The Goodbye Girl

The Goodbye Girl is a 1977 film about an actor who sublets an apartment which already contains a divorcée and her daughter. The three must learn to live together despite rubbing each other the wrong way.
 * Directed by Herbert Ross. Written by Neil Simon.

Thank you Neil Simon for making us laugh at falling in love…again. (taglines)

Elliot Garfield

 * I play the guitar whenever I cannot sleep, and I meditate every morning, complete with chanting and burning incense, so if you have to walk around I'd appreciate a little tiptoeing. Also: I sleep in the nude. "Au buffo." Winter and summer, rain or snow, with the windows open. And because I may have to go to the potty or to the fridge in the middle of the night, and because I do not want to put on jammies which I do not own in the first place, unless you're looking for a quick thrill or your daughter an advanced education I'd keep my door closed.
 * I will bring home anyone or anything I chose including a one-eyed Episcopalian Kangaroo if that happens to be my kinky inclination.
 * after being told not to bring any female guests into the apartment
 * If you were a Broadway musical, people would be humming your face.
 * "It never occurred to us that William Shakespeare wrote the Wizard of Oz. However, Elliot Garfield makes a splendid Wicked Witch of the North." Tacky. Tacky. Well, if they're gonna kill me. Let 'em kill me with panache.
 * reading a review of his disastrous Richard III performance
 * Miss McFadden, today I begin rehearsals for my first New York play. It will be the most important day of my life. Am I nervous? No, I am not nervous. For I have meditated. I am relaxed. I am calm. I am confident. You, on the other hand, have not meditated, and therefore you are a pain in the ass.
 * My careereth is over. I am making a horseth asseth of myselfeth. Mark, I'm begging you. I'm BEGGING you. You want this kind of performance? Let me play Lady Anne.
 * during a rehearsal of Richard III in which his director has made him play the title character as a flamboyant homosexual
 * What is it about you that makes a man with a hundred forty-seven I.Q. feel like a dribbling idiot?
 * You know I liked you from the first time I met you when you answered the door. I said to myself, "This is the best half-a-face I ever saw!"
 * You know I love listening to you talk. I hate living with you but your conversation is first rate.
 * You're not the only one who can yell rape, you know.

Dialogue

 * Elliot Garfield: I happen to have a lease in my pocket. Are you gonna honor it or what?
 * Paula McFadden: I have a daughter in my bedroom. That tops the lease in your pocket.


 * Paula McFadden: I thought you said you were decent.
 * Elliot Garfield: I am decent. I also happen to be naked.


 * Lucy McFadden: [upon awaking at dawn to Elliot's chanting] What's that?
 * Paula McFadden: Sounds like God.
 * Lucy McFadden: I smell strawberries burning.
 * Paula McFadden: That's incense.
 * Lucy McFadden: What's incense?
 * Paula McFadden: It is what I am feeling right now.


 * Lucy McFadden: [after Elliot's play flops] Congratulations!
 * Elliot Garfield: For what?
 * Lucy McFadden: I didn't know what else to say.


 * Elliot Garfield: [after hearing that his play has closed] That's okay. Now I'm free to take that other job.
 * Lucy McFadden: What other job?
 * Elliot Garfield: I'm looking, I'm looking!

Taglines

 * Thank you Neil Simon for making us laugh at falling in love…again.

Cast

 * Richard Dreyfuss - Elliott Garfield
 * Marsha Mason - Paula McFadden
 * Quinn Cummings - Lucy McFadden
 * Paul Benedict - Mark
 * Barbara Rhoades - Donna
 * Theresa Merritt - Mrs. Crosby
 * Michael Shawn - Ronnie
 * Patricia Pearcy - Rhonda