Cornel Wilde Quotes

Rita When will I see you again?

Leonard Diamond Well, if I'm not dead, you'll find me where I always am. In jail.

Leonard Diamond She's under arrest, Mr. Brown.

Mr. Brown What's the charge?

Leonard Diamond Homicide.

Mr. Brown That's ridiculous, she wouldn't kill a fly.

Leonard Diamond She tried to kill herself.

Mr. Brown Is that a crime?

Leonard Diamond It happens to be against two laws: God's and Man's. I'm booking her under the second.

Mr. Brown Joe, tell the man I'm gonna break him so fast, he won't have time to change his pants. Tell him the next time I see him, he'll be in the lobby of the hotel, crying like a baby and asking for a ten dollar loan. Tell him that. And tell him I don't break my word.

Leonard Diamond You must have done something pretty fine to get as high as you are, Mr. Brown. I'm looking into that. I'm gonna open you up, and I'm gonna operate. I hate to think of what I'll find.

Leonard Diamond I know his name. The name of a man who will pick up a phone and call Chicago and New Orleans and say "Hey Bill, Joe is coming down for the weekend. Advance him fifty thousand," and he hangs up the phone and the money's advanced, protection money. A new all night bar opens, with gambling outside city limits. A bunch of high school kids come in for a good time. They get loaded, they get irresponsible, they lose their shirts. Then they get a gun, cause they're worried, they want to make up their losses. And a filling station attendant is dead with a bullet in his liver. I have to see four kids on trial for first degree murder. Look at it. First degree murder, because a certain Mr. Brown picked up a phone.

Leonard Diamond Do you know Mr. Brown?

Nils Dreyer I had lunch with him last week. He's a very fine gentleman.

Leonard Diamond He's a hoodlum.

Nils Dreyer Because I have lunch with him, that is not a crime. I'll have lunch with anybody, I'm democratic. I'll even have lunch with you.

Mr. Brown Book me, Small Change.

Leonard Diamond Alright, take him out, Sam.

Sam Hill To the bullpen?

Leonard Diamond No, back to the gutter.

Joe McClure Mr. Brown is a very reasonable man. You don't know him.

Leonard Diamond Oh, is he? Well I'm not. I intend to make life very difficult for your Mr. Brown.

Joe McClure You shouldn't talk like that, Lieutenant. You're overstepping your authority.

Mr. Brown Joe, the man has reason to hate me. His salary is $96.50 a week. The busboys in my hotel make better money than that. Don't you see, Joe? He's a righteous man.

Leonard Diamond I'll wait until I can put you on trial for murder.

Mr. Brown Whose murder, Lieutenant?

Leonard Diamond Mine, if necessary.

Mr. Brown Don't push too hard.

Leonard Diamond It's my sworn duty to push too hard.

Mr. Brown Diamond, the only trouble with you is, you'd like to be me. You'd like to have my organization, my influence, my fix. You can't. It's impossible. You think it's money, it's not. It's personality. You haven't got it, Lieutenant, you're a cop. Slow, steady, intelligent, with a bad temper, and a gun under your arm. And with a big yen for a girl you can't have. First is first, and second is nobody.