- Johnny Hooker: Can you get a mob together?
- Henry Gondorff: After what happened to Luther, I don't think I can get more than two, three hundred guys.
- Floyd: Doyle, I KNOW I gave him four THREES! He had to make a SWITCH! We can't let him get away with that.
- Doyle Lonnegan: What was I supposed to do, call him for cheating better than me in front of the others?
- Doyle Lonnegan: Your boss is quite a card player, Mr. Kelly; how does he do it?
- Johnny Hooker: He cheats.
- [last lines]
- Henry Gondorff: You not gonna stick around for your share?
- Johnny Hooker: Nah. I'd only blow it.
- [Figuring out which con to pull on Lonnegan]
- J.J. Singleton: I dunno know what to do with this guy, Henry. He's an Irishman who doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, and doesn't chase dames. He's a grand knight in the Knights of Columbus, and he only goes out to play faro. Sometimes plays 15 or 20 hours at a time, just him against the house.
- Henry Gondorff: Roulette? Craps?
- J.J. Singleton: He won't touch 'em. The croupier at Gilman's says he never plays anything he can't win.
- Henry Gondorff: Sports?
- J.J. Singleton: Likes to be seen with fighters sometimes, but he doesn't go to the fights or bet on 'em.
- Henry Gondorff: Jesus. Does he do anything where he's not alone?
- J.J. Singleton: Just poker. And he cheats. Pretty good at it, too.
- [Polk greets Snyder]
- FBI Agent Polk: Sit down and shut up, will ya? Try not to live up to all my expectations.
- [Gondorff enters the poker game pretending to be drunk]
- Henry Gondorff: Sorry I'm late. I was taking a crap.
- Kid Twist: Now how do you want to work this? Flat rate or percentage?
- Benny Garfield: Who's the mark?
- Kid Twist: Doyle Lonnegan.
- Benny Garfield: Flat rate.
- Johnny Hooker: Luther! Good God, we're millionaires!
- Luther: Jesus! Did you know he was that loaded?
- Johnny Hooker: Hell no. I just cut into him. I woulda settled for pawning one of them shoes.
- Loretta: I don't even know you.
- Johnny Hooker: You know me. I'm the same as you. It's two in the morning and I don't know nobody.
- Doyle Lonnegan: I put it all on Lucky Dan; half a million dollars to win.
- Kid Twist: To win? I said *place*! "Place it on Lucky D-" That horse is gonna run second!
- Doyle Lonnegan: [There is a pause, and Lonnegan runs horrified to the betting booth] There's been a mistake! Gimme my money back!
- Henry Gondorff: What's your problem?
- Doyle Lonnegan: I'm putting half a million dollars on Lucky Dan to win, third race at Riverside Park.
- Henry Gondorff: Can't lay that off in time. A bet like that could break us.
- [Hooker stares at him incredulously]
- Doyle Lonnegan: Not only are you a cheat, you're a gutless cheat as well.
- Henry Gondorff: What are the odds?
- Eddie Niles: Four to one.
- Henry Gondorff: Take all of it!
- Henry Gondorff: Glad to meet you, kid. You're a real horse's ass.
- Johnny Hooker: Luther said I could learn something from you. I already know how to drink.
- Johnny Hooker: Listen, Gondorff! Am I gonna learn the big con or not?
- Henry Gondorff: What's your hurry?
- Johnny Hooker: I want to play for Lonnegan.
- Henry Gondorff: You know anything about the guy?
- Johnny Hooker: Yeah! He croaked Luther! Anything else I gotta know?
- Johnny Hooker: [after he calms down] All right. He runs a numbers racket on the south side. He owns a packing house. A few banks.
- Henry Gondorff: Yeah, and half the politicians in New York and Chicago. Not a fix in this world is gonna cool him out if he blows on you.
- Johnny Hooker: I'll get him anyway.
- Henry Gondorff: Why?
- Johnny Hooker: 'Cause I don't know enough about killin' to kill him.
- Henry Gondorff: You can't do it alone, you know. It takes a mob of guys like you and enough money to make them look good.
- Johnny Hooker: I know plenty of guys.
