still can't escape the feeling

Okay -- weird coincidence.  Yesterday, blogging the 1993 Woody Allen movie, Manhattan Murder Mystery, this dialogue went, "You know, I can't escape the feeling that my wife is becoming attracted to somebody else..."

"Can't escape the feeling" seemed like such a powerful phrase, that I chose it for the title of the January 30th post.

     Then later last evening, reading in the Paris Review online, an interview with the playwright Arthur Miller -- 

he says, "In a short story, or any kind of prose, I still can't escape the feeling of a certain arbitrary quality."...


Woody Allen says, "I can't escape the feeling,"

and

Arthur Miller says, "I still can't escape the feeling"

but if you just start with the word "can't"

it's the exact same phrase:

"Can't Escape The Feeling".


     Arthur Miller's interview in Paris Review was in 1966; Woody Allen's Manhattan Murder Mystery came out in 1993, but that script had originally been part of the Annie Hall 

script for that 1977 film.  Was the exact same phrase in the 1970s dialogue written by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman?  Probably not going to ever know that....


     Arthur Miller couldn't escape a feeling; Woody Allen's character in his movie couldn't escape a feeling; I can't escape the phrase, "can't escape the feeling"... !

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"Did you ever sleep with Ted?" Larry asks his wife, sitting in their car together, watching the Waldron hotel.

CAROL
Sleep?

LARRY
Don't get nervous.  Yeah.  Yeah, you guys...

CAROL
What, are you nuts?

LARRY
We were on an eating tour of France, together.

CAROL
Yeah.

LARRY
You two guys spent an evening, you know, together.

CAROL
Yeah, right.  We spent --

LARRY
At that place, you know.

CAROL
I know...  Yeah, but what about you?  Remember?  You spent the evening with Julie.  Am I right?  You spent the night, and shared a...

LARRY
That meant absolutely nothing.  She hated me.  Julie despised me.

CAROL
What?

LARRY
You know that.  She- She thought I was a low-life and a wimp and a vermin and a roach.  Just-just jump in anytime you want to defend me, you know.

CAROL
(with sudden, involuntary laughter)
Hey, I mean, I'm waiting for you to say something I don't agree with, okay?

LARRY
Ho - ho!  Hey, you're nailing me...  Jesus!...

                            Then he stops smiling, because he just saw something through the windshield.  He stares.

CAROL
Oh.  Larry.

LARRY
Yeah.

                                 The CAMERA starts PANNING very rapidly toward the entrance of the hotel.

CAROL
(voice over)
Larry, Larry, look.  It's her!  I'd say it's her!

                            A lady carrying a white open umbrella is entering the hotel.

LARRY
(voice over)
Oh my God, it is.

CAROL
Yeah.  You see what I mean?  See, so I was right all along, wasn't I?

LARRY
Can you... Are you sure?  Are you sure?

CAROL
I'm positive.  Yes.

LARRY
Oh, my God!

CAROL
Right?  Right?  I mean, I was...

LARRY
I'm...  Jesus, I'm -- shaken --

CAROL
I know.  W- well, come on!

LARRY
That is her.  Are you...

CAROL
Yeah.  I know.

LARRY
I told you so.

CAROL
What do you mean, you told me so?  What are you talking about?  You're nuts, honey.

LARRY
Oh, Jesus.  I'm flabbergasted!

CAROL
Yeah.  No, look -- you're pale.  You're completely white.

LARRY
I don't know what to do.

CAROL
Let's go.  Let's get out there.  Let's find out what's going on.

LARRY
No, I don't want to.

CAROL
Oh, come on.  You -- you're not afraid of her, are you?

LARRY
No, I'm not afraid.

CAROL
You're not afraid of Mrs. House.

LARRY
She's an old woman and I'm a virile male.

CAROL
I know.

LARRY
And yet somehow I am scared.  I don't know why.  Maybe because she's dead.  You know?

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