Original subtitles

- [Narrator] Tonight on Wiseguy.

- You don't belong here.

- Where do you think I was born?

Where do you think my mother lives,

where do you think my brother died?

- Yeah well then how come you don't bleed

when the neighborhood gets cut?

- You blew your cover, now how am I supposed to do my job?

- Frank I had to!

I had to, this kid is doing a balancing act

on a high wire between right and wrong.

When he falls, I want to make sure it's on the right side.

(sirens wail)

- Maybe you'd like to talk to a psychiatrist.

- I want to talk to Knox Pooley.

- We believed in you and you lied to us!

- Welcome to the real world.

(dramatic music)

- [Frank] Corker hung himself in that cell, Benny.

Now I know Ritchie Stramm saved your life up at that cabin,

but we're not doing him any favor by bonding him out.

Calvin Hollis is going to be

asking him questions he can't answer.

Stramm's better off in jail.

At least Calvin can't get to him there.

So why are we letting him go Vince, what's going on?

- I mean the guy you were supposed to plant

was with Terranova, and Stanley Corker ends up dead.

I wanna know why.

- I don't know.

Where'd you see all these cops all of a sudden?

- Well what did you do?

Call 'em?

- Hey look, Vinnie's a hood.

They probably follow him all over the place.

- Well then how come he didn't get busted?

- Corker was the only one with a gun.

- Oh really?

Mr. Terranova had to have a gun too.

- Don't worry about me, Calvin.

Worry about your manners.

- Hey back off man.

- Shut up!

What's that Calvin?

You were mumbling when you sent me out

to the boonies were ya?

Everything was nice and clear

except whether you were trying to set me up,

and if i find out you were I'm gonna hand you

your ass in a paper bag and the same thing goes for you too.

- [Frank] Fashion show, Paul?

- Just showing you how to dress for success.

- Well I guess it's better than finding

you making an obscene phone call.

How are ya? - Good.

So you know why Elias is no longer with us.

- Yeah it's all over the bureau.

I got one question, was he a breather?

- No, actually he was pretty verbal

and very imaginative.

I can't believe the guy used a safe phone in here.

Wait'll you hear his greatest hits.

- Hello? - What are you wearing?

- [Woman] Who is this?

- [Elias] I hope it's black lace panties.

- I don't want to hear that Paul, that's pretty sick.

- [Elias] Lace panties makes me happy.

- Well other than that, how are you Frank?

- [Frank] About the same as I was in Minneapolis.

- That's good for the OCB, but you're going to have

to tell me what that means for yours truly.

- Well that means I know who the boss is, you sir

and I hope the numbskulls here make you

more than interim director because I like working

for somebody who doesn't sit on their brains.

- Thanks.

So is Terranova really using an ax to peel a grape?

- I don't know about axes and grapes,

but he's leaning pretty hard on those jamokes.

- He's leaning on air, there's nothing there.

- Yeah there is, Calvin Hollis.

- Career nut.

- [Frank] Well he thinks Vince is connected.

There's no sense in ruining a good impression.

- And Calvin Hollis is connected to Knox Pooley,

a wayward used car salesman and Knox Pooley

heads a group called the Pilgrims of Promise,

a bunch of losers who aren't smart enough

to operate a can opener.

- Well you better be careful, Paul.

White supremacists will call you a bigot.

- That's a small price to pay if Terranova

starts rattling some bigger chains.

- Well he's not coming back, not yet anyway.

- [Paul] Hasn't this vendetta of his gone far enough?

- You know I don't know if Elias's report

remotely resembles the straight pool

but these people you're dismissing as whackos

have been involved in a cop killing,

an armored truck robbery, and a significant gun deal.

- Then feed 'em to the local PD if it'll get

Terranova off the time.

- [Frank] And there's one other thing.

- Ritchie Stramm?

I read all about it.

He's an accessory to murder.

The only thing Terranova should be

doing with Stramm is arresting him.

- Afraid not.

It's a salvage job, it's personal.

- We'll have to discuss humanity

and law enforcement over drinks sometime.

Right now I'm late for a meeting with senator Kilgallen.

- Ah senator Kilgallen.

- You know the players.

Do what you think is best.

- Yeah oh Paul,

why the purple tie?

- Haven't you heard Frank?

Purple is this year's power color.

- 72, 73, no no not there, there.

75, oh I lost my count.

No put it over there.

- 84. - Yes.

- 100% cotton.

- Looks great Dr. Pooley.

- Just fair Ritchie.