- Henry Gondorff: It's not like playing winos in the street. You can't outrun Lonnegan.
- Johnny Hooker: I never played for no winos.
- Henry Gondorff: You gotta keep his con even after you take his money. He can't know you took him.
- Johnny Hooker: You're scared of him.
- Henry Gondorff: Right down to my socks, buster! You're talkin' about a guy who'd kill a grifter over a chunk of money that wouldn't support him for two days!
- Doyle Lonnegan: Mr. Shaw, we usually require a tie at this table... if you don't have one we can get you one.
- Henry Gondorff: That'd be real nice of you, Mr. Lonniman!
- Doyle Lonnegan: Lonnegan.
- [Gondorf nods and burps in response]
- Joe Erie: Hello Snyder. Whattya doin' up here?
- Lieutenant William Snyder: I'm on vacation. You see that friend of yours lately?
- Joe Erie: No, no. He packed it in. Enrolled in detective school.
- Billie: Who told you this guy was in here?
- Lieutenant William Snyder: Nobody. I just know what kind of woman he likes. Going to check all the joy houses till I find him.
- Billie: Oh, well maybe I could help you, if you tell me his name.
- Lieutenant William Snyder: I doubt it. Which way are the rooms?
- Billie: Right through there. But I wouldn't go in there if I were you.
- Lieutenant William Snyder: What you are going to do, call the cops?
- Billie: I don't have to. You'd be busting in on the Chief of Police just up the hall.
- Johnny Hooker: I gave him the breakout just like you said.
- Henry Gondorff: And?
- Johnny Hooker: 'S good. He threatened to kill me.
- Henry Gondorff: Hell, kid, they don't do that, you know you're not getting to 'em.
- Henry Gondorff: Is Lonnegan after you too?
- Johnny Hooker: I don't know. I ain't seen anybody.
- Henry Gondorff: You never do, kid.
- Luther: You're late. Where have you been?
- Johnny Hooker: I had a couple of appointments.
- Luther: How much did you lose?
- Johnny Hooker: [winces] All of it.
- Luther: In one goddamn night? What are you spraying money around like that for? You could've been nailed.
- Johnny Hooker: Ah, I checked the place first. There were no dicks in there.
- Luther: But you're a con man! And you blew it like a pimp! I didn't teach you to be no pimp.
- Doyle Lonnegan: [losing his temper with Henry] The name's Lonnegan! Doyle Lonnegan! You're gonna remember that name or you're gonna get yourself a new game! You follow?
- Henry Gondorff: Tough luck, Lonnehan. But that's what you get for playing with your head up your ass!
- Doyle Lonnegan: You see that fella in the red sweater over there? His name's Donnie McCoy. Works a few of the protection rackets for Cunnaro when he's waiting for something better to happen. Donnie and I have known each other since we were six. Take a good look at that face, Floyd. Because if he ever finds out I can be beat by one lousy grifter, I'll have to kill him and every other hood who wants to muscle in on my Chicago operation.
- Johnny Hooker: Hey, where's June?
- Loretta: She quit. I'm filling in for a couple of days, till I can get a train outta here.
- Johnny Hooker: Yeah? Where ya going?
- Loretta: I don't know. Depends on which train I get on.
- Henry Gondorff: I'd think you'd get tired of losing, Harrigan.
- Doyle Lonnegan: [going to the betting window] Blue Note, $2,000 to win, fourth race, Narragansett.
- Henry Gondorff: Make sure you see the cash, Eddie. He's got a name for betting money he doesn't have.
- Henry Gondorff: You have to keep this con even after you take his money. He can't know you took him.
- Johnny Hooker: Are you nuts, carrying a wad around like that in a neighborhood like this? No wonder you got hit.
- Luther: Thanks, I'm obliged to you. But I got to get going.
- Johnny Hooker: [he tries to stand up] You ain't goin' nowhere on this leg. Let me see.
- Luther: I gotta... got to run some slots down in West Bend for a mob here. I got a little behind in the payoffs. So they figure I been holding out on them. They gave me until 4:00 to come up with the cash. If they don't get it, I'm dead.
