"Thanks! I Needed That!"

[Garson O'Toole]

I have now seen the video and can verify the dialog. The character Dan
Roman played by John Wayne double slaps the character John Sullivan
played by Robert Stack. The film then switches to scenes depicting
other characters, e.g., the pilots in a chaser plane and people on the
ground tracking the plane who speak some lines of the script.

John Wayne then speaks to the Coast Guard on the radio. Robert Stack
next engages in an internal monologue. Several script lines are
delivered by Stack, but they represent his thoughts and are not spoken
aloud to other characters. When Stack finally does speak aloud for the
first time after the slap he says:

02:00:32,520 --> 02:00:33,509
Robert Stack: Dan?

02:00:34,360 --> 02:00:35,349
John Wayne: Yeah?

02:00:36,280 --> 02:00:37,395
Robert Stack: Thanks.

02:00:38,360 --> 02:00:41,113
Robert Stack: Thanks for knocking some sense into my head.

02:00:41,760 --> 02:00:44,399
Robert Stack: Someday I'll explain.
John Wayne: You don't have to.


On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 12:31 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Thanks! I Needed That!"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Garson's information seems to confirm what I found in an Amazon.com review of the film, which says: "Myth: when slapped, Robert Stack never says 'Thanks. I needed that' (watch the movie for the actual line)."
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Garson O'Toole [adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM]
> Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2010 12:19 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: "Thanks! I Needed That!"
>
>  Ben Zimmer wrote
>> In the clips of "The High and the Mighty" I can find on YouTube, John
>> Wayne slaps Robert Stack in the cockpit and mutters "Get a hold of
>> yourself, you yellow..." But there's no expression of gratitude from
>> Stack immediately after:
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYVvIqclEMM
>> (trailer, scene starts about 2 minutes in)
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnrTq9Y-uJY
>> (just the cockpit scene)
>>
>> It's possible that Stack thanks Wayne a bit later, after the clip that
>> shows up in the trailer.
>

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