L.A. Confidential Quotes

Dick Stensland: We'll do the town one night... on me.

Bud White: I'll bring my wallet, just in case.

Captain Dudley Smith: You'll do as I say, and ask no questions. Do you follow my drift?

Bud White: In technicolor, sir.

Dick Stensland: I got a hot date.

Bud White: Yeah? Who is she and what did you arrest her for?

Ed Exley: Do you make the three Negroes for the Nite Owl killings?

Jack Vincennes: [puzzled] What?

Ed Exley: It's a simple question.

Jack Vincennes: Why in the world do you wanna go digging any deeper into the Nite Owl killings... Lieutenant?

Ed Exley: ...Rollo Tamasi.

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

Ed Exley: [pauses] 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.

Jack Vincennes: What's your point?

Ed Exley: Rollo Tamasi is the reason I became a cop. I wanted to catch the guys who thought they could get away with it. It's supposed to be about justice. Then somewhere along the way, I lost sight of that... Why'd you become a cop?

Jack Vincennes: [hoarsely] Huh. I don't remember.

[brief hesitation]

Jack Vincennes: What do you want, Exley?

Ed Exley: I just wanna solve this thing.

Jack Vincennes: The Nite Owl *was* solved.

Ed Exley: No; I wanna do it right.

Jack Vincennes: Even if it means paying the consequences?

[Exley nods his head, Vincennes stands up from his chair]

Jack Vincennes: All right, college boy, I'll help. But there's a case you boys in Homicide don't care about, you think it's just another Hollywood "homo"-cide. Well, I don't. You help me with mine, I'll help you with yours. Deal?

Ed Exley: Deal.

Ed Exley: If we're going to figure this out, we need to work together.

Bud White: The Nite Owl made you. You want to tear all that down?

Ed Exley: With a wrecking ball. You want to help me swing it?

Jack Vincennes: I'm the technical advisor. I teach Brett Chase how to walk and talk like a cop.

Jack's Dancing Partner: Brett Chase doesn't walk and talk like you.

Jack Vincennes: Well, that's 'cause he's the television version. America isn't ready for the real me.

Pierce Patchett: I use girls that look like movie stars. Sometimes I employ a plastic surgeon. When the work had been done, that's when you saw us.

Bud White: That's why her mother couldn't I.D. her. Jesus fucking Christ.

Pierce Patchett: No, Mr. White. Pierce Morehouse Patchett. Now I sense that you're on your best behavior, but that's really all you're going to get. If you have any more questions, I'll meet you with my attorney.

Johnny Stompanato: You want an autograph? Write to MGM.

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

Johnny Stompanato: What'd you say to me?

Ed Exley: LAPD. Sit down.

Lana Turner: Who in the hell do you think you are?

Jack Vincennes: Ed...

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

Johnny Stompanato: You are making a large mistake.

Lana Turner: Get away from our table!

Ed Exley: Shut up! A hooker cut to look like Lana Turner is still a hooker.

Johnny Stompanato: Hey!

Ed Exley: She just looks like Lana Turner.

Jack Vincennes: She *is* Lana Turner.

Ed Exley: [stunned] What?

Jack Vincennes: She *is* Lana Turner.

[Lana throws a drink in Ed's face]

Bud White: Well, Captain, what do you want?

Captain Dudley Smith: Call me Dudley.

Bud White: Dudley... what do you want?

Ed Exley: I heard you like to shoot dogs.

Ray Collins: Dogs got no reason to live.

[Dick Stensland arrives with liquor for a party]

Officer: What took you, Stensland?

Dick Stensland: My partner stopped to help a damsel in distress. He's got his priorities all screwed up.

Bud White: I'd like to see you again.

Lynn Bracken: Are you asking me for a date, or an appointment?

Bud White: ...I don't know.

Lynn Bracken: Well, if you're asking me for a date, I should know your first name.

Bud White: [embarrassed] Forget I asked. It was a mistake.

Bud White: Merry Christmas.

Lynn Bracken: Merry Christmas to you, officer.

Bud White: That obvious, huh?