Great is 50% polyester.

We don't get 50% polyester, we gotta charge $12.

That's a little steep for the forgotten and the forsaken.

- Are you gonna send 'em back?

- Well the fates have conspired against us, Ritchie.

People are now starting to pay attention to our cause.

We can't do anything that would cost us momentum.

- I've got an idea I think could help you.

- Well don't keep it a secret.

- You know that talk show you're

going to do with Alexander Hardin?

You could sell cassettes of it, I know I'd buy one.

- I know you would, Ritchie.

Young men like you are our future.

- Dr. Pooley.

- Oh that time is it? - Yes sir.

- Very well.

Keep beaming up those ideas.

We'll talk about them any time I get a moment.

- There's hardly any room for me anymore.

- That jacket's about ready

for a trip to the cleaners isn't it?

(somber music)

- Remember Caputo's Pizzeria, remember that place?

It was the first place I ever had a slice.

Old man Caputo saw how much I liked it,

he gave me another one for nothing.

- How come you don't get bent out of shape

about the foreigners who stole his restaurant?

- First of all, they didn't steal anything.

Caputo was 79 years old.

He got tired of sticking his head

in the pizza oven 50 times a day.

What is this stuff with the foreigners, what is that?

- Man they don't even belong in this country.

(rock music)

Joey give me a draft.

- What do you mean they don't belong in this country?

Didn't your people come over here on a boat?

'Cause mine sure as hell did.

- It was a different country then, man.

I mean there was space.

Now they're eating us alive and you're sitting here

saying live and let live.

- It's a hell of a lot better

than hating and dying isn't it?

- You know this isn't any place you know anymore.

You don't belong here.

- I don't belong here?

Where do you think I was born?

Where do you think my mother lives,

where do you think my brother died?

- You're just visiting.

- Who the hell do you think you're talking to?

This is my home here, and even when I leave

I take this place with me.

Might as well have Brooklyn stamped on my forehead

'cause I got this place running through my veins.

- Yeah? - Yeah that's right.

- Yeah well then how come you don't bleed

when the neighborhood gets cut?

- I do man.

Every time this guy Pooley dumps more garbage

on the street corners of my neighborhood.

Too much bleeding going on as it is.

(gun fires)

What the hell is the matter with you?

- Everywhere I look,

all I see is death.

I see,

I see that security guard,

I see Warren.

All in my head!

- Kid you're right it is all wrong.

That's what I've been waiting to hear you say.

Now this thing is all over with, Ritchie

I'm going to do whatever I can to bag Calvin.

I'm not gonna put you through this anymore.

- Oh no wait a second, it's not all over.

I'm not, I gotta finish this thing.

- For what?

- Because that's not what the

Pilgrims of Promise are all about.

It's not what, it's not what Dr. Pooley is all about.

- Ritchie that is exactly what he is about.

- It's not, it's not about hate.

He's not a racist.

It's Calvin who is totally insane.

I got to warn Dr. Pooley.

- Ritchie, the last thing Pooley needs is a warning.

- Listen you told me to take responsibility for my life.

- [Vince] Yeah?

- Yeah well let me take it.

I tell you what, you go with me to that television studio,

I'll show you what Dr. Pooley's all about.

- Yeah all right.

- I'm Alexander Hardin. - Knox Pooley.

You're awfully nice to invite us.

- Oh don't be modest,

you're getting a lot of attention these days.

Actually we should have had you on weeks ago.

- Oh, this is my associate Calvin Hollis.

He'll be leading cheers for me.

- Glad to have you here.

- Say an hour is a lot of time.

I hope I can fill up your whole show.

- You won't have to.

We've got two other guests.

I better go chat them up if you don't mind,

before we go on the air.

Coffee in the green room.

- [Calvin] A nigger and a Hebe, makes me want to puke.

- It does look like am ambush, doesn't it?

But the fertile mind always triumphs,

remember that Calvin.

- [Producer] One minute.

- I'm gonna have these Marxist ninnies on a cracker.

- [Narrator] Time to stand up and speak out

on the Alexander Hardin Show.

(applause)

- Today on the hot seat, Dr. Knox Pooley,

founder of the Pilgrims of Promise,

a controversial group

that some say advocates white supremacy.

Thurman McGill, a long time political activist

who now serves Brooklyn as the head of the country's

most aggressive low income housing program

and Meier Heimowitz, author, attorney,

civil libertarian, and president

of the Zionist Center for Free Thought.

(applause)

Pilgrims of Promise, a hate group.

