Touch of Evil Quotes

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: This could be very bad for us.

Susan: For us?

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: For Mexico, I mean.

Quinlan: Come on, read my future for me.

Tanya: You haven't got any.

Quinlan: Hmm? What do you mean?

Tanya: Your future's all used up.

Vargas: Captain, you won't have any trouble with me.

Quinlan: You bet your sweet life I won't.

Vargas: How could you arrest me here? This is my country.

Quinlan: This is where you're gonna die.

Pete Menzies: You're a killer.

Hank Quinlan: Partly. I'm a cop.

Pete Menzies: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Drunk and crazy as you must have been when you strangled him. I guess you were somehow thinking of your wife, the way she was strangled.

Hank Quinlan: I'm always thinking of her, drunk or sober. What else is there to think about, except my job, my dirty job?

Pete Menzies: You didn't have to make it dirty.

Hank Quinlan: I don't call it dirty. Look at the record, our record, partner. Huh?

Pete Menzies: Sure, sure, sure.

Hank Quinlan: Well? All those convictions.

Quinlan: I don't speak Mexican. Let's keep it in English, Vargas.

Vargas: That's all right with me. I'm sure he's just as unpleasant in any language.

Sanchez: Unpleasant? Strange. I've been told I have a very winning personality. The very best shoe clerk the store ever had.

Tanya: We're closed.

Quinlan: You've been cookin' at this hour?

Tanya: Just cleanin' up.

Quinlan: Have you forgotten your old friend, hmm?

Tanya: I told you we were closed.

Quinlan: I'm Hank Quinlan.

Tanya: I didn't recognize you. You should lay off those candy bars.

Quinlan: It's either the candy or the hooch. I must say, I wish it was your chili I was gettin' fat on. Anyway, you're sure lookin' good.

Tanya: You're a mess, honey.

Quinlan: Yeah. That pianola sure brings back memories.

Tanya: The customers go for it - it's so old, it's new. We got the television too. We run movies. What can I offer you?

[Last lines]

Tanya: Isn't somebody gonna come and take him away?

Schwartz: Yeah, in just a few minutes. You really liked him didn't you?

Tanya: The cop did... the one who killed him... he loved him.

Schwartz: Well, Hank was a great detective all right.

Tanya: And a lousy cop.

Schwartz: Is that all you have to say for him?

Tanya: He was some kind of a man... What does it matter what you say about people?

Schwartz: Goodbye Tanya.

Tanya: Adiós.

Quinlan: [leaving strip-club] We're wasting our time here.

Dist. Atty. Adair: I wouldn't say that...

Schwartz: Intuition?

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: Why not? Quinlan doesn't have a monopoly on hunches.

[Quinlan fires a pistol at Vargas, not hitting him]

Quinlan: That wasn't no miss, Vargas. That was just to turn you 'round, so I don't have to shoot you in the back. Unless you'd rather run for it.

Dist. Atty. Adair: An hour ago, Rudy Linnekar had this town in his pocket.

Coroner: Now you could strain him through a sieve.

Susan: You know what's wrong with you, Mr Grandi? You've being seeing too many gangster movies. Mike may be spoiling some of your fun.

'Uncle' Joe Grandi: Mike?

Susan: My husband, yeah! And if you're trying to scare me into calling him off, let me tell you something Mr. Grandi. I may be scared, but he wont be.

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: Susie, one of the longest borders on earth is right here between your country and mine. An open border. Fourteen hundred miles without a single machine gun in place. Yeah, I suppose that all sounds very corny to you.

Susan: I could love being corny, if my husband would only cooperate.

Sanchez: What are you trying to do?

Quinlan: We're trying to strap you to the electric chair, boy.

Pete Menzies: We don't like it when innocent people are blown to jelly around town.

Quinlan: There's an old lady on Main Street last night, picked up a shoe and the shoe had a foot in it. We're going to make you pay for that mess.

Sanchez: [to Vargas] They're trying to railroad me! I don't know why. I never stole any dynamite.

[first lines]

Customs Officer: Uh, you folks American citizens?

Vargas: [to Quinlan] What make you so very sure it was dynamite?

Quinlan: My leg.

Vargas: Your what?

Pete Menzies: His game leg. Sometimes he gets a kind of twinge, like folks do for a change of weather. "Intuition," he calls it.

Zita: Hey, I've got this...