Lynn Bracken: It's practically stamped on your forehead.

[Exley and White are waiting inside the Victory Motel with guns drawn]

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

Bud White: Now's your chance.

[Exley gives him a puzzled look]

Bud White: He died in the line of duty, didn't he?

[the two share a laugh, just before thugs storm the room and a gunfight begins]

[first lines]

Sid Hudgens: [voiceover] Come to Los Angeles! The sun shines bright, the beaches are wide and inviting, and the orange groves stretch as far as the eye can see. There are jobs aplenty, and land is cheap. Every working man can have his own house, and inside every house, a happy, all-American family. You can have all this, and who knows... you could even be discovered, become a movie star... or at least see one. Life is good in Los Angeles... it's paradise on Earth." Ha ha ha ha. That's what they tell you, anyway.

Lynn Bracken: You're the first man in five years who didn't tell me I look like Veronica Lake inside of a minute.

Bud White: You look better than Veronica Lake.

[White approaches Loew in the bathroom after he refused to answer Exley's questions]

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

[White looks at him, silently]

Ellis Loew: Come on, don't try that "Good Cop-Bad Cop" crap. I practically invented it. So what if some homo actor is dead, huh? Boys, girls, ten of them step off the bus to L.A. every day...

[White smashes Loew's head into the mirror and then sticks it into the toilet]

Ellis Loew: Pull him off me, Exley!

Ed Exley: I don't know how.

Bud White: Now, I know you think you're the A-number one hotshot. But here's the juice: if I take you out, there'll be ten more lawyers to take your place tomorrow. They just won't come on the bus, that's all!

[White drags Loew into his office and dangles him out of the window by his legs until he confesses]

Ed Exley: Was that how you used to run the "Good Cop-Bad Cop"?

[Bud grabs Johnny Stompanato by the testicles to get him to talk]

Bud White: What do I get if I give you your balls back, you wop cocksucker?

[Exley has to perform the interrogation]

Jack Vincennes: Are you sure Golden Boy is up to the task, Cap?

Captain Dudley Smith: Oh, I think you'd be surprised what the lad is capable of.

City Councilman: [told by Bud to leave Lynn's house] Maybe I will. Maybe I won't.

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

[while Lynn hides a smile, the client gathers up his clothes, and walks out front door]

City Councilman: Officer.

Bud White: Councilman.

Sid Hudgens: 'It's Christmas Eve in the City of Angels and while decent citizens sleep the sleep of the righteous, hopheads prowl for marijuana, not knowing that a man is coming to stop them! Celebrity crimestopper Jack Vincennes, scourge of grasshoppers and dopefiends everywhere!' Ya like it, Jackie boy?

Jack Vincennes: Yeah, subtle.

Jack Vincennes: Karen, this is Sid Hudgens of Hush-Hush Magazine.

Sid Hudgens: Hellooooo, Karen!

Jack's Dancing Partner: Hello yourself!

[walks off angrily]

Jack Vincennes: What's that about?

Sid Hudgens: Eh, we ran a piece last year, "Ingenue Dykes in Hollywood." Her name got mentioned.

Captain Dudley Smith: Have you a valediction, boyo?

Jack Vincennes: [gasping out a name] ... Rollo Tamasi.

[laughs, painfully, to himself as he dies]

Ed Exley: A naked man with a gun? Do you really expect anyone to believe that?

Bud White: Get the fuck away from me.

Ed Exley: How's it gonna look in your report?

Bud White: It'll look like justice. That's what the man got. Justice.

Ed Exley: You don't know the meaning of the word, you ignorant bastard.

Bud White: Oh yeah, well you think it means getting your picture in the paper. Why don't you go after criminals for a change, instead of cops?

[punches Exley in the shoulder and then starts to walk away]

Ed Exley: Stensland got what he deserved, and so will you.

[a furious White tries to attack Exley, only to be restrained by the Captain and by several other cops]

Captain Dudley Smith: It's best to stay away from a man when his blood is up.

Ed Exley: His blood is always up.

Captain Dudley Smith: Then perhaps you should stay away from him altogether.