- There is no room for hate in the Pilgrims of Promise.

In fact the major weapon in our campaign is love.

Love for the way the things used to be,

love for the way they're supposed to be.

- What unabashed twaddle!

You're perverting the language.

- I'm simply striving sir,

to awaken the men who have

worn their blue collars so proudly.

They need to take back the jobs

and the neighborhoods that are rightfully theirs.

- We've provided a very necessary service.

We brought housing to people that desperately needed it.

- What you did with your limp wristed social experiment

was disrupt an entire neighborhood

by putting an undesirable element in those houses.

- You want to talk about undesirable?

What about the rabble from the Pilgrims of Promise

who picketed those houses?

Who belittled and terrorized

and ultimately firebombed decent people

who simply sought a better place to live?

- I don't know anything about firebombs.

You'll have to talk to Wilson Good down in Philadelphia.

(crowd murmuring)

- White revolution is the only solution?

That's something I'd expect to find

in South Africa or the Confederacy.

- [Knox] I resent that.

- No, Mr. McGill is right.

Makes me wonder if you have

anything as clever regarding Jews.

- I am simply encouraging folks to have pride in themselves.

To take charge of their own lives.

You gonna say you've never done the same?

- We'll be right back after a word from our local sponsors.

(upbeat music) (applause)

Three minutes.

Smoke 'em if you've got 'em.

- That was a workout.

You fellas play hardball.

- I hope you're saving time to receive your MacAbees

eternal light award. - We got a lot of time.

It'll be an honor.

- That's a nice trophy.

Say I want to talk to you about that lecture tour of yours.

Who does your booking anyway?

- Elliot Kaplan at Talent Troika.

MSRO everywhere.

- That's your hero.

- And now back to our show. (applause)

- Mongrelization shouldn't get your bowels in an uproar.

In the animal kingdom the purebred's the weakling.

The mongrel is the fighter, full of spirit and spunk.

- Forget your rationalization, your theory is stupid.

- Been proven by some of the finest minds in science.

William Shockley for one.

- Racist nuts.

- Afraid of the truth?

- No, afraid of the lies that

get men killed, that promote genocide!

- I will not sit here and be called a murderer.

- I want you off this stage.

- What?

- Get out now!

- Not 'til after I give out my 800 number.

That was our deal, remember?

- Well then give it and get out!

Bobby put it up on the screen.

You've got 10 seconds.

- [Narrator] 1-800-555-4796.

- [Calvin] This guy Hardin is a menace.

- Tranquilize yourself, Calvin.

The man's giving 'em a show.

- He, he's laughing at us.

You said so yourself.

- Business, that's all.

He's got his routine, I've got mine.

To exist we need each other.

- I'm still gonna set that faggot straight.

- Well you give him a piece of your mind.

I got some 800 numbers to harvest,

and I think I'll find myself

a big slice of banana cream pie.

- Great theater wasn't it?

(suspenseful music)

- [Vince] I was there, Frank.

- What in the men's room?

- I was in the audience catching Pooley's act on the show.

- Good, you have something to remember him by.

- Hey.

I am not walking away from this.

- Well then you consider yourself

being dragged away from this.

- When was this, doesn't this new murder count?

What are you gonna do Frank,

just let the Pilgrims of Promise run around killing people?

- The locals can call that shot.

- The hell they can!

Pooley's not gonna skate on this one.

I'm gonna dog him all the way to prison.

- You know let me ask you a question.

What is the fascination with this kid Stramm?

- 'Cause without him, I have no chance

of tying Pooley to these crimes.

- What's that supposed to mean?

(sighs)

Hey I asked you a question, what's that supposed to mean?

(sighs)

- He's working for me.

- You blew your cover, now how am I supposed to do my job?

- Frank I had to!

I had to, this kid is doing a balancing act

on a high wire between right and wrong.

When he falls, I want to make sure it's on the right side.

And if I can't do that, then I'm in the wrong line of work.

- How about if you spare me the excuses?

What you did makes me feel like a jackass

for backing you every step!

I've bought you all kinds of time

for your personal fandango, and you wind up

shooting yourself in the foot!

- I've known Ritchie a long time.

I'll take my chances.

- Do you care about this kid,

or is this about trying to get bounced from the OCB?

- I am operating on my own terms, remember?

- You understand this is not about your terms.

This kid is untrained and unqualified.

He stands a good chance of coming out of this

one body part at a time.

Happens to the best of 'em.

Now you call that trying to save 'em?

I better buy you a dictionary.

