Classic films create classic quotes. The problem is, many of those “classic quotes” are wrong.
Here’s a list of some popular classic movies misquotes:
1. “Smile when you call me that!“ or “When ya call me that, smile!”, are variants of Gary Cooper’s taunt to Walter Huston’s Trampas in The Virginian (1929). It was actually “If you wanna call me that, smile.” It was the book “The Virginian” that used the phrase: “When ya call me that, smile!”
2. In the Marx Brothers comedy Animal Crackers (1930), Groucho Marx is often quoted as saying: “One morning, I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I’ll never know”. What he really said was: “…I don’t know”.
3. Bela Lugosi, as Count Dracula, never said “I want to suck your blood”. The line was used humorously by Dr. Tom Mason (Ned Bellamy) impersonating Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood (1994).
4. Another misquote is Colin Clive’s Doctor Frankenstein shout He’s alive! Alive!” in Frankenstein (1931). (BTW, the name refers to the doctor, not the monster, who is nameless.) What he really said was a more clinical “it’s alive!” It was Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein (1974) that caused Gene Wilder’s hyperactive grandson Frederick
Frankenstein to shout “He’s alive! Alive!”
5. Humphrey Bogart never said “Play it again, Sam” in Casablanca (1942). He did say “Play it once, Sam, for old time’s sake” and Play it, Sam. Play ‘As Time Goes By’.”
6.One of the most misquoted lines in movie history is the famous line “We don’t need no stinkin’ badges!” in John Huston’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). What was actually said was “Badges? We ain’t got no badges. We don’t need no badges. I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ badges!”