The Enforcer

[Big Babe Lazich has just been invited to join Rico's gang. While he is waiting, he notices that Rico is always on the phone]

Babe Lazich:
Who calls him on the phone?

Philadelphia Tom Zaca:
If you're a good swimmer, you can ask the guy who found out. He's at the bottom of the river. [He grins]

Joseph Rico:
I'm forgetful. Sometimes I meet a guy and then I never see him again. I got a big turnover in friends.

[Albert Mendoza is about to be freed and Ferguson decides to show him pictures of his victims as a farewell present]

D.A. Martin Ferguson:
You think you can shut people up by killing them, but you're wrong. Maybe not in the courtroom but they'll be talkin' to you, Mendoza! At night when you're trying to sleep!

[Ferguson has just saved the sole survivor of Mendoza's killings, Angela Vetto, from being killed, just before Mendoza is about to be set free. He recalls Rico's description of Mendoza's first killing which Angela had witnessed saying that she was, "Starin' at him with her big blue eyes!"]

D.A. Martin Ferguson:
C'mon, Miss Vetto. I want to see the look on Mendoza's face when he looks into those big blue eyes.

[Rico is convinced that Mendoza has escaped from prison, so Ferguson takes him down to Mendoza's cell]

Joseph Rico:
[after looking in] He's smiling at me...

[looks in again]

Joseph Rico:
Mendoza! Call them off! I'm not going into court! I swear I won't! Tell 'em! I'm not squealing! Please, tell 'em I'm not...

D.A. Martin Ferguson:
Rico! You're gonna talk! Do you hear me? You're gonna talk! You're not blowing up this case! It took four years to put him in that cell and when he walks out he's going to the chair. So you gonna talk, it's the only chance you got to live!

Joseph Rico:
I'm afraid. He'll never die.

D.A. Martin Ferguson:
He'll die! He's got to die! And you're gonna kill him!

Joseph Rico:
I can't! Nobody can! He ain't human.

Joseph Rico:
[Giving Babe money] There's your first week's pay.

Babe Lazich:
Thanks, Mr. Rico, Now I'm ready for the big stuff - maybe even a killing.

Joseph Rico:
[grabbing Babe by the collar] Don't ever say that! A murder is a contract. A hit is the sucker that gets killed. Remember those words and use 'em. Then, even if the cops tap our phone, they don't know what you're talkin' about! Get that?

Babe Lazich:
Yes, sir. Anything else?

Joseph Rico:
Yes. Burn that tent you're wearin' and get yourself a suit!

Joseph Rico:
[to Babe Lazich] A blimp like you ain't got a girlfriend, have you?

Babe Lazich:
I've got a wife.

Joseph Rico:
Well, if anything happens to you, we take care of her. If you get into a jam, we get you a lawyer. If you get in jail, you're on the payroll all the time you're in.

Capt. Frank Nelson:
What's wrong with the law that we can't touch him [Mendoza, boss of murder ring] ? Oh, I know, our kind of laws are designed to protect the innocent. It's not enough we know a man is guilty - we have to prove it.

D.A. Martin Ferguson:
Ever have a tune running through your head and you can't remember the words?

Capt. Frank Nelson:
What are you getting at?

D.A. Martin Ferguson:
How many people did we speak to on this case?

Capt. Frank Nelson:
Oh, I'd hate to remember.

D.A. Martin Ferguson:
How many pages of testimony do you suppose we took?

Capt. Frank Nelson:
Enough to fill a nice-sized room!

D.A. Martin Ferguson:
Heh, somewhere's in that testimony somebody said something that stuck in my brain. It got lost in the shuffle, because we didn't need it - we got Rico! But now... [pause] If I could only remember... [Another pause] Well, we got nothing else to do tonight - let's try and dig it out.

Capt. Frank Nelson:
[Nelson & Ferguson enter Ferguson's office] Well, we can start from right to left or from left to right.

D.A. Martin Ferguson:
No, let's take it just as it came to us, right from that first crazy day. [They pull out 1st folder: "State vs. Albert Mendoza." Dissolve to Bell St. Station and beginning of long flashback]

D.A. Martin Ferguson:
Murder by profit!

Joseph Rico:
There's something on its way to kill me! I can feel it comin'!

D.A. Martin Ferguson:
We could protect him against everything but himself.

James Malloy:
They made me kill my girl!

Babe Lazich:
[as they enter, the moving camera is from Babe's POV] It was a big day for me. They'd seen me in the neighborhood, and now they were sending for me, but I wondered why Duke was taking me to Olga's. I was sure excited because I was finally getting in with the real boys.

James Malloy:
[to someone behind the door] It's me - Duke.

Babe Lazich:
Back room was just like what you'd expect at the back of a store. [the camera pans from face to face] Shorty - that dope! And Philadelphia - he wasn't all there, but nobody ever said that when he was around. Vince - a bundle of nerves with no brain. And there behind the desk, all nerve and no brain - Mr. Rico!

Capt. Frank Nelson:
How many bodies do you think we'll find?

D.A. Martin Ferguson:
Oh, afraid to guess. Any outfit that has got its own undertaker is operating on a pretty big scale.

Albert Mendoza:
[after being beaten by Rico] I've been gone over by experts, but you're the best. What's your name?

Joseph Rico:
What's the matter? You want some more?

Albert Mendoza:
I think I can use a guy like you.