Michael Caine in Zulu

"Stop.. throwing.. those.. bloody.. spears.. at.. me!!"

Well that's another fine mess you've gotten us into!

Which, of course, should be "another NICE mess".

"Another Fine Mess" is the title of one of Stan and Ollie's films and as far as I know, Ollie never actually said it.

That would be my vote anyway.

(untitled)

It's the old, "close enough for purpose", syndrome.

Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges!

I believe this is from the homage to 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre' in Blazing Saddles. (at least IMDB agrees heh)

mirror mirror on the wall?

Surely that's not a film misquote - it's an accurate quote of the fairy tale the film is based on.

2001 - A Space Odyssey

I'm sorry, Dave...I don't think I can do that

Magic Mirror ...

Then the film misquotes the fairy tale. Being from Germany I grew up with Grimm's fairy tales and it definitely goes: "Spieglein, Spieglein, an der Wand ..."

Punctuation misquote ?

I would have thought that since the first sentence was what "the punk" would have been asking himself ('direct speech'), it should itself be in quotation marks , i.e.

""Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya, punk?"

(also added the comma !)

I'm going to punch you in the ovaries

From The Anchorman has landed me in trouble once or twice. My boss was NOT impressed.

And here I was

Thinking the biggest misquote of them all was "I love the smell of napalm in the morning - smells like victory" - instead of the complete quotation "I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. It smelled like ... victory". Wonder why it didn't even show up on that list.

And yes, here the original written tale also started the line with the equivalent of "mirror, mirror on the wall..."

Badgers?

We don't need no stinking badgers!

Another 2001 movie misquote

"My God, it's full of stars!" actually wasn't said in the original movie. It was, however, in both Clarke's 2001 book and in the 2010 movie.

So a good movie trivia question is "From which movie is the quote `My God, it's full of Stars!'". :-)

Dirty Harry Quote

I seem to remember the full quote from Dirty Harry is

"in all the excitement I lost count of all the shots I've fired. It could have been five, it could of been six. You've got to ask yourself Do I feel lucky, well do you punk?"

Fixed quotes

It does seem that Hollywood has a tendency to put the misquote into a sequel at some point (where they can) - "Beam me up Scotty", "Hello Clarice" are two examples I have at the moment, but sure there are more.

Last Tango in Paris Again with Crack Craic ClockWork Oranges...... Wasted Listless Units

Do I feel lucky? We'll do ya punk? is another Derivative Option Hedged in Futures/Cloaked In House AIR&dDevelopments

The real version

Actually, it's:

Luke, my name is Darth Vader. I am your father. Prepare to die.

Better silence miss-quote

Cant believe it, they missed the most iconic miss-quote from Silence of the Lambs:

"I had his liver, with a nice Chianti... <suck> <suck> <suck> <suck>"

is of course

"I had his liver with some fava beans, and a nice Chianti... <suck> <suck> <suck> <suck>"

Or maybe Dr Lector was in a special Atkins diet remake.

Title

The stinkin' badges quote would be accurate if you are quoting from Blazing Saddles...

If he got it wrong, then that's Mel Brooks' lookout, but it's still valid :)

Copyright...

As has been mentioned above, misquotes are often used as a means of making a reference without treading on copyright-shaped toes.

Disney's Snow White, on the other hand, is far more insidious. They took the most quoted line of the story and rewrote it, not to improve or to modernise, but simply to poison it. They couldn't copyright "mirror, mirror, on the wall" on the grounds that it's public domain, but they can copyright "magic mirror, on the wall", because it is a "new" derivative work. If kids grow up hearing "magic mirror", then they'll reject the original version as wrong. As Every Single Book of Snow White except the "authorised" Disney version uses this line, they'll get kids to decry the books as "wrong", thus giving Disney a near monopoly on what was a public domain work.

See also "Pinnochio" and "Jimeney Cricket"; "The Little Princess", "The Little Mermaid" and "Happy Ending"; "Sleeping Beauty" and "falling asleep for a few months rather than 100 years so that she could actually meet the prince who woke her up".

Bloody Disney. Won't somebody (else) think of the children????

Re: Fairy Tales

"Are the above nit-pickers seriously trying to suggest that there is such a thing as a "definitive" version of a fairy tale?"

In the case of Grimms', yes. Are you seriously suggesting that the works of the brothers Grimm don't occupy a seminal place in European culture?

"I had his liver with some fava beans, and a nice Chianti"

I always took this as proof the man was a bit mental.

A bottle of South American Malbec would obviously go much better with census taker's liver...

Re:Fairy Tales

Ken Hagan, I think you miss Bassey's point. The Grimms were folklorists, collectors of fairy tales rather than their authors. Their original collections contained extensive notes on variants of tales.

The "definitive" versions of most tales that we now attribute to them comes from an abridged collection expressly for children that they produced later.

Wayne's Word

My favourite is John Wayne's supposed quote, "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do". I've never heard him say this in any film, although countless other stars have said it in imitation. I've heard him say, "A man oughta do what he thinks is right" and "Well, you do what ya gotta do", both in the context of distancing his character from the proposed action, but never the oft quoted line. Am I wrong? Anyone?

Dirty Harry Quote

I looked it up on YouTube and it is:

"I know what you're thinking- "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I've kinda lost track myself. But, being this is a 44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do you, punk?"

This is the first time he uses it, with the bank robbers. I think it is exactly the same (with more venom and an extra bullet, natch) with Scorpio but I can't be bothered finding out for sure.

Never mind this rubbish

As Bill Bailey noted, Dave Prowse tried to convince George Lucas to let him do the Darth Vader voice. Misquoted version, because it sounds better, "Luke, Oi aam yer faaather" and "The Force is strong in thissun".

@Dirty Harry Quote

ISTR it was something more along the lines of:

"I know what you're thinkin', kid. 'Did he fire six shots, or only five?' Well, to tell you the truth, in all the excitement, I kind of lost track myself. But given that this is a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum, and could blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"

Age. Fac ut gaudeam.

False to the character ?

I don't think the book's Dr. Lecter/Lektor would ever have used the naff phrase, "a nice Chianti" (correct me if it's in the book !) ... but I guess the scriptwriter didn't want to appear too elitist .

Bah!

The "Steenkin Badges" misquote wouldn't have been funny if it hadn't been in the wild *long* before "Blazing Saddles". It was, and so was I.

Gawd, what hath we wrought with this internet "history by consensus" crap? IMDB? They are good for titles and cast lists. Much beyond that and you are in the world of "contributing readers" i.e. Wiki-Saucerloon Land. Caveat Emptor.

Two of my faves from the print world are "Elementary, my dear Watson" and "Alas poor Yorick. I knew him well." (Won a quid off me dad with that one, and him with a Complete Works Of Bill S. an' all).

The real version

> Actually, it's: "Luke, my name is Darth Vader. I am your father. Prepare to die."

Actually, the version I remember is more like:

Luke> No, I don't believe you! ... but ... there's no way you could have known that. How could you have known what I got for Christmas?

Darth> Believe me, Luke. Here's how I know. I felt your presents...

(badgers? we don't need no steenkin badgers!)