- Yeah but if he, hey.

If he doesn't go after Pooley that means

he's staring at serious prison time.

If he does at least he's building a case for himself,

he's doing something right for a change.

(sighs)

Believe me Frank, I've given this a lot of thought.

The kid has to risk his ass to save his neck.

- You know the high wire you're talking about?

You tell me what happens if he falls on Pooley's side of it.

(somber music)

(knocking)

- Come in, it's open.

Ritchie, afternoon.

- How you doing Dr. Pooley?

- I'm fine, fine.

Order you something to eat?

They make a first rate omelet here.

- No, no thanks.

I, I just wanted to talk.

- More good ideas?

- No, it's bad news really.

- Go ahead, I'm listening.

- I...

I don't know how to say this, Dr. Pooley.

I mean you are the one true believer I know.

Nobody's done more to show me the road

to self fulfillment than you.

But there is a force at work

and I'm not even sure you know about it.

Somebody in the organization is really hurting your cause.

He is like a cancer, and what he does

just keeps getting worse and worse and it won't stop.

- That's pretty harsh, Ritchie.

- Yeah well things are really

starting to get pretty out of control.

- I imagine so, with you talking like this.

Tell me, does this cancer have a name?

Come join us, Calvin.

We were just waxing philosophical.

- There's no time for that,

and we need to talk, now.

And then have a rally in Paramus.

- You're right, don't know what I'd do without you.

Say Ritchie, I've got some

books and T-shirts in the next room there

I want to take with me.

Could you pull 'em together for me?

- Yeah sure, I'd be glad to.

- Couple of dozen each.

They're stacked against the wall there.

- Yeah I'll get 'em for you.

- Thank you son.

- We need to worry more about security, Knox.

- We need more money in the coffers before we're

entitled to a dose of paranoia.

- John Hinckley shooting Reagan,

Arthur Bremer shooting George Wallace.

A man with a vision is a marked man.

- So who's got me in their crosshairs?

- Could be a guy named Terranova.

- [Knox] Never heard of the gentleman.

- We bought guns from him.

- What do we need guns for?

- Protection from the mud bugs.

- I don't want to hear that crap

and I don't want to hear about guns!

The only thing you need guns for is to rob people

and these folks are giving us money.

- But there's a war coming, and you're our general.

- I'm a conscientious objector.

Now just cease and desist with your gun talk

or you're gonna have the law

stepping on us with both feet.

- A watched phone never rings,

didn't they teach you that at Quantico?

- Ritchie should have called by now.

- Yeah.

But he didn't,

and there's nothing you can do about it.

You don't know whether he's been treated

to a 14 course meal or fed to the sharks,

so your mind it marks the time

by playing all the possibilities, always thinking the worst.

Always feel like you should have done something

a little extra for the kid.

But you care about him, you really do.

Sometimes you feel like

having him fit for a straitjacket.

Sometimes you feel like wringing his neck.

But he's your responsibility.

He's family by default.

Sometimes the silences can be loud.

- I'm sorry Frank.

- I don't want you to be sorry.

- [Calvin] Force is too much to understand.

- [Knox] Darwin would have loved you, Calvin.

- [Calvin] Who?

- [Knox] The man who preached survival of the fittest.

Do you have any idea of what I accomplished

on that old goat's TV show?

I tapped into a whole new market.

If you start arming us, we're going

to look like a lunatic fringe.

- It's Ritchie.

- Now go check on him.

It's about time you did something right.

- Oh.

(panting)

He, he's gone.

(growls)

- No reason for a damn tantrum.

- T-t-t-the trophy, the one that the Hebe gave Hardin.

- What was that doing here?

- Safekeeping.

- How did you...

You killed him.

- What?

- You idiot, you killed him didn't you?

- I mean h-h-he was laughing at us.

- But the cash register was ringing.

- The money doesn't matter.

I mean, it was for purification.

- Purification.

To hell with purification,

to hell with the Pilgrims of Promise!

I didn't tell you to kill anybody!

Did not damn it, now you've ruined everything.

- I just did the things that you thought had to be done.

I was your soldier.

- You're no soldier.

You're a coat holder.

You have to look at somebody else

to find out who you are.

(groans)

- Please don't hit me daddy, please.

- I'm not your father.

And from here on out, I'm nothing to you.

- No my father he beat me, you don't understand.

- You don't understand.

I never want to see you again.

Get out.

And don't come back, don't ever come back!

(phone rings)

- [Woman] 911, emergency.

- Why the hell didn't you call me?

