] 

  Sharon McLonergan : Well, this is a fine kettle of fish! And how do you explain these strange shenanigans?

  [Og hiccups] 

  Sharon McLonergan : Well, if you won't speak, back into the well with you.

  Og : Oh, no!

  [jumps out] 

  Sharon McLonergan : So, you've found your tongue. Why were you hiding in that well?

  Og : I wasn't hiding. Somebody had set me on fire and I had to put myself out.

  Sharon McLonergan : Who was it that put the torch to you.

  Og : It was a sunbeam.

  Sharon McLonergan : A sunbeam?

  Og : A sunbeam disguised as a fairy queen. But you can't fool me, I know a sunbeam when I see one.

• Sharon McLonergan : Father is a mineralogist from the old country. He can make gold sprout out of the ground.

  Senator Billboard Rawkins : Gold? There's no gold in Ireland.

  Finian McLonergan : I meself discovered a vein our countrymen have been searching for ever since the reign of... Alfred the Thoughtless.

  Senator Billboard Rawkins : Who?

  Finian McLonergan : You've never heard of Alfred the Thoughtless? He was King of Erin following his father, Thomas the Temporary, who in turn was the only son of the Virgin Queen, Serena the Spotless.

• Sharon McLonergan : [singing]  When a rich man doesn't want to work/ He's a bon vivant/ Yes, he's a bon vivant. But when a poor man doesn't want to work / he's a loafer, he's a lounger he's a lazy good for nothing...

  Finian McLonergan : He's a jerk. When a rich man loses on a horse/ isn't he the sport /oh, isn't he the sport / but when a poor man loses on a horse / he's a gambler, he's a spender, he's a lowlife, he's a reason for divorce. When a rich man chases after dames, he's a man about town/ a man about town / but when a poor man chases after dames / he's a bounder, he's a rounder, he's a rotter, and a lotter dirty names.

• Sharon McLonergan : I don't know who Rand is but I never trusted a McNally.

• Sharon McLonergan : Do you feel a warmish, kind of glowish, peculiarish sensation?

  Og : No... it's a sort of quiverish, shiverish, flibberty-gibberish sensation!

  Sharon McLonergan : Does it make you feel hummingbirds in your heart?

  Og : Butterflies in my feet!

  Sharon McLonergan : Bees in your bonnet!

  Og : [dancing]  Stars in my britches!

  Sharon McLonergan : It makes you want to dance!

  Og : [falls over]  I hadn't noticed.

• Sharon McLonergan : Do you mean to say you're taking this land from these people merely because their skins are black?

  Henry : Don't let them chase us, Sharon!

  Senator Billboard Rawkins : Will somebody shut this kid up? He's making me look like a bully. Get them out of here, Sheriff.

  Sheriff : You heard the Senator, you folks better start packing!

  Boy : Is Henry the wrong color?

  Sharon McLonergan : No, he's the right color.

  [she runs after Senator Rawkins] 

  Sharon McLonergan : But there's something wrong with the world! I wish...

  Finian McLonergan : Sharon, don't...

  Sharon McLonergan : There's something wrong with the world that him and his kind have made for people like Henry! I wish you could know what that world is like! I wish to God you were black!

  [wind, thunder] 

  Senator Billboard Rawkins : Well, I'm a son of a biscuit...