- Johnny Hooker: It don't look good, Gramps. It's almost 4:00 now.
- Luther: I'll give you and your friend 100 bucks to deliver it for me.
- Johnny Hooker: I don't know. That mug that hit you is mad enough at me already. What if he's waiting around a corner waiting with some friends?
- Luther: He won't know you're carrying it. Come on. You've got to help me out.
- Johnny Hooker: Hey, I'm sorry, pal. I'm gonna maybe help you get fixed up, get to a doctor, but I ain't about to walk into no knife for you.
- Luther: How about you? All you got to do is put it in the door slot. I'll give you the whole 100.
- Johnny Hooker: Hey, what makes you think you can trust him? He didn't do shit.
- Mottola: Hey, butt out, chicken liver. I gave him back the wallet, didn't I?
- Luther: [asking for help to make a payment drop] You won't have no trouble. There's $5,000 there. And here's 100 bucks for you.
- Mottola: Okay, old man. I'll make your drop for you. And don't worry, you can trust me.
- Johnny Hooker: [starting to leave, Mottola puts the envelope in the inner pocket of his jacket] Hey. Hey! If those goons decide to search you, you ain't gonna get far carrying it there.
- Luther: What'll we do?
- Johnny Hooker: You got a bag or something? How about a handkerchief?
- Luther: [holding one out] Here's a handkerchief!
- Johnny Hooker: Here. Give it to me. Give me the money.
- Luther: Just hurry, will you?
- Johnny Hooker: [putting the money in the handkerchief] You got any more? Better give it all to me if you want to keep it.
- Luther: [Mottola hands over his own money he has to deliver] They think I've been holding out on them. My wife got sick, and I had to pay the bill. I wasn't holding out on 'em.
- Johnny Hooker: [folding the handkerchief up, he sticks it down the front of his pants] Stuff it down your pants here. Like that. Got it?
- Mottola: Uh-huh. Yeah.
- Luther: Hurry, will you?
- Johnny Hooker: [handing the handkerchief back] Ain't a tough guy in the world that's gonna frisk you there.
- Johnny Hooker: Guy turned out to be an oil well. Which way did he go?
- Joe Erie: Due north. He was gonna take it all.
- Johnny Hooker: Aw, the bastard. He can blow his nose all the way.
- Alva Coleman: Luther said you was something to see today!
- Johnny Hooker: I don't know, Alva. I got to get faster tyin' up that bundle. I'm still givin' 'em too much time to think.
- Alva Coleman: Oh, bushwah, I used to make that switch with slower hands than you got. 'Course, the "Up and Down Broadway" was my best game. Me and Luther didn't make much on it, but it wasn't so touchy. Them marks can beat you up awful bad when they catch you making that switch.
- Cabbie: Where to?
- Mottola: Which way is Mason?
- Cabbie: 20 blocks south.
- Mottola: Okay, go north. Joliet Station, fast!
- Cabbie: Right.
- [pulling into traffic, Mottola starts laughing]
- Cabbie: What's so funny?
- Mottola: I just made the world's easiest five grand!
- [taking the handkerchief out of his pants, he opens it and is stunned to find it's filled with tissue paper]
- Henry Gondorff: Sorry about Luther. He was the best street worker I ever saw.
- Johnny Hooker: He had you down as a big-timer. What happened?
- Henry Gondorff: I conned a senator from Florida on a stock deal. A real lop-ear. Thought he was gonna take over General Electric. Some chanteuse woke him, though, and he put the feds on me.
- Johnny Hooker: You mean you blew it.
- Henry Gondorff: Luther didn't tell me you had a big mouth.
- Johnny Hooker: He didn't tell me you was a screw-up, either. You played any big cons since then?
- Henry Gondorff: Oh, I lammed around a bunch of bohunk towns, one kick ahead of the G-men. Would be still if Billie hadn't set me up here. Don't kid yourself, friend. I still know how.
- Johnny Hooker: Crystal, you want to get out of here tonight? I come into some dough.
- Crystal: Oh, I can't. I got a 10:00 show. I need the five bucks.
- Johnny Hooker: I'll spend 50 on you.
