- Lee Morgan: Well, it's time you got wise to yourself. Around this town the only reason friends pat you on the back is to find an easy place to break it!
- Johnny Blake: Yeah. You're a friend, aren't you?
- Lee Morgan: Well, I guess you're dumb enough to think so.
- Lee Morgan: You're gonna take it away from Blake?
- 'Bugs' Fenner: Yeah.
- Lee Morgan: Go ahead and take it.
- [Bugs moves in for a long kiss and gets slapped by Lee]
- Lee Morgan: The numbers game.
- Al Kruger: It's a top job, all right, but it's the last one a guy ever holds. There's only one way out.
- Johnny Blake: What are you afraid of?
- Louie Vinci: I don't like the way your face is fastened on.
- Johnny Blake: I'll be down tomorrow morning and give you a chance to change it.
- Johnny Blake: You like me pretty well. Well, that goes both ways. If women and home life had been in my line, I'd have fallen for you a long time ago.
- Lee Morgan: That would have been kind of nice, wouldn't it?
- Johnny Blake: Yeah. Until you went crazy being married to a man who was never home.
- Lee Morgan: Sort of wondering if it was an optical illusion.
- Johnny Blake: Yeah. It isn't in the cards.
- Lee Morgan: And you can't beat the cards, can you?
- Johnny Blake: No.
- 'Bugs' Fenner: You don't trust me.
- Lee Morgan: I don't trust anybody.
- 'Bugs' Fenner: Neither do I. We ought to work fine together.
- Lee Morgan: I tried to take you in with me. It sort of turned out better to toss it to the wolves, didn't it?
- Johnny Blake: Well, I thought they'd let you keep running your end of it.
- Lee Morgan: I guess that wasn't poetry about friends finding an easy place to break your back!
- Al Kruger: Oh, we don't believe in letting the bank handle our records.
- Johnny Blake: Yeah, I noticed that.
- Mr. Thorndyke: Why did you try to take over the job?
- Johnny Blake: I didn't try and take it over, I took it over.
- Lee Morgan: You're a funny fella, Johnny. When you come out of your shell, you're really human.
- Johnny Blake: Well, I don't like to see decent people pushed around.
- Johnny Blake: But I didn't get much out of you the last time I gave you a going-over.
- Al Kruger: You came close to it.
- Johnny Blake: I wish I'd known it then. You'd have got some more. I wanted to get you on that rap.
- Mr. Hollister: I'd still look around if I were you, Mr. Kruger, because if you make just one more mistake, you're through.
- Al Kruger: What do you mean, through?
- Mr. Hollister: There's just one way to interpret it. That's all, Mr. Kruger.
- Capt. Dan 'Mac' McLaren: I've had that attitude because half the commissions were nothing but political sops thrown to the public to keep them quiet. The other half did just what they were supposed to do. They investigated, wrote a report on it, took a swing at the police department and went home.
- Capt. Dan 'Mac' McLaren: Plans are no good when they leak ahead of time... and I've seen some leaks in high places.
- Al Kruger: Why, I've heard guys that you've sent to prison say that if you ever made a deal, you'd see yourself dead before you'd go back on it.
- Al Kruger: You've got him wrong, Nick.
- 'Bugs' Fenner: Yeah, well, he's still a cop to me.
- Al Kruger: Well, if it makes you happy, you keep right on thinking so.
- Johnny Blake: Hello Mac. Did you nail 'em?
- Capt. Dan 'Mac' McLaren: Yep.
- Johnny Blake: Well, that's that.
- Capt. Dan 'Mac' McLaren: Who got you, Fenner?
- Johnny Blake: Yep. You check the bullets he put into me with those that killed Bryant and Kruger. They're all from his gun.
- Capt. Dan 'Mac' McLaren: You didn't miss a bet, did ya?
- Johnny Blake: One. I was wrong about that glass o' beer. But we've had lots of 'em.
- Capt. Dan 'Mac' McLaren: We'll be having a lot more, Johnny, I'm taking you to the hospital.
- Johnny Blake: That won't do any good. Keep kickin' 'em into line, Mac.
- Capt. Dan 'Mac' McLaren: I will Johnny.
