L.A. Confidential (1997) - Quotes

Taglines: It's a crime saga that will shock you. It's a mystery that will keep you guessing. It's a thriller that will keep you riveted.

Taglines: Everything is suspect...everyone is for sale...and nothing is what it seems.

Taglines: Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush...

Detective: Do you think you can talk your way out of this, Lieutenant?

Ed: No... but I think I can tell the truth.

Ed: All I ever wanted was to measure up to my father.

Bud: Here's your chance. He died in the line of duty, didn't he?

Loew: Unless you're here to wipe my ass, I believe we're through.

Loew: C'mon, don't pull that good-cop bad-cop crap. I practically invented it. So what if some homo actor is dead, huh? Boys, girls, ten of them get off the bus to L.A. every day-

Loew: Pull him off me, Exley!

Exley: [calmly] I don't know how.

White: Now I know you think you're D.A. number one hot-shot, but here's the juice: if I take you out, ten more lawyers will take your place tomorrow. They just won't come on the bus, that's all.

Johnny: You want an autograph? Write to MGM.

Ed: Since when do two-bit hoods and hookers give out autographs?

Johnny: What'd you say to me?

Ed: LAPD. Sit down.

Woman: Who in the hell do you think you are?

Jack: Ed...

Ed: Take a walk, honey, before I haul your ass downtown.

Johnny: You are making a large mistake.

Woman: Get away from our table.

Ed: [leans in; [w:Lana Turner|Lana Turner] Shut up! A hooker cut to look like ] is still a hooker.

Johnny: Hey!

Ed: She just looks like Lana Turner.

Jack: [grinning] She is Lana Turner.

Ed: What?

Jack: She is Lana Turner.

Jack: Do you remember Buzz Meeks, Dudley?

Capt. Dudley Smith: A disgrace as a police officer. Straight-D fitness reports from every CEO he ever served under. What about him?

Jack: 12 years ago he was on a Vice rouse with Dick Stensland. They questioned Pierce Patchett about a blackmail scam. Patchett had Sid Hudgens photographing prominent businessmen with hookers. Anyway, charges were dropped, insufficient evidence. You were the supervising officer on that case and I was wondering if you remember anything about it.

Capt. Dudley Smith: What's this all about, boyo?

Jack: Part of it has to do with a murder, I've been working with Ed Exley on it.

Capt. Dudley Smith: You're in Narco, Jack, not Homicide. Since when do you work with Edmund Exley?

Jack: Well, it's a private investigation. I messed something up. I'm trying to make amends.

Capt. Dudley Smith: [He turns to the stove and prepares a cup of tea for Jack] Don't start trying to do the right thing, boyo. You haven't had the practice. Buzz Meeks and Dick Stensland. So, uh, what does Exley make of all of this?

Jack: [Dudley suddenly turns to Jack with a pistol and shoots him once in the chest; a shocked Jack struggles to breathe as he looks up at Dudley] I haven't told him yet. I just came straight from the record to you.

Capt. Dudley Smith: Have you a valediction, boyo?

Jack: [in a strained whisper, on the verge of death] Rollo... Tomasi.

Hilda Lefferts: Was it a rat?

Bud White: Yeah. A great big one.

Jack: Why in the world do you want to go digging any deeper into the Nite Owl Killings, Lieutenant?

Ed: Rollo Tomasi.

Jack: Is there more to that, or am I supposed to guess?

Ed: Rollo… was a purse snatcher. My father ran into him off duty, and he shot my father six times and got away clean. No one even knew who he was. I just made the name up to give him some personality. Rollo Tomasi's the reason I became a cop. I wanted to catch the guys who thought they could get away with it. It was supposed to be about justice. Then somewhere along the way I lost sight of that. Why'd you become a cop?

Jack: [long pause] I don't remember.

Lynn: Where'd this come from?

Bud: When I was twelve, my old man went after my mother with a bottle. I got in the way.

Lynn: So you saved her.

Bud: Not for long.

Lynn: I'm sorry, it's none of my business.

Bud: He tied me to the radiator. I watched him beat my mother to death with a tire iron. And he left me there. Three days before a truant officer found us. They never found the old man.

Man: Everything all right, doll? Want me to get rid of him?

Bud: Hit the road, pal.

Man: [stepping closer] Maybe I will. Maybe I won't.

Bud: [showing his badge] LAPD, shitbird. Get the fuck outta here or I'll call your wife to come get you.

Man: [nods] Officer.

Bud: [nods] Councilman.

Capt. Dudley Smith: Would you be willing to plant corroborative evidence on a suspect you knew to be guilty, in order to ensure an indictment?

Sgt. Ed Exley: Dudley, we've been over this.

Capt. Dudley Smith: Yes or no, Edmund?

Sgt. Ed Exley: No.

Capt. Dudley Smith: Would you be willing to beat a confession out of a suspect you knew to be guilty?

Sgt. Ed Exley: No.

Capt. Dudley Smith: Would you be willing to shoot a hardened criminal in the back, in order to offset the chance that some...lawyer...

Sgt. Ed Exley: No.

Capt. Dudley Smith: Then, for the love of God, don't be a detective. Stick to assignments where you don't have to make those kinds of choices.

Wife-beater: Who in the hell are you?!

Wendell "Bud" White: Ghost of Christmas Past. Why don't you dance with a man for a change?

Wife-beater: What are you, some kind of smart ass?

Wendell "Bud" White: [grabs wife beater by the head; [w:San Quentin State Prison|Quentin] You'll be out in a year and a half. I'll get cozy with your parole officer. You touch her again, I'll have you violated on a kiddie raper beef. You know what they do to kiddie-rapers in ].

Lynn: [[w:Veronica Lake|Veronica Lake] It would be easier for you if there was an angle wouldn't it? You're afraid of Bud because you can't figure out how to play him. He doesn't follow the same rules of politics as you do. It makes him dangerous. I see Bud because I want to. I see Bud because he can't hide the good inside of him. I see Bud because he makes me feel like Lynn Bracken and not some ] look-alike who fucks for money. I see Bud because he doesn't know how to disguise who he is. I see Bud for all the ways he's different from you.

Captain Dudley Smith: (to a person he has just fatally shot) Have you a valediction, boyo?

Captain Dudley Smith: Don't start trying to do the right thing, boyo. You haven't had the practice.

Captain Dudley Smith: [[Ireland] (after Bud sees pictures of Ed with Lynn) I wouldn't trade places with Edmund Exley right now for all the whiskey in ].

Captain Dudley Smith: Go back to Jersey, sonny. This is the city of the angels and you haven't got any wings.

Captain Dudley Smith: Wendell, I'd like full and docile co-operation on every topic...

Captain Dudley Smith: You may well reap the benefit, Edmund, but are you truly prepared to be despised within the department?

Edmund "Ed" Exley: (At the end of an interrogation session) You know, I'm talking about the gas chamber, and you haven't even asked me what this is about. You've got a big "Guilty" sign around your neck.