A Song Is Born (1948)

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In this movie, Danny plays Professor Hobart Frisbee, who, along with a group of other older gentlemen, is working on the history of music. Frisbee and the other men have been so caught up in their study that they've failed to realize how society and music have progressed over time. As a result, Frisbee leaves the house in order to enlist the assistance of various musicians to help in the study of current-day music. One of those he enlists is Miss Honey, a singer, who happens to be on the run from the police. In order to hide, she takes Frisbee up on his offer but insists that she stay at the house with him and the other men. Frisbee is opposed to this at first, insisting that she simply can't stay there. Miss Honey manages to talk her way into staying, and the other men, excited at the prospect of having a young woman in their midst, agree.

After Frisbee receives a stern talk from their housekeeper, Miss Brag, he realizes that Miss Honey's influence is not good for their serious study of music. So he proceeds to ask her to leave. Of course, Miss Honey still needs to hide from the police, so she starts putting on the charm in this particular scene. It's my favorite scene in this movie simply for it's cute, romantic nature.

FRISBEE: Now, Miss Honey, would you--uh--take this chair, please?

HONEY: That particular chair?

FRISBEE: Yes, if you don't mind.

HONEY: Okay. (She sits.)

FRISBEE: Would you open your mouth? A little wider. Thank you.

HONEY: (Said with mouth open) Can I close it now?

FRISBEE: Oh, please do. Miss Honey.

HONEY: Yeah?

FRISBEE: (pacing) Circumstances under which, that is, over which none of us has the least control forced me to a step I am most reluctant to take. The sky is perfectly clear. The thermometer is at 76. Your throat appears quite normal. I'm afraid I must ask you to leave.

HONEY: Leave here? Why?

FRISBEE: I want you to look at this project, this history of music, as a voyage, a long, hard, tedious voyage. And when the foundation first launched its vessel, they wisely followed an old rule of the sea: no women aboard. Consequently they chose a crew of single men with nothing to distract them from the course they were about to sail.

HONEY: Say, junior, you couldn't stop walking up and down here.

FRISBEE: (Stops pacing) For the last four days, Miss Honey, we have been doing nothing but just drifting. The needle of the compass no longer points to the magnetic pole. It points, if I may say so, to your ankles.

HONEY: Oh, come now, Admiral, a bunch of grown men. They've all seen a pair of ankles before.

FRISBEE: Not in nine years they haven't. Except for the singularly uninspired underpinnings of Miss Brag.

HONEY: Well, if you think I'm bothering them, I'll sit on my legs. And I'll do it in my room or in the kitchen.

FRISBEE: It's too late. You must leave now.

HONEY: But I can't leave now. What about your work? It isn't even finished. There are a lot of things we haven't even touched on.

FRISBEE: Oh make no mistake, I shall regret deeply the absence of your keen mind. But unfortunately it's inseparable from an extremely disturbing body.

HONEY: (whistles) All right, I'll go. Only don't shove. I'll leave sometime tomorrow.

FRISBEE: No not tomorrow. Right away.

HONEY: But I tell you I--

FRISBEE: I insist.

HONEY: Oh, crabapple Annie. Listen Frisbee--

FRISBEE: Crabapple Annie? Why that implies that I'm puritanical and narrow-minded.

HONEY: Yeah.

FRISBEE: Well, I'm not. I'm a perfectly normal man with perfectly normal instincts.

HONEY: And an awful high boiling point.

FRISBEE: Not even that. I, too, have been acutely aware of your presence, but--

HONEY: You have?

FRISBEE: --fortunately I am strong enough to be able to resist its demoralizing effects.

HONEY: Oh really?

FRISBEE: I admit at times it was quite a struggle, but--

HONEY: Like when?

FRISBEE: Well, twice to be exact. The first time when you leaned over my shoulder to explain the meaning of the word "riff."

HONEY: And the second time?

FRISBEE: I'm not finished with the first time. You leaned over my shoulder and I felt your breath on my ear.

HONEY: And?

FRISBEE: And the second time you were standing up against the window with the sunlight in your hair.

HONEY: But you didn't do anything about it?

FRISBEE: Yes, I did. I left the room. I went upstairs, dipped my handkerchief into cold water and put it on the back of my neck, right here where the nerve center is.

HONEY: Oh, you're cute. Just a little sunlight in my hair and you had to water your neck.

FRISBEE: Well, perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned it. But I'm trying to explain that the whole success of the project depends on this.. I want you to coop--(Miss Honey walks over and stands in front of the window.) cooperate. I-- I'd like you to leave. Leave.

HONEY: Do you really mean that?

FRISBEE: Yes, I do. (voice cracks) I do. (clears throat)

HONEY: Well, as long as I'm leaving anyway, I may as well spill it.

FRISBEE: Spill it? Spill what?

HONEY: Why do you think I came here in the first place?

FRISBEE: Well, I imagine to help me in my research.

HONEY: No. I came on account of you.

FRISBEE: On account of me?

HONEY: Yeah. Of all the men I've ever met, I had to fall for a strong silent man of distinction. A man of unbending willpower. A man who could just flip me away like an old cigarette butt.

FRISBEE: Oh, now, don't let it upset you, Miss Honey.

HONEY: But it does upset me. Unfortunately I don't happen to be strong. I can't steal myself against you.

FRISBEE: Against me?

HONEY: Yeah, you. Oh maybe it sounds crazy but to me you're a regular yum-yum type.

FRISBEE: (stuttering) Y-y-y-yum-yum?

HONEY: Yeah. You know what that means?

FRISBEE: No. We haven't gotten to that yet.

HONEY: We've got to it now, and I'm glad it's out. Oh, I don't give  a hoop if the others went for me. It's you I'm wacky about. Just plain wacky. Can you understand that?

FRISBEE: Please, Miss Honey, they're--

HONEY: Oh, please nothing. Maybe you can generate or whatever it is for all that suppressed business, but I can't. Come here. (she grabs his jacket and pulls him to her) Oh, you're so tall. (She pushes him away and walks over to the table. She picks up a book.)

FRISBEE: What are you doing?

HONEY: (She places the book on the floor at Frisbee's feet.) You'll find out.

FRISBEE: That's an extremely valuable reference book.

HONEY: (She stands on the book.) That's just too bad. (She puts her arms around his neck.) It's just perfect.

FRISBEE: What are you going to do?

HONEY: I'm going to show you what yum-yum is.

FRISBEE: Hm?

HONEY: Here's yum. (She kisses him.) Here's the other yum. (She kisses him again.) And here's yum-yum. (She gives him a long kiss, and they end up falling over into a chair together.)

FRISBEE: Pardon me. (He gets up and runs out of the room.)

HONEY: Hey, where're you going?

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