I've been wondering this for a week or so now. I've asked a few people and I've heard/have had several interpretations of the line(s).
Just curious for any interpretations, but hopefully the correct one.
Holden: The old man would like to see you.
Bogart: What about?
Holden: Guess. Animal, vegetable, or mineral?
Bogart: Definitely animal.
I think its around 50 minutes into the movie.
What is your question, exactly? Are you simply seeking the reference for the line "animal, vegetable or mineral"?
"Animal, vegetable or mineral?" is a common early question, often the very first question, if you are playing
20 Questions, which was a long-running and extremely popular quiz show first on radio in the 1940s and then on television in the 1950s. It's also where the line "Is it bigger than a breadbox?" comes from, which you may also find references to in popular culture from that period. The point of the game is to narrow down what you're looking for one question at a time. The "animal, vegetable or mineral" gives you a general idea where to start heading (are you looking for a living being, a growing plant or an inanimate object).
That's what's being referenced in Billy Wilder's
Sabrina, as it's a phrase that would have been common and well known in popular culture. In the context of the movie Bogart's character is playfully letting Holden's know that their father wants to talk to him about his amorous pursuits, meaning both the "animal" behavior of the younger brother and his ever-changing female conquests.
For the
20 Questions game, the line itself was taken from the famous 1879 Gilbert & Sullivan comic Opera
The Pirates of Penzance, specifically the oft-parodied "Major-General Song". It's the second line of the opening verse, which goes...
"I am the very model of a modern Major-General,
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical;
I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,
About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news,
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse...."
Is that what you were asking?
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