King Creole (1958)

Raymond Bailey: Mr. Evans - School Principal

Quotes 

• Mr. Evans : Now, you've just been told that you're not graduating tomorrow. Doesn't that mean anything to you?

  Danny Fisher : You said I'm not graduating. OK, that's it. Now what do you want?

  Mr. Evans : I once had a son, Danny. He lived 13 years. Some hoodlums jumped him one night, and he died.

  Danny Fisher : I'm sorry. But what's that got to do with me?

  Mr. Evans : Because you have all the earmarks of being a hoodlum.

  Danny Fisher : Aw!

  Mr. Evans : A hoodlum or a hustler, whatever you want to call it.

  Danny Fisher : This isn't principal talk.

  Mr. Evans : Well, the more difficult the student, the more I try to lean over backwards.

  Danny Fisher : Listen, Mr. Evans. We moved into this neighborhood 3 years ago. In that 3 years that I've been going to school here, I've shined shoes and dusted people off in a barbershop. I've done towel duty in 4 different men's rooms. I've stacked chairs and bottles and swept the floor up of every joint on Bourbon Street. It's gotten so I look longer at a dame with clothes on than one without. I'm not a hoodlum. But I am a hustler. I've had to be for a very simple reason - my old man. You see, sir, my mother was killed in an accident about 3 years ago. Well, after that, it might as well have gotten the old man too, because he took himself right out of the lineup. He quit cold. He lost the drugstore that he owned, he lost the house, and then finally what few little jobs he's had since. You know, maybe I could've liked school, Mr. Evans. But every time I wanted to play ball, I had to go to work. Somebody had to. Anyway, now I'm through. I'm through.

  Mr. Evans : I wasn't aware that you worked after school, Danny.

  Danny Fisher : It's not the working after school, Mr. Evans, it's the working before. It's been nice talking to you.

  [shakes hands with Mr. Evans] 

  Mr. Evans : I'm sorry I said what I did, Danny.

  Danny Fisher : That's all right. My life's a long way from over yet. And you never know. You may be right.