[to Ray Collins]

Ed Exley: They called you 'Sugar', 'cause you liked to give it out... so sweet.

Captain Dudley Smith: Edmund, you're a political animal. You have the eye for human weakness, but not the stomach.

Ed Exley: You're wrong, sir.

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

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

Captain Dudley Smith: Yes or no, Edmund?

Ed Exley: No!

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

Ed Exley: No.

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

Ed Exley: No.

Captain Dudley Smith: Then, for the love of God, don't be a detective. Stick to assignments where you don't have...

Ed Exley: Dudley, I know you mean well, but I don't need to do it the way you did. Or my father.

Captain Dudley Smith: At least get rid of the glasses. I can't think of another man in the department who wears them.

Ed Exley: [they are looking at each other's faces, both bloodied by Bud] Are you okay?

Lynn Bracken: [nods] You okay?

Ed Exley: Bud hates himself for what he did.

Lynn Bracken: I know how he feels.

[last lines]

Lynn Bracken: Some men get the world. Others get ex-hookers and a trip to Arizona.

[She kisses Exley on the cheek]

Lynn Bracken: Bye.

Ed Exley: Bye.

Bud White: Bullshit. How would a two-bit hick like Meeks get his hands on a large supply of heroin?

Johnny Stompanato: You're right, it's probably bullshit. Even if he did, he could never unload it. Not without drawing all kinds of attention.

Bud White: Maybe that's why he's under a house in Elysian Park and he don't smell too good, paisano.

[when Sid Hudgens is found dead]

Bud White: What happened?

Detective at Hush-Hush Office: Somebody beat him to death and stole a bunch of files. Must've dug up garbage on the wrong guy. Got it narrowed down to a thousand suspects.

Sid Hudgens: [voiceover] Something has to be done, but nothing too original, because hey, this is Hollywood.

Officer Arresting Mickey Cohen: Mr. Cohen, you're under arrest. Nonpayment of federal income tax.

Captain Dudley Smith: Bud White is a valuable officer.

Ed Exley: White's a mindless thug.

Captain Dudley Smith: No, Edmund, he's just a man who can answer yes to those questions I've asked you from time to time.

Sid Hudgens: Are you tight with the DA, Jackie?

Jack Vincennes: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. He tried to throw me off the force last Christmas as a little joke.

[White catches a parolee beating his wife]

Wife Beater: Who in the hell are you?

Bud White: The 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?

[tries to attack Bud]

Bud White: [after beating up and handcuffing the wife beater] 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.

Bud White: [grabs wife beater by the head] You know what they do to kiddie rapers in Quentin, don't ya?

Lynn Bracken: You say "fuck" a lot.

Bud White: You fuck for money.

[Stocking a box with liquor for the police's Christmas party]

Liquor Store Owner: If I ever get held up, you guys better be here.

Ray Pinker: Bud White - what brings *you* to the basement?

Bud White: I got a couple Nite Owl questions.

Ray Pinker: I don't know if you'd read the papers, but that case is closed.

Bud White: Is there anything bothering you about it, Ray?

Ray Pinker: Yeah, the fact that the pack-up boys haven't carted this shit out of here yet.

[Bud sees all the boxes of case files, and starts to look through the crime scene photos]

Ray Pinker: I got three shotguns, taken from the suspects, that match the strike marks on the shells from the Nite Owl. What more do you want?

Bud White: [suddenly spotting a detail in a photo] There's blood on the wall here. I thought everybody but the cook got shot in the men's room?

Ray Pinker: That is Stensland's blood.

Bud White: Stensland?

Ray Pinker: He took a blow to the head. Was probably unconscious when they dragged him in the john.

Bud White: Did they hit anybody else?

Ray Pinker: No. But he was a cop, he probably tried to "do something."

Bud White: [remembering that Stensland said he had a date that night, he studies a photo showing a table with two settings, including a coffee mug smudged with lipstick] Grilled cheese, black coffee... two of the victims were women, right?

Ray Pinker: Yeah - Patti DeLuca, the night-shift waitress, and a Susan Lefferts.

