The Story: Doc and Suzy. Suzy and Doc.
"Doc" is already well-established at the Row, although his past is a murky thing (by choice), when Suzy DeSoto comes wandering to the edge of Monterey looking for work. Doc first notices her when she's walking into town. Suzy first meets him (in this scene, which we've already presented) once she's employed at the Bear Flag restaurant...as a self-described floozy. It did not go well, and this subsequent meeting (presented in the film right after the first) is a sort of conciliatory gesture on the part of Fauna, who runs the Bear Flag and is Doc's friend and Suzy's employer. This one doesn't go well, either.
But, one can tell they're meant for each other, despite their mutual awkwardness at every meeting. They're both forthright and blunt with so much lived-in honesty that when they try to be polite, it's difficult and when they're being their natural selves, it's usually a sparring match. But, they keep coming back together with a mutual fascination, two shipwrecks that just might float (but keep the life preservers handy).
I still think this is Nick Nolte's best performance, and Winger—who had just come off a star-making turn in Urban Cowboy and was hired to replace Raquel Welch—is a comic delight, her voice always on the verge of cracking. Welch ended up suing M-G-M for $10 million for breach of contract and won...and Winger is worth every penny.
It's still one of those films I remember fondly, despite its lukewarm reviews and nothing box-office.
The Set-Up: Eddie "Doc" Daniels (Nick Nolte) is a marine biologist living on the financially depressed docks of Cannery Row in Monterey, California, another one of the denizens of bums, has-beens, and wastrels who "don't want to be well-known." The population on the Row has increased by one vagabond, Suzy deSoto (Debra Winger), who's come into town looking for work and applied for a job at the Red Flag Restaurant, only to realize it's the town brothel. She takes "the job" anyway. And her employer Fauna (Audra Lindley) has already introduced her to Doc—a meeting that has gone...awkwardly. So, they decide to make a second pitch...at Doc's home and place of business.
Action.
SUZY DeSOTO: How do you do? DOC: What's that you got? SUZY: Some macaroons.
The cook at the Bear Flag made them. SUZY: Fauna told him to.
She sent you some beer, too. DOC: Aw. That's nice of Fauna.
- DOC: I wonder what she wants.
- SUZY: Nothin'. I think she was doin' it... Suzy places the bowl of macaroons on a snake cage which begins to rattle threateningly
SUZY: What have you got them for?
- DOC: I take their venom and I sell it. SUZY: I wouldn't want to live with a bunch of filthy snakes. DOC: Well, wait a minute. Snakes are cleaner than people.
They even shed their skin. Why would you call them filthy?
- SUZY: You want to know why?
- SUZY: Because you run Fauna down.
- DOC: Oh now, wait a minute. I did NOT run Fauna down. SUZY: You said she was doin' it
to get something out of you, and she just done it to be nice!. DOC: Okay. I see. That's why you call snakes filthy. DOC: Look, Fauna is one of my best friends. DOC: Why don't we just have a beer
and make peace, okay? SUZY: So what are you doing
with these little dishes here? DOC: Well, I'm making a series of slides to show the
development of sea urchin embryos. DOC: Here,
DOC: See, I have to fix one of these cultures...
DOC: ...and then monitor it on a slide
until I have a series... DOC: ...to show students how sea urchins go
from an egg to a complete organism. SUZY: Why do they want to know that for? DOC: ...because that's the way people develop. DOC: Anyway,
I have to do another culture
in two minutes. SUZY: Why don't they just study people? DOC: It'd be a little difficult to kill unborn babies
every half hour, wouldn't it? SUZY: Hell, I don't know about all this stuff. SUZY: It's a pretty funny business, unborn things and all that.
- DOC: There are funnier businesses.
- SUZY: Well, I guess you'd be talking about my business now
- SUZY: You don't like my business, do you?
- DOC: It doesn't matter whether I like your business or not, does it? DOC: I mean, it's there, isn't it?
DOC: I just think
it's kind of a sad substitute for love. SUZY: And what have you got, mister?
Bugs, snakes? SUZY: Look at this dump!
It stinks! SUZY: You haven't even got a decent suit of clothes. SUZY: And I bet you can't remember when your last hot meal was!
You sit...
SUZY: ...here breeding starfish, for Chrissake!
- SUZY: What the hell do you think that's a substitute for? DOC: I do what I want,
I live the way I want DOC: I'm free and I do what I want.
- SUZY: Well, who'd want to do this stuff, anyway?
- DOC: Well, who'd want to go to bed with anybody that's got three bucks?
- SUZY: Maybe someone who needs the three bucks, Mr. Tight-ass! SUZY: And it seems to me I heard somethin' about you writing
some pretty big, goddamm highfalutin paper.
- DOC: Who told you that?
- SUZY: Everybody knows it, Doc.
You wanna know why? Because they know
you're just foolin'...
DOC: ...yourself, you ain't never gonna write no paper. SUZY: And some of them are even laughing at you. DOC: Who's laughing at me? SUZY: I shouldn't have said that. SUZY: Jesus Christ, Doc, I'm just gonna leave... SUZY: ...before
I stick my foot in it any more. DOC: Wait a minute.
Who's laughing at me? SUZY: I don't even know what I'm talking about. SUZY: I'm just running off at the mouth, Doc.
Please forget about it. SUZY: Fauna's going to ring my neck. SUZY: Will you forget about it, Doc?
Cannery Row is available on DVD from Warner Home Video.
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