- [last lines]
- Reporter: What do you know, the ace. A royal flush.
- Arnold Rothstein: It's the royal flush I want. Just one time before I die. A royal flush in a no limit game.
- Arnold Rothstein: The royal flush is the best hand you can hold in poker. It's the 10, the jack, the queen, the king and the ace of any one suit. Now a hand like that comes along once in a lifetime. The odds are 649,740 to 1.
- Tom Fowler: [inquiringly, after listening to a shady proposal] Sometimes justice is more important than ethics?
- Arnold Rothstein: That's the way I feel about it.
- Johnny as a Boy: Boy, oh, boy, you always come up with somethin', don't cha!
- Arnold as a Boy: If you're goin' places, you gotta look ahead. And I'm goin' places!
- Abraham Rothstein: I don't understand you. I don't understand you, Arnold. It seems to be some sort of sin to you to be honest and decent and speak the truth.
- Abraham Rothstein: [to his young son] Who are you? What are you? Where do you come from? How did you get into our family whose always been taught to obey God's commandments and respect the law?
- Henry Hecht: He's a thin man with a fat bankroll. His favorite color is green, lawn green. His favorite book is the handbook. His favorite time of the day is midnight.
- Big Tim O'Brien: Let me tell you something. In order to get protection you gotta have something to protect! What do you punks got?
- Arnold Rothstein: A brain and a bankroll, Mr. O'Brien.
- Carolyn Green: Did you get my fingerprints to check if I'd done time? Or, would you like an x-ray picture of me to find out what I'm like on the inside?
- Phil Butler: Boy, what a weekend I had at Oyster Bay!
- Carolyn Green: What happened, Madge?
- Phil Butler: They're all the same. Chased me around that beach as though I was at Coney Island.
- Arnold Rothstein: You're a good woman.
- Carolyn Green: Well, I have never heard of anything more revolting in my whole life.
- Carolyn Green: Are you interested in show business?
- Arnold Rothstein: Not particularly. It's too much of a gamble. But, I'm interested in you - not as an actress, as a woman.
- Carolyn Green: Who are these people that keep coming over?
- Arnold Rothstein: Just people.
- Carolyn Green: Why don't you ever introduce me to them?
- Arnold Rothstein: They're not your kind of people.
- Carolyn Green: Are they your kind?
- Madge: I got myself a liberal education all the way from the music halls of London to Broadway. I was married to a gambler once - and when you're married to a gambler, the only game you play is solitaire. Gambling takes all the energy and passion they have and you have to be satisfied with what's left. You spend all your time waiting for him to come home. Sometimes he comes home late, sometimes later, and one day he just doesn't come home at all.
- Arnold Rothstein: Let me explain the facts of life to you, Jimmy, my boy. You think you walked out on me with $40,000, huh? Well, as a partner you were entitled to half of it. That means you only walked out with $20,000. In consideration, for which, you just signed a paper dissolve our partnership. I was prepared to pay you $100,000 for your half of the club. So, I figure I just made $80,000. It's been nice knowing you.
- Carolyn Green: You know it's funny - he's the gambler, but I'm the one who's going to be doing the gambling.
- Jim Kelly: I never trusted you. I don't trust you now. I wouldn't go partners with you in a hot dog stand.
- Big Tim O'Brien: I know what the trouble with him is. He thinks with his fist. The trouble with you is - you want to go too far and too fast.
- Arnold Rothstein: What are you so happy about?
- Carolyn Green: Oh, I've decided to be happy whether I'm happy or not.
- Arnold Rothstein: What'd you do today?
- Carolyn Green: Oh, I window shopped and I walked the dog.
- Arnold Rothstein: What'd you do yesterday?
- Carolyn Green: I walked the dog and I window shopped.
- Arnold Rothstein: You're the best bet I ever made, Carolyn. You brought me luck. You're the greatest thing that ever happened to me. It makes up for all the other rotten things that happened to me before I met you.
- Big Tim O'Brien: You've always had a pretty good hand for mathematics, especially percentages. Let me point out that 50% of something - is a lot better than 100% of nothing.
- Big Tim O'Brien: I have to think of myself. You know, I'm not feeling too well, these days. Not getting any younger. I think I need a little peace and quiet.
- Phil Butler: Aren't you getting tired of this, Johnny? Aren't you getting tired of following me around, little man?
- Johnny Burke: When you enjoy what you're doing, Lieutenant, you never get tired.
- Phil Butler: I don't like what you're doing. How's it feel like, little man? How does it feel, Johnny, to be squeezed like a grape? You never got over it, did you Johnny?
- Johnny Burke: Big man, still going after the backdoor, huh, Lieutenant? With your big fat hand out!
- Phil Butler: Little man, you got too big a mouth and I'm gonna close it for you.
- Johnny Burke: Whose side are you on? His or mine?
- Arnold Rothstein: I'm on my side, Johnny. This is the way my side plays.
- Tom Fowler: I don't recall ever having met these distinguished gorillas.
- Arnold Rothstein: I'd like you to defend them.
- Williams: It's just a drop in the bucket for you, Arnie. One throw of the stinkin' dice. You got the biggest bankroll on Broadway.
- Arnold Rothstein: I didn't get it by playing losers or backing squealers.
- Carolyn Green: This is the first night you've been home since we were married - and how do you spend it? Watching a clock, waiting for a man to die in the electric chair.
- Arnold Rothstein: I've waited a long time for this midnight. It feels good.
- Carolyn Green: I - took a gamble and I lost. I'm trying not to be a bad loser, because I don't like women who whine.
- Tom Fowler: What you're asking me to do is - quite unethical.
- Arnold Rothstein: As I see it, I'm asking you to - bring a criminal to justice.
- John: Is it true what they say about you in Chicago?
- Arnold Rothstein: I don't know, John. What do they say about me in Chicago?
- John: That you masterminded the World Series fix.
- Arnold Rothstein: I fixed the San Francisco earthquake, the Chicago fire, and the sinking of the Lusitania.
- Arnold Rothstein: Maybe I'll do business with the new management.
- Big Tim O'Brien: [takes a puff on his cigar] If you're around.
- Arnold Rothstein: Would you consider that a threat, Counselor?
- Tom Fowler: Not legally.
- Big Tim O'Brien: You know what you've really done? You've upset the apple cart for good. You haven't only put Butler out of business, but everybody else. You've given the opposition what it wanted and a banner to rally around. The Butler case. The day it broke they started organizing for action. In a month's time, there won't be a gambling house, a bookie joint, a bucket shop , or even a brothel left open.
- [first lines]
- receptionist: [answers the telephone] International Tobacco. Yes. Just a moment, please.
- Arnold Rothstein: [Rothstein hands a card to the receptionist] I'd like to see Mr. Simmons, please.
- receptionist: Oh yes, you're expected. Go right in.