Die, Mommie, Die! (2003)

Philip Baker Hall: Sol Sussman

Photos 

Quotes 

• Angela Arden : [Inserting, with apparent difficulty, a large suppository in Sol]  You're very tight. You must do your utmost to relax.

  Sol Sussman : Relax? How can I relax with a nuclear warhead up my rectum?

• Sol Sussman : [Sol is in his den, on the phone, pleading with a money lender of apparently dubious character. Bootsie, the maid, passes by in an adjoining hallway and begins to eavesdrop the conversation]  There were extenuating circumstances... Well, you're not in the movie business so you wouldn't understand. These things were beyond my control... What?

  Sol Sussman : -

  [Bootsie, still eavesdropping, enters one of the nearby doors to get closer to Sol's den. Sol's agitated phone conversation continues] 

  Sol Sussman : It's impossible... You gotta' give me... You gotta'... Please! Oh, God...

  Sol Sussman : [the sound of the phone receiver slamming down is heard]  Oh my God!... Oh my God!... Oh my God!... Oh my God!...

  Bootsie Carp : [Alarmed at hearing Sol in obvious distress, Bootsie enters his den]  Are you sick, Mr. S? Should I call Dr. Mendell?

  Sol Sussman : No, no... Nathan Mendell I don't need.

  Bootsie Carp : [Sitting down in front of his desk]  Talk to Bootsie. Let her help.

  Sol Sussman : -

  [Confused and despondent] 

  Sol Sussman : I... I... I'm out of date. I'm out of touch. My kind of movies' pleas for tolerance of the Jew or the Negro or the immigrant Italian are made a mockery of today. These kids in the beards, they seek to tear down the Establishment. When the fuck did I become the Establishment?

  Sol Sussman : [Sympathetically]  You're a great man, Mr. S.

  Sol Sussman : [Agitated]  I'm finished. I'm kaput! Bootsie, the only way I could finance this film was to borrow money from... "less than reputable" associates.

  Bootsie Carp : [Slightly shocked]  The "Mob"?

  Sol Sussman : The gods have turned against me. The rotten weather, an actress dying and... now the film has fallen apart. They're threatening to give me a bath in cement if I don't pay up! Bootsie, you're lookin' at a corpse.

  Bootsie Carp : [Solemnly quoting Biblical scripture]  "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty." Proverbs, 16.

  Sol Sussman : It's Angela. She's a witch! She put a curse on me! Oh, God! Oh, God! God, God, God, God...

  [Sol breaks down, sobbing and wailing. Bootsie goes over to console him in her arms] 

• Sol Sussman : [At the dinner table: Lance is toying with his soup, blowing on spoonfuls of it, but not actually eating it. Sol looks on, increasingly annoyed]  Lance, just DRINK the goddamned soup!

  Lance Sussman : Sorry, daddy.

  Angela Arden : [Addressing Lance in a "secret language," apparently understood only by she and Lance. Subtitles provide the translation]  I don't blame you. The soup stinks.

  Lance Sussman : [Replying in the same "secret language"]  It smell like dirty socks.

  Angela Arden : [Again using the "secret language"]  Bootsie cuts your dad's socks up and throws them in the soup.

  Sol Sussman : [Angela and Lance chuckle over their secret joking. Sol, enraged, gets up and lunges at Lance]  God DAMMIT! You eat normal, or we're gonna' shut you away in an institution!

  Lance Sussman : No, daddy, don't...

  Angela Arden : How dare you speak to your son like that!

  Sol Sussman : I'm ashamed to have such a son.

  Angela Arden : [Contemptuously]  The "great man"! The "conscience" of the Industry! How about a little sympathy and tolerance for your own family?

  Sol Sussman : I have NO sympathy for you, baby. And none for him, either.

  [Sol glares pointedly at Lance] 

  Sol Sussman : My son, the Loser!

  Lance Sussman : YOU'RE the Loser! The FLOP!

  Angela Arden : [Enraged, Sol slaps Lance across the face and Lance gets up and runs out of the room. Angela gets up and looks after Lance in dismay]  Lance...

  Sol Sussman : [All the commotion has upset the family's twin Pekinese dogs, whose noisy barking can be heard in the background. This enrages Sol even more]  Monsters! They get put to sleep tomorrow! Sit down, Angela... SIT DOWN!

• Angela Arden : [In the car with Sol, coming back from the theater where they have just seen the Greek tragedy "The House of Atreus," in which Queen Clytemnestra stabs Agamemnon to death]  Well, I thought the murder scene was beautifully staged. The character of Queen Clytemnestra was almost... sympathetic. Aren't you glad I made you renew our theater subscriptions?

  Sol Sussman : [Annoyed]  Oh, Angela, shut up. The best performance tonight was you pretending to be a wife!

• Edith Sussman : You seem so sad and tired since you got back from Spain. What's wrong, daddy? You can tell me. We're soul mates.

  Sol Sussman : Well, then I'll confide in you. It's just this God-awful constipation. Before I go to sleep I'm supposed to take a suppository. Well, nobody ever said it was gonna' be easy being an old Jew.

• Sol Sussman : Never forget that you're half Sussman. And the other half, that strange, Canadian goyish of flotsam... that, you can dismiss.

  Edith Sussman : It's your blood that I'm proud of.

  Sol Sussman : You are my daughter, my immortality. What is our motto?

  Edith Sussman : Make it big... give it Class... and leave 'em with a message!

  Sol Sussman : Yeah!