They Might Be Giants

They Might Be Giants is a romantic comedy, which follows the adventures of "Justin Playfair" who believes himself to be Sherlock Holmes (played by George C. Scott), and a psychiatrist, "Dr. Mildred Watson" (played by Joanne Woodward), who has been asked to sign papers declaring him insane. He treats her as if she were the famous assistant to Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson. It was directed by Anthony Harvey, and written by James Goldman, based on his own stageplay of 1961. The film's title provided the band They Might Be Giants with their name.

When they reach out for each other... they touch every heart... with warmth, charm and laughter!

Justin Playfair/Sherlock Holmes

• There are no masses in Dodge City, only individuals taking responsibility for their own actions.

• Just keep saying to yourself "I'm adequate."
  • To Dr. Mildred Watson.

• Dear friends, would those of you who know what this is all about please raise your hands?
  I think if God is dead he laughed himself to death.
  Because, you see, we live in Eden. Genesis has got it all wrong — we never left the Garden.
  Look about you. This is paradise. It's hard to find, I'll grant you, but it is here. Under our feet, beneath the surface, all around us is everything we want. The earth is shining under the soot. We are all fools.
  Ha ha! Moriarty has made fools of all of us. But together, — you and I, tonight, — we'll bring him down.

Dialogue

• Watson: God! You're just like Don Quixote, you think everything's always something else.
  Playfair/Holmes:[Laughs] Well he had a point. Of course, he carried it a bit too far. He thought that every windmill was a giant. That's insane. But, thinking that they might be... well… all the best minds used to think the world was flat. — But, what if it isn't? — It might be round — and bread mold might be medicine. If we never looked at things and thought of what they might be, why, we'd all still be out there in the tall grass with the apes.