Mobsters (1991)

Patrick Dempsey: Meyer Lansky

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Quotes 

• Bugsy : [to "No-Nose Tony" and the other Faranzano mobsters who've been jumping Rothstein's bootleg-shipments]  ... Try this again and I will kill your mothers, fuck your sisters, and turn your brothers into eunuchs!

  Lucky : I think you've made your point, Benny. Let's go.

  Meyer Lansky : [Then, after Bugsy guns down No-Nose]  ... You wanna start a war?

  Bugsy : I don't mind.

  Meyer Lansky : Well, I do. Sometimes you're so stupid I can't stand it.

• Meyer Lansky : We gotta get tough with Masseria and Faranzano. Only, we can't afford a war. They got armies; we don't.

  Arnold Rothstein : We got balls and brains; you got those, you don't need an army... 100 years ago, Austria was run by a prince named Metternich. Austria was weak, and its neighbors were strong; but Metternich was a cold, caluclating fox. If one country got too strong, he organized an alliance against it. He would bring Europe to the brink of war, and then everybody thanked him when he kept war from happening. He barely had an army, but he had Europe by the *kishkes.*

• Lucky : [to the fledgeling Mafia Commission, at a meeting hosted by a young Al Capone]  ... You all know how I got this scar. Maybe Joe Profaci, here...

  Joe Profaci : Wait a minute. What're you saying?

  Lucky : Don't worry, Joe. Maybe you knew it was gonna happen to me, maybe you didn't. But by the old way of doin' things... If I became boss now, I'd have to hit you in case you knew. And all of you shrug, except some of you are friends of Joe's. And one day I might do something that upsets you, so then you'll hit me. And then YOU'LL become boss. My friends, they'll hate you for that. Then somebody else becomes boss, and so on, and on... You know what I call that? Stupid. Very stupid... We're all bosses here.

  Joe Profaci : What then, Charlie? We're gonna vote on everything?

  Lucky : That's right. Everybody here... is equal.

  Meyer Lansky : Corporations have a board of directors, a Commission. So will we.

  Lucky : Now, I have friends. They're not from Palermo, they're not from Sicily... They're not even Italians. They're Jewish. But they're still my friends. And I trust 'em.

  Al Capone : You say there's gonna be no boss, but you're startin' to talk like one.

  Lucky : I've learned. Every organization needs somebody standin' out front. Call it a figurehead, a leader, a headman, a kingpin, a president, whatever. It doesn't much matter to me who does it.

  Joe Profaci : I say we make Charlie Luciano head of our National Commission. Who agrees?

  [Everybody at the table raises his hand... with the exception of Capone, who sits at the head of the table opposite Lucky] 

  Lucky : You want it, Al? It's yours.

  Al Capone : No, I want you to do it. It's just that Julius Caesar never took no vote.

  Lucky : That's why Julius Caesar ended up dead in the street.

  [Capone raises his hand at last] 

  Lucky : ... Any other business?

• Frank Costello : [as the Big Four consider Faranzano's offer]  ... Fifteen percent off the top from Faranzano's operation, huh? You know how much money that is? Well, I don't either. But it's a hell of a lot.

  Meyer Lansky : But as soon as we sold to Faranzano, he'd knock you off because you're Sicilian; one day, you might wanna be boss. If he iced you now, there'd be a stink all right. But if you're working for Faranzano, who's gonna come after him except the three of us? And then we'd all be history.

  Lucky : That's why we're in partnership with these Jews, Frankie.

• Frank Costello : ...In 24 hours, Faranzano comes after us for killing No-Nose Tommy. We can't fight him; we ain't got the guns for it.

  Meyer Lansky : Masseria does.

  Frank Costello : So we're goin' with Masseria?

  Lucky : He ain't so bad.

  Frank Costello : He's a fat, stupid fuck! Other than that, I guess he's swell.

  Lucky : Right now, this fat stupid fuck can save our lives. Remember, it's only temporary.