Customs Officer: Are you an American citizen Miss?

Zita: No, I got this ticking noise

Customs Officer: Well, okay.

Zita: No, really!

Customs Officer: Good night.

Zita: This ticking noise in my head!

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: Can you tell me who's in charge here?

Blaine: I can't even tell you what happened.

Pancho's Friend #1: Lady, he says you don't understand what he wants.

Susan: I understand very well what he wants.

Pancho's Friend #2: He save your life, lady.

Susan: Tell him I'm a married woman and that my husband is a great big official in the government, ready and willing to knock out all those pretty front teeth of his.

Susan: You silly little pig.

'Uncle' Joe Grandi: Who are you talking about?

Susan: I'm talking about you. You ridiculous, old fashioned, jug-earred, lopsided, little Caesar.

'Uncle' Joe Grandi: I didn't get that Señora. You'll have to talk slow.

Susan: I'm talking slow. But, in a minute I'll start to yell.

'Uncle' Joe Grandi: I wouldn't do that Señora.

Blaine: Why aren't you back in Mexico City? Isn't that dope trial coming up?

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: Grandi's? It's next Thursday. I'd hoped to go back on the morning plane.

Quinlan: Who's the Jane?

Dist. Atty. Adair: His wife.

Quinlan: Well, what do you know. She don't look Mexican either.

Schwartz: I don't know what Quinlan thinks she's got to do with it.

Dist. Atty. Adair: Oh! Maybe she'll cook chili for him or bring out the crystal ball.

Quinlan: Well, when this case is over, I'll come around some night and sample some of your chili.

Tanya: Better be careful. It may be too hot for you.

Quinlan: It was one of the Grandi kids.

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: What makes you so sure of that, Captain?

Quinlan: Intuition.

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: Intuition?

Quinlan: Vargas and his Keystone Cops has given the Grandi family quite a few headaches lately.

Quinlan: You say your wife was attacked.

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: I did not say she was attacked.

Quinlan: Did you say she was molested?

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: Not physically molested, no.

Quinlan: Was obscene language used?

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: I don't think so.

Quinlan: How do you explain the fact that your wife allowed herself to be picked up by this good looking...

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: She was not picked up.

Dist. Atty. Adair: Now Hank, I think we're getting off on the wrong track here.

Quinlan: Then this good looking young man was a friend of hers?

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: Obviously not.

Quinlan: You wouldn't call that getting picked up on the street?

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: You are a policeman, aren't you?

Quinlan: Aren't you? You don't seem very fond of the job.

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: There are plenty of soldiers who don't like war.

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: All I can say is if you are taking that plane, I'm very glad.

Susan: I am very glad that you are very glad.

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: Captain, have you anything definite on this boy Sanchez?

Quinlan: Not yet. I'm just - going on my intuition.

Marcia Linnekar: I guess that's my father.

Pete Menzies: Now, Miss Linnekar, can you identify the woman.

Marcia Linnekar: I'm not acquainted with my father's girlfriends.

Dist. Atty. Adair: Well, here comes Hank at last. Vargas, you've heard of Hank Quinlan, our local police celebrity.

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: I'd like to meet him.

Coroner: That's what you think.

Detective Casey: I think I ran onto something here, Captain. Some love letters.

Quinlan: You can read them in the bedroom. I don't want to leave that Vargas guy alone.

Detective Casey: Okay.

Quinlan: Save the good stuff for me.

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: [on the phone] Darling, the news is bad. Quinlan is about to arrest that boy Sanchez.

Susan: Oh, Mike, is that why you called? To tell me somebody's been arrested?

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: No. That's not really why I called. Its to tell you how sorry I am about all this. How very, very much I love you. - - Susie?

Susan: I'm still here, my own darling Miguel.

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: Oh, I thought maybe you'd fallen asleep.

Susan: Mmm. I was just listening to you breath. It's a lovely sound.

Sanchez: Where did you find this?

Quinlan: Right here in your love nest.

Quinlan: What do you want?

'Uncle' Joe Grandi: Nothing, Captain. Nothing that you don't want too.

Pancho: Take it easy, Pretty Boy. What do you have such a sweat about?

Pretty Boy: It's a tough rap to get caught with this stuff.

Pancho: It's only that Vargas dame again.

'Uncle' Joe Grandi: In this thing we're partners, see. Shall we - drink to that?

Quinlan: I don't...

