Question Re: Mamet's THE SPANISH PRISONER (1 Viewer)

[Kenneth English]

I'm a big fan of David Mamet's work and have enjoyed all of his movies (though I thought STATE & MAIN was overrated).

Just re-watched THE SPANISH PRISONER last night. Great movie, but I have a question -- At one point in the film the following exchange of dialogue occurs between Joseph (Campbell Scott) and his assistant Susan (Rebecca Pidgeon):

JOSEPH: Funny old world.

SUSAN: Funny old world? Dog my cats.

JOSEPH: Dog my cats indeed.

So my question is simply: Huh?
What the hell does "Dog my cats" mean? Anyone?

 

[PatrickL]

I'm a Mamet fan too; I see all his plays and movies.

"Dog my cats!" is an expression of amazement or astonishment which I think dates back a hundred years or more.

 

[Alex Spindler]

http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/bulletin_bo...ssages/24.html

This has some specuation on the phrase.

 

[Dave Kalloch]

And there's Mamet's Heist , with my personal favorite line, ''Everybody needs money! That's why they call it money!''

 

[Kenneth English]

Well, whaddaya know? Never heard that phrase before seeing the movie. Must be a Yankee thing. :wink:

Thanks for the replies, everyone!

 

[andrew markworthy]

I've been commissioned to write a new dictionary of colloquial phrases and that one so far had slipped under my radar. It isn't in many of the common reference works, and I'd never heard it (I have no great liking for Mark Twain's work, which may explain it).

FWIW, I think the explanation offered on the referenced web page is plausible.

 

[Eric_E]

And there's Mamet's Heist , with my personal favorite line, ''Everybody needs money! That's why they call it money!''

Dave:
I was waiting for someone to bring up that most infamous of Mamet's lines. Do you remember when Roger Ebert went on about it for like three weeks?

Personally, I'm in the "I don't get it / what the hell is that supposed to mean / I fail to see the humor in it " crowd. :b

 

[Holadem]

Acutally, the correct way of writting that phrase would be:

Everybody needs money. That's why they call it money.

Gotta have the italics

--
Holadem

 

[teapot2001]

Do you remember when Roger Ebert went on about it for like three weeks?

It was something else Ebert was talking about:

Character A: Don't you want to hear my last words?
Character B: I just did.

~T