Cairo (1942)
Ethel Waters: Cleona Jones
Photos
Quotes
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Cleona Jones : [as Hector - a fellow American in Arab garb - gazes longingly at her] Don't look toward me... I ain't Mecca!
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Cleona Jones : [to no one in particular, as she goes to answer the phone, walking past Homer - the butler - who is sitting talking to Marcia Warren] The reason a phone rings is so that a butler knows when to answer it.
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Cleona Jones : The reason a phone rings is so that a butler knows when to answer it.
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Marcia Warren : Frisco, huh, you can have it.
Homer Smith : Don't you call it Frisco - it's San FRANcisco.
Marcia Warren : Frisco!
Homer Smith : San FRANcisco.
Marcia Warren : Frisco!
Homer Smith : San FRANcisco.
Marcia Warren : Frisco!
Homer Smith : San FRANcisco.
[Fades out as Cleona closes the door]
Cleona Jones : [to waiting butler applicants downstairs] You gentlemen can all return to the central casting. We've got just the man we've been looking for.
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Cleona Jones : You can tell he don't know nothin' about the movies, or he'd of landed smack in them mashed potatoes.
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Marcia Warren : He won't go out if we don't go out. And we can't go out if he doesn't go out. But, if we won't go out unless he goes out, maybe he'll go out.
Cleona Jones : Miss Warren, I think you better take a nice warm bath and lay down.
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Cleona Jones : Miss Warren, I've got a confession to make. I'm the biggest coward in the world.
Marcia Warren : No you're not. You're next to the biggest.
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Cleona Jones : What is he doing, Miss Warren.
Marcia Warren : I don't know. Looks like he's trying to commit hari-kari.
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Marcia Warren : Don't ask me why, Cleo, but he's gotta be out tonight, and we've gotta be in.
Cleona Jones : Why don't we go out and let him be in?
Marcia Warren : No, that's just exactly what he wants.
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Cleona Jones : [to Hector] Don't look to me, I ain't Mecca. Go on, just face the East, bow three times and blow.
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Cleona Jones : [to Hector] Don't think that outfit you got on scares me 'cause I've handled bigger'n better than you with pants on.
Teutonic Gentleman : Don't let this night gown fool ya', honey.
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Marcia Warren : The Nazis have chased me out for the last time. There's only one place I'll run to from here on. That's Beverly Hills, California.
Cleona Jones : I'll settle for Harlem, Basin Street, Central Avenue, and all points in between.
Marcia Warren : Amen, sister. I want to go *home*. Where a gas station looks like the Taj Mahal. And a restaurant looks like a hat.
Cleona Jones : I've been away long as soon you have, Miss Marcia. I miss everything, you miss. Plus.
Marcia Warren : Plus what?
Cleona Jones : A nice colored boy who speaks something besides French or goes around in a night gown in which case he turns out to be an A-rab.
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Cleona Jones : You couldn't sing, because you didn't suffer. Why did you have to come all the way to Europe just to suffer?
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Marcia Warren : [from her bath tub] Cleo!
Cleona Jones : [in the next room] I'm right here, Miss Marcia.
Marcia Warren : I'm in good voice this morning. Did you hear me?
Cleona Jones : Couldn't help, but not without leaving Egypt.
Marcia Warren : [singing] Not a thought, not a care, With a heart debonair, I am free as the sea
Cleona Jones : LIke the lark who at dawn, Bids the darkness be gone, Do I sing merrily.
Marcia Warren : So clean, so now bring, Bring the towel please, From the rack over there
Cleona Jones : Oh, yes, please, Marcia, I'll please, Bring the towel to you...
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Cleona Jones : [singing] Watch them shufflin' along, See them shufflin' along, Go get your best gal, I mean your real pal, And go down to the levee, I said to the levee, And *join* that shufflin' throng, Where you hear that music and song, It's simply great, Jake, Waitin' on the levee, Waitin' for the Robert E. Lee, Yeah!
Group Singers : Woo-hoo, Woo-hoo
Marcia Warren : There's a steam boat comin' round a bend, Don't you hear that whistle blow? Watch them shufflin' along, See them shufflin' along, Get your best gal, I mean your real pal, Go down to the levee, I said to the levee, Join that shufflin' throng, Hear that music and song, It's simply great, mate, waitin' on the levee, I said the levee, Waitin' for the Robert E. Lee...
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Cleona Jones : Imagine, nothing to your name, but a belt full of c-notes.
Marcia Warren : C-notes?
Homer Smith : They're $100 bills. They're also called yards. That's, uh, gangster language.
Marcia Warren : Ah-oh! Well, I, uh, I think, I prefer c-notes. It's, uh, more my type. Don't you think?
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Cleona Jones : [singing] Oh, buds won't bud, Chicks won't chick, And nicks won't knack, Blue is white, And white is black, When the love you love, Won't love back...
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Cleona Jones : Hey, who are you?
Hector : I ain't the Sun God, sister.
Cleona Jones : What kinda A-rab talks like that?
Hector : Just me.
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Hector : I've been living in the desert for four years.
Cleona Jones : Long way from Central Avenue.
Hector : You're tellin' me. You see, I wasn't doin' so good back there, except the movies. There wasn't an A-rab picture shootin', I didn't play A-rab. 'Bouts the only time I was eatin', was when I was bein' an A-rab. So, I said to myself, Hector, that's my name, Hector, maybe, you are A-rab at heart, and you just won't give in. So, I gave in. I beat the way over here, and here I am.
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Cleona Jones : You can't be no make believe. You don't feel like no dream.
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Cleona Jones : [summoning Homer, one of many applicants for the job of butler] The young gentleman in the middle... the one under the hat. That's right.
