Of the intrinsic differences that separate Americans from English the chief have their roots in the obvious disparity between the ...environment and traditions of the American people since the seventeenth century and those of the English. The latter have lived under a relatively stable social order, and it has impressed upon their souls their characteristic respect for what is customary and of good report. Until the First World War brought chaos to most of their institutions, their whole lives were regulated, perhaps more than those of any other people save the Spaniards, by regard for precedent. The Americans, though partly of the same blood, have felt no such restraint, and acquired no such habit of conformity. On the contrary, they have plunged to the other extreme, for the conditions of life in their country have put a high value upon the precisely opposite qualities of curiosity and daring, and so they have acquired that character of restlessness, that impatience of forms, that disdain of the dead hand, which now broadly marks them.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Chief Inspector Dreyfus: What about the maid? Inspector Clouseau: The maid?... Chief Inspector Dreyfus: Was he jealous of her, too? He strangled her. Inspector Clouseau: It's possible that his intended victim was a man and he made a mistake. Chief Inspector Dreyfus: A mistake? In a nudist camp? Inspector Clouseau: Nobody's perfect.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Inspector Clouseau: Do I detect something in your voice that says I am in disfavor with you? Chief Inspector Dreyfus: Yes. I ...wish you were dead. Inspector Clouseau: Well, of course, you are entitled to your opinion.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Inspector Clouseau: How can a blind man be a lookout? Chief Inspector Dreyfus: How can an idiot be a policeman? Answer me tha...t! Inspector Clouseau: It's very simple. All he has to do is enlist.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Ben Guarino: Whad'a we goin' to do about these machine guns? Chief Detective: What can we do about them? There's no law again...st manufacturing them, just against havin' them. They can't get 'em in one state, they go across the border and get 'em in another. These fellows bootleg machine guns like they bootleg booze. Ben Guarino: Yeah, they better do somethin' about that, because with these toys to play with what happened before will look like a tea party.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Managing Editor: That's rotten. 'Costello slaying starts gang war.' That's what I want. Copy Chief: I'm working on that angle.... I've got four men on it. Managing Editor: Four. You'll need forty men on this story for the next five years. You know what's happening. This town is up for the grabs, get me. You know Costello was the last of the old- fashioned gang leaders. There's a new crew coming out, and every guy that's got money enough to buy a gun is going to try to step in his place. You see, they'll be shooting each other like rabbits for the control of the booze business. You get it. It'll be just like war. That's it--war. You put that in the lead. War--gang war.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Police officer: Say chief. This fellow Comante.... Public's interested in him. He's a colorful character. Chief Detective: Co...lorful. What color is a trawling louse? Say listen, that's the attitude of too many morons in this country. They think these big hoodlums are some sort of demagogues. Whad a they do about a guy like Comante, they sentimentalize him. Romance. Make jokes about 'em. They had some excuse for glorifying our old Western badmen. They met in the middle of the street at high noon waiting for each other to draw. But these fiends sneak up, shoot a guy in the back, and then run away. Colorful ... When I think what goes on in the minds of these lice, I wanna vomit.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
crew member [offscreen]: That's an awful big town San Francisco. Weinberg: Strictly a one-whistle stop. There's only one city... in the USA and that's New York. Chief Sergeant: Oh, you're just another hometown hick, Weinberg. What's wrong with California? Weinberg: California. The sun shines and nothing happens. Before you know it, you're sixty years old. Chief Sergeant: It's no different from New York. My sister's been tryin' to get out of Brooklyn for the last forty years. Weinberg: Brooklyn. That ain't New York, Chief. Once you cross that Brooklyn Bridge, you're out of this world. The only noise you hear is the hardening of your arteries. You know when I used to drive a hack, I had a pal who crossed that bridge back in 1929 and ain't never heard from him since.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Chief Justice. Your means are very slender, and your waste is great. Falstaff. I would it were otherwise. I would my means we...re greater, and my waist slenderer.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »