Cellar Door

There's a short scene near the end of Donnie Darko (2001) wherein the main character, a troubled teenager (Jake Gyllenhaal), is talking to his recently-fired English teacher (Drew Barrymore), and written on the chalk board behind her are the words "Cellar Door."

What's cellar door? Donnie asks.

She replies: This famous linguist once said that of all the phrases in the English language, of all the endless combinations of words in all of history, that Cellar Door is the most beautiful.

There are questions about the origin of this idea, but it's interesting to consider. This comes from a 1955 essay by Tolkien:

"Most English-speaking people…will admit that cellar door is 'beautiful', especially if…