'Uncle' Joe Grandi: Juanita, two more double bourbons. Make 'em nice and big.

Voice from Next Door: You know what the boys are trying to do? Don't you? They are trying to get in there. They went to get the master key. You know what marijuana is, don't you?

Susan: Yes.

Voice from Next Door: You know what the Mary Jane is? You know what the Main Liner is?

Susan: I think so. But, what's that got to do with me?

Voice from Next Door: You take it - in the vein.

Susan: You're trying to tell me these boys are drugged? Is that why...

Voice from Next Door: Shhhh!

Pete Menzies: Hank, I've been looking for you in every bar in town.

Quinlan: I've been in half of 'em - only here on the wrong side of the border.

Quinlan: Did I ever tell you the smart way to kill, Pete?

Pete Menzies: Sure. Sure. Strangling.

Quinlan: Clean. Silent.

Pete Menzies: You told me all that. Come on, finish your coffee.

Quinlan: I tell my wife that. I don't usually talk about my wife.

Pete Menzies: Never, when you're sober.

Quinlan: She was strangled, Pete.

Pete Menzies: I know. I know.

Quinlan: Our friend Vargas has some very special ideas about police procedures. He seems to think it don't matter whether the killer's hanged or not, as long as we obey the fine print in the rulebook.

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: Captain, I don't think a policeman should work like a dog catcher.

Quinlan: No?

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: Putting criminals behind bars, no! In any free country, a policeman is supposed to enforce the law and the law protects the guilty as well as the innocent.

Quinlan: Our job is tough enough.

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: It's supposed to be tough! It has to be tough.

Quinlan: Narcotics. He's a drug addict! He's got that young wife of his hooked too. But, good. If I hadn't seen that hypodermic myself.

Dist. Atty. Adair: Hypodermic? You saw it?

Quinlan: I just said so, didn't I.

Tanya: Now, what would Hank Quinlan be doing here?

Pete Menzies: He used to be he'd hold up at your place for two or three days with a case of whiskey.

Tanya: That was years ago. Now he's on candy bars.

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: What seems to be the trouble?

Mirador Motel night manager: Trouble?

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: The lights. The lights seem to be out in all the cabins.

Mirador Motel night manager: Yes. Yes. Somebody's been monkeying in with them fuses. They think I'm gonna fix 'em, they, they got another thing comin'! It ain't my job to fix 'em. Even if I know how. I'm the night man.

'Uncle' Joe Grandi: You got her undressed?

Girl Gang Member #1: Yeah. We have scattered our reefer stubs around.

'Uncle' Joe Grandi: You kids didn't use none of that stuff yourself, huh?

Girl Gang Member #2: You think we're crazy?

'Uncle' Joe Grandi: Nobody in the Grandi Family gets hooked. Understand? That's the rule.

Girl Gang Member #1: We blew the smoke at her clothes, that's all.

Girl Gang Member #2: Like you said, we put on a good show to scare her.

'Uncle' Joe Grandi: Let's hope it was good enough.

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: You're an honest cop!

Pete Menzies: Sure, I am. And who made me an honest cop? Hank Quinlan.

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: Come on, Menzies.

Pete Menzies: I am what I am because of him.

Quinlan: What's my fortune? You've been reading the cards, haven't you?

Tanya: I've been doing the accounts.

Quinlan: You've been gettin' kinda chummy - you and that Mexican. Does that explain that thing you're carrying around now? What's it called? That thing you're wearing.

Pete Menzies: What I'm wearing?

Quinlan: Sure. That halo.

Pete Menzies: Halo?

Quinlan: It looks real pretty on you Pete. Pretty soon you'll be flapping your wings like an angel.

Pete Menzies: Convictions. Sure. How many did you frame?

Quinlan: Nobody.

Pete Menzies: Come on, Hank. How many did you frame?

Quinlan: I told you. Nobody. Nobody that wasn't guilty. Guilty. Guilty.

Pete Menzies: All these years you've been playing me for a sucker. Faking evidence.

Quinlan: Aiding justice, partner.

Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas: Well, Captain, I'm afraid this is finally something you can't talk your way out of.

Quinlan: You want to bet?

Strip-Club Owner: Zita? I didn't know her. She only joined the show a few days ago.

Quinlan: We're wasting our time around here.

Dist. Atty. Adair: Oh, I wouldn't say that!