Bud White: Susan Lefferts...

Ray Pinker: Yeah, what about her?

[Bud runs out of the room]

Ray Pinker: You're welcome!

[lying in bed, Lynn touches a scar on Bud's shoulder]

Lynn Bracken: Where did this come from?

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

Lynn Bracken: So you saved her.

Bud White: ...Not for long.

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

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

Lynn Bracken: Is that why you became a cop? To get even?

Bud White: ...Maybe.

Bud White: Something's wrong with the Nite Owl. I know it in here,

[points to his chest]

Bud White: I know it. That prick Exley shot the wrong guys. Whoever killed my partner, is still out there. I... If I could work cases like a real detective, I could prove it. But I'm not smart enough. I'm just the guy they bring in to scare the other guy shitless.

Lynn Bracken: You're wrong. You found Patchett, you found me. You're smart enough.

[to Lynn]

Bud White: Don't ever try to fucking bribe me or I'll have you and Patchett in shit up to your ears.

Jack Vincennes: How's it hanging, Sid?

Sid Hudgens: Down around my ankles.

Lynn Bracken: There's blood on your shirt. Is that an integral part of your job?

Bud White: Yeah.

Lynn Bracken: Do you enjoy it?

Bud White: When they deserve it.

Lynn Bracken: Did they deserve it?

Bud White: I'm not sure.

Lynn Bracken: But you did it anyway.

Bud White: Yeah, just like the half-dozen guys you screwed today.

Lynn Bracken: Well, actually, it was only two.

Lynn Bracken: I was wondering when you'd knock on my door again, Officer White.

Bud White: It's Bud.

Lynn Bracken: Bud...

[Before killing Sid Hudgens]

Captain Dudley Smith: Hush hush.

Captain Dudley Smith: [Captain Smith briefs the squad room on Jack Vincennes' death; Exley is standing beside him] Sergeant Vincennes was killed by a .32 slug to the heart. Time of death, approximately 1 a.m. Although he was found in Echo Park, preliminary forensics indicates his body was most likely moved. I want two-man teams to scour that entire neighborhood. Our justice must be swift and merciless. That is all.

Captain Dudley Smith: [Exley starts to leave with the other officers] Edmund, might I have a word with you? We're trying to run down a lead on an associate of Vincennes. The records check has led to a dead end.

Ed Exley: What's the name?

Captain Dudley Smith: Rollo Tomasi. Have you ever heard Vincennes mention him?

Ed Exley: [poker-faced] No. No, I haven't.

Captain Dudley Smith: Well, it's probably nothing. Still, keep your eyes open, eh, boyo?

[Captain Smith exits as Exley glares at him from behind]

[Stensland is headed to the cell blocks for revenge on a group of Mexicans who assaulted two fellow officers]

Jack Vincennes: Hey, White? You'd better put a leash on your partner before he kills somebody.

Jack Vincennes: So you're the stellar witness. I should have known. What's the chief throwing you?

Ed Exley: Throwing me?

Jack Vincennes: Yeah, Exley, what's the payoff?

Ed Exley: You're the payoff expert. I'm just doing my duty.

Jack Vincennes: Come on. You're playing an angle here, college boy, right? You're getting something out of this so you don't have to hobknob with rank and file cops who are gonna hate your guts for snitching. Well, if they're making you detective, watch out. Some bureau guys are gonna burn in this, and you're gonna end up working with friends of theirs.

Ed Exley: What about you?

Jack Vincennes: I'm snitching three old-timers who'll be fishing in Oregon this time next week. Next to you, I'm clean. And smart.

[Exley is paged on the PA system and turns to leave]

Jack Vincennes: And remember: Bud White'll fuck you for this if it takes him the rest of his life.

Bud White: There's no god damn bill on me?

Captain Dudley Smith: Four of the witnesses recanted their testimony.

Bud White: Why?

Captain Dudley Smith: They had a change of heart.

Bud White: What about Stensland?

Captain Dudley Smith: Your partner's through. Departmental scapegoat on the chief's orders.

