A Free Soul

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
A lot of people don't believe that gag about being born equal.

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
Well, it's about your daughter.

Stephen Ashe, Defense Attorney:
Jan? Well, what about her?

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
Why, I want to marry her.

Stephen Ashe, Defense Attorney:
What? What was that?

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
What's the matter with that?

Stephen Ashe, Defense Attorney:
What's the matter with it? The only time I hate democracy is when one of you mongrels forget where you belong... a few illegal dollars and a clean shirt and you move across the railroad tracks. Tell your boy to bring me some libations, and don't insult your guests!

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
Mr. Ashe, a guy like me has to ride with lady luck. A squealer leaves his pals in plenty of trouble.

Stephen Ashe, Defense Attorney:
Hmm, I see. You want to go to the gallows with your mouth shut.

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
You saw Miss Ashe in court, boys. Slouch, tell her why the Hardy mob tried to fix me up. Tell her the facts, Slouch.

Slouch:
Well, the mug that was rubbed out, Miss, was a snooper of the chief's running with the Hardy mob, slipping us the lowdown. Hardy gets hep to it and he puts the rat on the spot. They nab the boss's "kelly" and plants it. Your old man jaws him out and the Hardy mob grabs the typewriters and the ukeleles.

Stephen Ashe, Defense Attorney:
[to Jan] I've had to drink as I've had to breathe, and you know it!

Jan Ashe:
Tell me, Eddie. Has he been drinking?

Eddie:
Well... uh...

Jan Ashe:
A lot?

Eddie:
Well, it wouldn't be a lot for a camel or one of them things.

Stephen Ashe, Defense Attorney:
I wish my mother belonged to some other family.

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
Frightened?

Jan Ashe:
No, I love it.

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
You love what?

Jan Ashe:
Oh, I don't know. You're just a new kind of man in a new kind of world.

Jan Ashe:
[to Dwight] I just don't want to get married, Dwight. I don't want life to settle down around me like a pan of sour dough. I don't want it one little bit.

Eddie:
[to Jan] It's leopard sweat! You can't trust it!

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
That's all that marriage is, just two people that want to live together. You can call the rest, just nothin'! You're a thrill! You're mine and I want ya!

Jan Ashe:
[Sarcastically] Just the kind of a marriage I've always dreamed about.

Dwight Winthrop:
The key to my success is to never say die.

Jan Ashe:
What's the tricks? What's the tricks?

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
Why, if I told you how often I wished I'd have you like this, you wouldn't believe it.

Jan Ashe:
Why me? The world's full of girls.

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
Well, why'd Romeo take on so much grief?

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
Do you think you could like me?

Jan Ashe:
I don't quite know what's happened? Whether its just the end of a perfect day - or - whether I'm just a little mad.

Jan Ashe:
Don't run away from things. Don't hide. Get out in the middle of life and if the wind blows you over - pick yourself up again. Make your own mistakes and learn by them.

Stephen Ashe, Defense Attorney:
Here, give this problem a little thought, Mr. Einstein.

Casino Valet:
Well, well, Mr. Ashe, we've been waiting for you. This is quite an honor.

Stephen Ashe, Defense Attorney:
Honor, my hat!

Jan Ashe:
[Seductively] Hello, there.

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
Hello, yourself. Say, it's great to come up and find you here like this.

Jan Ashe:
Is it now? Well, what are you going to do about it?

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
I was just wondering what I'd do if you stopped dropping in?

Jan Ashe:
Very interesting. You just talked yourself out of the warmest osculation.

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
Say, don't women ever want to talk?

Jan Ashe:
Is it, eh, physiology or biology?

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
What do you mean?

Jan Ashe:
Ha-ha. Men of action are better in action, they don't talk well.

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
You do love me, don't you?

Jan Ashe:
It's just madness, nothing else.

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
How much do you love me?

Jan Ashe:
How much? Let me see how much... well, it's about ten feet high and about seven feet wide.

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
No, no, never mind that.

Jan Ashe:
Oh, I can't measure it now, its a storm at sea.

Jan Ashe:
What's on your mind, darling?

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
I want to marry you.

Jan Ashe:
Why?

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
Why? What do you think, why? I'm off my nut about you.

Jan Ashe:
Marrying you is serious, darn serious. It would mean the end of a lot of things for me. My world would close up on me in a minute.

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
Oh, why worry about 'em! A lot of high hat chislers!

Jan Ashe:
Come on, put 'em around me.

Jan Ashe:
No, I'm not cheap. Not even you can say I am. I can't let you.

Bottomley - Ace's Chinese Butler:
He no like 'em nobody like 'em like you.

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
You think you're quite a gal, don't you?

Jan Ashe:
Oh, it doesn't matter what I think.

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
You can cut out the kiddin', Jan. You used to get away with that half-kiddin' stuff. I figured it was your language over my head.

Jan Ashe:
Said he, and suddenly the moonbeams turn to worms - and crawl away.

Jan Ashe:
I didn't know until last night what I was really doing to myself. What a beast you were when the surface is scratched. I found out that only swines should travel with swines.

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
Say, you're talkin' to the man you love!

Jan Ashe:
It makes me sick to even hear you say the word. I've lost the right ever again to think of what love can be or what it means. Marry you? For, the rest of my life can't wash the filthy mark of you out of my soul!

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
You can't get away from me. I never was as nuts about you as I am right now. You can be walking along the street or out in your car; but, I'll get ya. All I'm gonna do now is kiss ya.

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
Now, let me lay it on the line for you. She tossed all the ritz overboard months ago. She came to my place and she stayed there, you get that? She's mine. She belongs to me.

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
Listen, buddy. Take a tip. Back out! Right now.

Ace Wilfong, Gangster Defendant:
Sit down, this is a good place to talk.

Dwight Winthrop:
You're not going to talk, any more.

Dwight Winthrop:
Jan, darling, don't cry. There's so little to say, isn't there. Except, I love you.

Jan Ashe:
You ought to hate me. I wish you did. I'm not worth what you've done.

Jan Ashe:
Oh, I love you. I love you as much as I despise myself.

Stephen Ashe, Defense Attorney:
Don't you see, my hands are bleeding where the spikes have been driven threw.

Prosecuting Attorney:
Did he threaten to kidnap you?

Jan Ashe:
Yes, he did.

Prosecuting Attorney:
Was he truthful when he said you went to his place and stayed there?

Jan Ashe:
Yes.

Prosecuting Attorney:
Did he kidnap you the first time you went there and stayed?

Jan Ashe:
No.

Prosecuting Attorney:
You went because you wanted to, didn't you?

Jan Ashe:
Yes.

Prosecuting Attorney:
Over how long a period did you go to his place and stay because you wanted to?

Jan Ashe:
Several months.

Prosecuting Attorney:
You've been to school, haven't you Miss Ashe?

Jan Ashe:
Yes.

Prosecuting Attorney:
Good American schools?

Jan Ashe:
Yes.

Prosecuting Attorney:
And you were over 21 when you went to Wilfong and belonged to him, weren't you?

Jan Ashe:
Yes, sir.

Prosecuting Attorney:
And he only became a beast, after you were through with the experience and he wasn't. Isn't that it?

Johnson - Defense Attorney:
You're honor, I object to this form of bullying.

Prosecuting Attorney:
I'm through.

Jan Ashe:
Wait a little while, darling. I'll be in New York, working at something.