- Johnny Blake: I like to think that when those mugs pass a policeman, they'll keep on tippin' their hats.
- [dies]
- Al Kruger: Who threatened Bryant?
- 'Bugs' Fenner: I don't know. But, it's about time somebody told him to pipe down. He's been doing enough yelling in his papers without making those pictures.
- Al Kruger: Ah, he's just racing his motor.
- 'Bugs' Fenner: Yeah, well, he's racing it so loud the public's liable to wake up one of these days.
- Al Kruger: The public's been played for a sucker so long they'll never wake up.
- Lee Morgan: How were the collections?
- Herman: Just fine. You really got something in this numbers game, Miss Lee. Mr. Henrich says he thinks it's gonna catch on in the Bronx even better than Harlem.
- Ward Bryant: My papers will continue their present policy of open attack on racketeers and the directors of organized crime who are the really dangerous enemies of society. His phone call is only further evidence that the racketeers have the American public pretty well whipped when a citizen has to sacrifice the safety of his family to ask for security and decency. These same racketeers laugh at your laws. They make a joke of your courts. They rule by the fear of their bullets. They must be smashed by the power of your ballots.
- Capt. Dan 'Mac' McLaren: We had another man on the force that tried to smash that mob. They didn't kill him. They threw acid in his face. His headlights don't burn anymore.
- Johnny Blake: I've never seen it fail. Whenever mugs get into a jam, the first thing they do is they start knifing each other.
- Johnny Blake: Any money I'd make would be coming out of your pocket. And I don't take any money away from women. Not me.
- Crail - Ex Con: I see where they cut the bigshot detective down to size. Sure must be tough not to be able to kick the boys around anymore and make them tip their hats to ya.
- Johnny Blake: Yeah, but they still do.
- Crail - Ex Con: To a Bronx flatfoot?
- Johnny Blake: [kicks and punches Crail to the ground] Yeah. And as long as I'm part of the force, they'll keep on tipping their hats. Remember it next time.
- Johnny Blake: They don't believe in kicking the rats into line anymore. Nowadays, you're supposed to kiss them and tuck them in.
- 'Bugs' Fenner: What's he talking about?
- Al Kruger: You know what he's talking about, you 10-cent thug!
- Nellie LaFleur: If this keeps up, you gonna be rich! Four thousand five hundred dollars yesterday, Miss Lee, and the game is spreadin' all over Harlem. The boys all around the pool halls are spending their money on the numbers instead of dice, and when a colored boy stops crap shootin' - that's somethin'!
- Lee Morgan: I'm sorry you got kicked out, Johnny. It's going to be kind of tough to start into a new game after all these years.
- Johnny Blake: Yeah, I suppose so.
- Lee Morgan: What are you gonna do?
- Johnny Blake: I will take in the fights. They got a good card on tonight.
- Lee Morgan: Don't hurt your knuckles.
- Elevator Operator: One buck on 7 - 7 - 7.
- Bookie: Shootin' the works, ain't ya?
- Elevator Operator: I just took 3 blondes to the 7th floor.
- Lee Morgan: You don't seem very upset about it.
- 'Bugs' Fenner: There's no use crying if the dice happen to fall that way.
- Johnny Blake: Seven million people in this town and all of them looking for easy money. You just offer them 600-for-1, and this thing will spread like a four-alarm fire. And they won't be buying one number, they'll be picking four or five. But you want to control the winning number, you can pay off on racetrack bets and manipulate the totals. All it needs is organization. Get a million people in this town buying numbers and this one racket will clean up 300 million a year. Why, it's a cinch! It's easy!
- Mr. Hollister: I wish I'd known when you quit. I'd have liked to have had you in the banking business.
- Johnny Blake: Oh, there isn't enough money in it.
- Herman: [Answering the phone] Who is it? He isn't here.
- Lee Morgan: Who'd they want?
- Herman: McCloskey.
- Lee Morgan: That's you.
- Herman: [Lifts handle again] Hello?
- [Turns to Lee]
- Herman: He hung up.
- Nellie LaFleur: Rose, how many times have I told you not to use this on Miss Lee's hair? You ain't puttin' the wave in the hair right either. Give me that comb! Shoo! Get on out of here. These no-account girls. You can't learn 'em nothin'.
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