Marcia Jeffries You put your whole self into that laugh, don't you?
Marcia, I put my whole self into everything I do.
2nd most-quoted character in A Face in the Crowd (1957): in 6 of its 21 quotes
Most scenes with: Lonesome Rhodes (5)
They love his voice, they love his guitar, they love his ideas... they should know some of his ideas.
Scenes with Marcia Jeffries
5 scenes Marcia Jeffries Look at all them TV aerials sticking up like branches down there. There's a whole forest of 'em from here to San Diego. All of 'em waitin' to hear what I got to say.
Marcia Jeffries Is that what you woke me up in the middle of the night for?
Marcia, what I'm tryin' to say is, all of them millions of people believin' in me, doin' what I tell 'em to, scares me. Honest. General and all them big shots tryin' to educate me.
Marcia Jeffries Educate you or use you?
That's it, see? The General says our country needs me. I'm supposed to be an influence. That's mighty tall grass, Marcia. We're gettin' in deep, Marcia. A thousand times deeper than we ever dreamed when we were startin' out in Arkansas. I know on the set, I'm beginnin' to act like I just ate the Western Hemisphere for breakfast. But then, down here in the boiler room, I know I need advice. Not the kind I get from Joey or the Madison Avenue high-domes who say 'gesundheit' before I even pucker up to sneeze. No. And now, when I'm comin' to the top of the mountain, I need you, because you level with me. You're my lifeline to truth, and... Well, marry me, Marcia - will ya? That's what I called you over here for. Can't keep anything alive up here. [He snaps off a dead rose stem] Dust in this city kills everythin'.
Marcia Jeffries Larry, don't play with me. Don't hurt me. (She pulled his downcast head up by the hair) Don't hurt me.
Marcia Jeffries You always drink like that?
Not always. Back in Riddle they was pretty strict. Didn't allow us to touch hard liquor till we was 10 or 11.
Marcia Jeffries Now is there really a town called Riddle?
Well, tell you the flat truth, it's just a sort of a whatchacallit, a...
Marcia Jeffries ...Composite?
Compost heap's more like it.
I was afraid to marry you, and that's the truth. The dirt-root, cotton-pickin' truth.
Marcia Jeffries Last time, you said you were afraid not to.
Both were true. You sort of overawe me. You know more than I do. I can feel you being so gol-darned critical all the time. You and that smart-alecky Mel. And you don't really approve of me. That's so, ain't it?
Marcia Jeffries You're gettin' to be all the things you used to harpoon.
See what I mean? The bigger I get, the smaller you make me feel. You take Betty Lou...
Marcia Jeffries Larry, don't try to explain. Betty Lou is your public, all wrapped up with yellow ribbons into one cute little package. She's the logical culmination of the great 20th-century love affair between Lonesome Rhodes and his mass audience.
Well, I wish you wasn't so bitter.
Marcia Jeffries I'm not bitter. If I sound stridently female about Miss Drum Majorette, I don't mean to be. I knew you married her just as a way of not marryin' me.
Look, Marcia, I'm not forgettin' what I owe ya. I'm gonna give ya a healthy slice of our whole operation. Say, ten percent of my end. And you won't have to lift your finger with what I'm givin' you.
Marcia Jeffries Givin' me? Givin' me? You're not givin' me anything. And you're not throwin' me off the train like poor Abe Steiner, either. A Face in the Crowd was my idea. The whole idea of Lonesome Rhodes belongs to me. I always should've been an equal partner. Well, now I'm gonna be an equal partner. I'm gonna get somethin' I deserve....AND I WANT IT ON PAPER!
Okay. All right. I'll tell Joey to draw up the papers. Look at yourself in the mirror, Marcia. You'll see a millionaire.
This whole country's just like my flock of sheep!
Marcia Jeffries Sheep?
Rednecks, crackers, hillbillies, hausfraus, shut-ins, pea-pickers - everybody that's got to jump when somebody else blows the whistle. They don't know it yet, but they're all gonna be 'Fighters for Fuller'. They're mine! I own 'em! They think like I do. Only they're even more stupid than I am, so I gotta think for 'em. Marcia, you just wait and see. I'm gonna be the power behind the president - and you'll be the power behind me! You made me, Marcia. You made me. I always say that. I owe it all to you. I owe it all to you.
Marcia Jeffries I know it. I know it. I know it.