Bud White: A year from his pension. Exley.

Captain Dudley Smith: Exley made his play and got what he wanted. As a politician, he exceeds even myself. The Department needs smart men like Exley... and direct men like you.

Bud White: Pierce Patchett?

Lynn Bracken: He takes a cut of our earnings and invests it for us. He doesn't let us use narcotics and he doesn't abuse us. Can your policeman's mentality grasp those contradictions?

Bud White: He had you cut to look like Veronica Lake.

Lynn Bracken: No. I'm really a brunette, but the rest is me.

Ed Exley: I want D.A. bureau men to tail Dudley Smith and Pierce Patchett 24 hours a day. I want you to get a judge to authorize wiretaps on their home phones, and I want authorization to check their bank records.

Ellis Loew: On what evidence?

Bud White: Call it a hunch.

Ed Exley: [finding Patchett dead] Suicide note. Says he killed Jack because Jack had figured out a pornography scam Patchett was running.

Bud White: Slicing himself open wasn't his idea. Two of his fingers are broken.

Ed Exley: Rollo Tomasi.

Captain Dudley Smith: Who is he?

Ed Exley: You are. You're the guy who gets away with it. Jack knew it, and so do I.

Ed Exley: During our investigation of events surrounding the Nite Owl case, Jack Vincennes, Bud White, and I learned the following.

Ellis Loew: Your golden boy's throwing his whole life away.

Ed Exley: The three Nite Owl suspects, while guilty of kidnapping and rape, were innocent of the multiple homicides at the Nite Owl. The actual gunmen were most likely Los Angeles Police Department officers Michael Breuning and William Carlisle, and a third man who may or may not have been Captain Dudley Smith. The objective: the elimination of another police officer, Richard Stensland, who, along with former LAPD officer Leland "Buzz" Meeks, also committed multiple homicides on behalf of Captain Smith and then betrayed him over twenty-five pounds of heroin, the retrieval of which was the ultimate motivation behind the Nite Owl killings. Beginning with the incarceration of Mickey Cohen, Captain Smith has been assuming control of organized crime in the city of Los Angeles. This includes the assassinations of an unknown number of Mickey Cohen lieutenants, the systematic blackmail of city officials, and the murders of Susan Lefferts, Pierce Patchett, Sid Hudgens, and Sergeant Jack Vincennes. Captain Smith admitted as much to me before I shot him at the Victory Motel.

[as Exley explains the mystery, while the Chief, Lowe and several Department officials watch through the two-way mirror]

LAPD Official: Christ, it'll stain the Department for years.

Police Chief: Decades.

Ellis Loew: If we can get the kid to play ball, who's to say what really happened? Maybe Dudley Smith died a hero.

[the interrogator leaves the room and shuts the door. Alone in the room, Exley smiles]

Police Chief: [through intercom] You want to tell me what you're smiling about?

Ed Exley: A hero.

LAPD Official: How could he know what we were saying?

Police Chief: [through intercom] And?

Ed Exley: In a situation like this, you're going to need more than one.

Matt Reynolds: You know, when I came out to L.A., this isn't exactly where I saw myself ending up.

Jack Vincennes: Yeah, well... get in line.

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

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

Captain Dudley Smith: You're narco, Jack, not homicide. Since when do you work with Edmund Exley?

Jack Vincennes: Well, it's a private investigation.

Captain Dudley Smith: Ah.

Jack Vincennes: I messed something up; I'm trying to make amends.

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

[Lynn leads Bud to her private bedroom]

Bud White: Why me?

Lynn Bracken: [shakes her head, whispers] I don't know.

[Exley curses under his breath]

Jack Vincennes: What?

Ed Exley: [not wearing his] Glasses!

Ed Exley: You're kidding! Well, just don't shoot me!

[after securing Vincennes's cooperation, the Chief turns to Exley, watching from behind a two-way mirror]

Police Chief: And so it goes... Detective Lieutenant. Ace 'em at the grand jury tomorrow, son. Wear a smart-looking suit and ace 'em. And Ed? Lose the glasses.