- Eddie Niles: Lonnegan gets most of his income from the numbers, even though he's been putting more and more money into his savings-and-loan business.
- Henry Gondorff: You think he's moving out of the racket?
- Eddie Niles: No, he owns most of the stock that's traded. But my guess is he's just trying to build himself a respectable image. He came out of Five Points, but he's been telling everybody he was born in Forest Hills. He knows the market, though. I don't think we can take him on a stocks deal.
- Henry Gondorff: Twist, what about the numbers?
- Kid Twist: Tipsters say it's run out of a packinghouse on 14th by a guy named Combs. Lonnegan comes out every three weeks or so to check on it, but he stays away from the day-to-day stuff in case it's raided. These are two of Combs' favorite torpedoes, Riley and Cole. You ever seen 'em?
- Johnny Hooker: [taking a pair of photographs] No.
- Kid Twist: They're the ones who hit Luther. They also got the numbers runner you conned, a guy named Mottola. Found him in a quarry with a knife in his eye. Lonnegan's had seven or eight people rubbed on his way up. His pattern has been to get close to a racket boss, learn the operation, then move in on it. He's done it to Gorman, O'Donnell, Buchalman, took the numbers from Sharkey. All four of these guys are dead. He's vindictive as hell, Henry. Kills for pride. Doesn't add up he'd let Hooker get away from him.
- Henry Gondorff: You see anything, kid, you let us know. If they put you on the spot, we got to fold the con. You got that?
- Johnny Hooker: [still looking at the pictures of Lonnegan's hitters] Yeah. You sure it's gotta be one of these two guys?
- Kid Twist: No. They're just the only ones we know of.
- Eddie Niles: With no fix, we're gonna need a con with a sure-fire blow-off.
- J.J. Singleton: I think we ought to play this guy on the payoff. It's the tightest game we've got and it's not all over the papers yet.
- Kid Twist: Lonnegan is a fast egg, J.J. He's not going to sit still for a standard play.
- Eddie Niles: So what does that leave us? We can't con the payoff to a banker.
- Henry Gondorff: We'll use the wire. Haven't known a poker player yet who didn't wanna bet the ponies.
- Eddie Niles: The wire's been out of date for ten years.
- Henry Gondorff: That's why he won't know it.
- J.J. Singleton: I'm not sure I know it.
- Henry Gondorff: It'll take two of us working the inside. Any objections to Hooker as second man?
- [getting no objections]
- Henry Gondorff: All right, we'll give Lonnegan the hook on the train and play him here. J.J., you think I can get in that poker game?
- J.J. Singleton: All you gotta do is show up with a lot of money and look like a sucker.
- Henry Gondorff: I also gotta win.
- [having been told Snyder was snooping around]
- Henry Gondorff: Oh, by the way, any of you guys been passing bad money lately?
- [to Billie]
- Henry Gondorff: If he comes in again, stall him so I can get a look at him.
- Crystal: [after promising her a night out, Hooker loses a $3,000 bet] Thanks for the evening, Hooker. Next time you want to spend 50 bucks on me, mail it.
- Johnny Hooker: I'm looking for a guy named Henry Gondorff. You know him?
- Billie: Nope.
- Johnny Hooker: [double-checking the address Luther gave him] You sure?
- Billie: Beat it.
- Johnny Hooker: Luther Coleman sent me.
- Billie: Are you Hooker?
- Johnny Hooker: Yeah.
- Billie: Why didn't you say so? We heard about Luther last night. Come on.
- [leading him inside]
- Billie: I thought maybe you were a cop or somethin'.
- Johnny Hooker: Sometime after 2:00, a guy's gonna call on that phone there and give you the name of a horse.
- [handing over an envelope]
- Johnny Hooker: All you gotta do is take this two grand across the street and down the alley to Shaw's place and bet it on that pony. There's nothing to it. But don't take too much time. We've only got three or four minutes after you get the call.
- Doyle Lonnegan: You'll not break him with a $2,000 bet.
- Johnny Hooker: This is just a test. The big one comes later. But be careful with that. That's all I got.
- Doyle Lonnegan: And you were going to pay me back out of your own pocket?
- Johnny Hooker: I am. After the race.
- Johnny Hooker: Here's your wallet. He hired a dame to take it from you. Shaw's been planning to beat your game for months. He's just been waiting for you to cheat him so he could clip you.
- Doyle Lonnegan: [pushing him up against the wall] Who do you think you're talking to, errand boy? Nobody sets me up! Take him back to the baggage room! Put one in his ear!
- Floyd: For Christ's sake, there were four witnesses at that table!
- Doyle Lonnegan: Then go back, get that other goddamn son of a bitch and we'll dump them in the first tunnel we hit.
- Floyd: Doyle, we're gonna be in the station in a couple of minutes!
- Johnny Hooker: It ain't gonna look too good, you killing a guy you owe money to. There's better ways of taking him down. What do you think Shaw would do to me if he knew I was telling you this?
- Doyle Lonnegan: Okay. Why the rat?
- Johnny Hooker: I want to take over his operation, and I need you to help me break him.
- Doyle Lonnegan: Where's my money?
- Johnny Hooker: Shaw's got it. How the hell could I ask him for it back?
- Doyle Lonnegan: I'm giving you a lift home.
- Johnny Hooker: I was supposed to go with Shaw.
- Doyle Lonnegan: Explain it to him somehow.
- Johnny Hooker: Yeah, but he's expect...
- Doyle Lonnegan: [insistently] I'm giving you a lift home. You follow?
- Doyle Lonnegan: You're past-posting, aren't you?
- Johnny Hooker: [a little taken aback, but keeping his cool] Could be.
- Doyle Lonnegan: How?
- Johnny Hooker: You're gonna stay in?
- Doyle Lonnegan: Not until I get some answers.
- Johnny Hooker: I got a partner downtown. And he runs the central office of the Western Union. Now, race results from all over the country come in there and go right across his desk to the bookies. Now, all he does is hold them up for a couple of minutes 'til he can call us, get a bet down on a winner. Then he releases the results to the bookies. We clean up on a race that's already been run. Now, you can't miss. Unless the Western Union dicks get a hold of it.
- Doyle Lonnegan: You got the 400 grand yet?
- Johnny Hooker: [taking an envelope from one of Lonnegan's bodyguards] No, not yet, but... hey, there's only a grand here.
- Doyle Lonnegan: Make another bet tomorrow.
- Johnny Hooker: What the hell is this? Where's my money? I got 16 grand coming.
- Doyle Lonnegan: You owe me 15 grand already. Besides, if your setup's as good as you say it is, there's plenty more to come.
- Johnny Hooker: I decide when to place the bets!
- Doyle Lonnegan: Not if you want me to keep making them for you.
- Johnny Hooker: Well, I gotta talk to my partner first. We can't afford to expose too much.
- Doyle Lonnegan: I'll talk to him myself.
- Johnny Hooker: No!
- Doyle Lonnegan: You've been waiting a long time for this, Kelly. Don't ruin it for yourself. I'll pick you up tomorrow at 3:00. You follow?
- Henry Gondorff: Why didn't you tell me about Snyder before?
- Johnny Hooker: I thought I'd lost him.
- Henry Gondorff: Well, you found him again, and we're gonna have to do something about it. What else haven't you been telling me?
- Johnny Hooker: Nothing. That's all there is.
- Billie: [tending to his wound] Hold still.
- Henry Gondorff: Why'd you move out of your room?
- Johnny Hooker: [having been shot at by Lonnegan's hitters] It was too noisy.
- Henry Gondorff: You can't play your friends like marks, Hooker. You know how easy it would be for one of Lonnegan's guys to get you?
- Johnny Hooker: Henry, all we need is a couple of days and we can get the son of a bitch and nail him.
- Henry Gondorff: You just won't learn, will you? Christ, you come in here, I teach you stuff that maybe five guys in the whole world know. Stuff that most grifters couldn't do even if they knew it, and all you want to do is run down a bullet.
- Johnny Hooker: I'm asking for a couple of days, that's all. I can stay clear that long!
- Henry Gondorff: Christ, they'll probably miss you and hit me.
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