- I just wanted to get out here first.

- What is that son?

- It's a trophy.

There's a name on it, that TV guy, Hardin.

- Where'd you get this?

- It was in a room at the hotel.

- Whose room?

- Dr. Pooley's.

It's a room he uses to store stuff in.

Listen you guys gotta help me.

I know I shouldn't have run out.

I thought I was strong enough

to handle it, I guess I was wrong.

- Ritchie it's all right, you did a good job.

You had to be strong to go through what you did, it's okay.

- It's McPike, give me some and partials

and urban and latents.

Put 'em in the starting blocks.

I want a complete print index

on Knox Pooley and Calvin Hollis.

You have it waiting for me when I come through the door.

All right let's go, you in the car.

(knocking)

- I'm coming!

Keep your pants on.

(knocking)

(ominous music)

- Where's Ritchie? - He's not here.

- Ritchie you better be here!

- What do you want here, what are you doing?

- He isn't upstairs! - Here either.

- What are you doing? - What are we gonna do?

Let's say we come up empty. - Get out of here!

- Let's go! - All of you, get out!

(somber music)

- They dusted the trophy for prints.

No Knox Pooley, but Calvin's all over it.

10 minutes ago he was at your house,

bouncing your mother around.

- My mother? - She's all right.

We got a man with her now.

- I've got to go, I gotta get home.

- Calvin was there because you're a fly

that got caught in Pooley's web.

Now you're gonna see it through, no early outs.

- Frank why don't we take a shot at Pooley?

We got enough for a warrant don't we?

- I'm working on it already.

It's gonna take a little longer.

- All right well I'll go and sit on him

and make sure he doesn't get any ideas

about taking his show out of town all right?

- You hold it.

He's not yours anymore, you're mine, out.

- It's all right, go ahead.

- Who are you? - Name's Terranova.

- Pleasure to meet you sir.

Your name's a catalyst for a lot of kind words.

If you don't mind, I've got a plane I--

- Oh no no no, you are not going anyplace

until I find out where Calvin is.

- I'm afraid Calvin's gone, Mr. Terranova.

And I pray I never see him again.

- That's not the way it works.

You see, Calvin owes people money.

Now if they can't get a pound of his flesh,

they're going to settle for a pound of yours.

- I didn't cheat anybody,

and I sure as hell didn't kill anybody.

- Who got killed?

- Alexander Hardin.

Calvin beat his head in.

- You called the hit didn't ya?

- Absolutely not.

Now I'm a businessman, just like you

and I had a good thing going here, the best.

No way I'm going to tarnish the motherlode with a murder.

I had an audience that was handing me money

faster than I could count it

and all I had to do to get it

was blame somebody for their troubles.

These suckers were as happy as goats in garbage.

It was the con I've been dreaming about all my life.

- Knock knock.

Sorry to interrupt the hen party, girls.

Knox Pooley. - You got him.

- We've got a warrant for your arrest.

We also believe you know the whereabouts of a Calvin Hollis.

- I'm not sure I know what you mean.

- You think harder, sport.

You got a reason for being here, Terranova?

- Yeah collector for the March of Dimes.

- That's very funny, you taking lessons from this snake?

That'll at least be good for a ride downtown.

We don't got a warrant on you,

but arrangements could be made.

- Ritchie.

Welcome to the real world.

- All right, you want to tell me where Calvin Hollis is?

(screaming)

- Shut shush, keep your mouth shut!

- Hey don't hurt my family!

- Just do what I say!

- Just don't hurt my family.

- Shut up!

(crying)

Just shut up, keep those kids shut up!

(screaming)

Maybe I'll kill all of you.

- Hey Hollis, the woman and the kids aren't hurting anybody!

(gunfire)

(screaming)

- All right take the kids

and get out of here, get out of here.

- Go, go hurry hurry! - No no!

I, I said that you could go.

I said it.

(crying)

- I understand, we'll be here if you need us.

Your boy Calvin just took Thurman McGill hostage.

- He's psychotic.

That's why I told the police he killed Hardin.

- The only call they got was anonymous.

- At 5:48.

- You know you're doing a lot better than your constituency.

Calvin killed one of the clowns

that went into McGill's house with him.

- There was nothing I told him to do.

Just a practitioner of the free enterprise system.

- Yeah but you lit the fuse, sport.

- So they could destroy my business?

Nonsense.

I want him off the streets as badly as you do.

(sirens wail)

- [Officer] What the hell do you think you're doing?

Get it out of here, get it out of here now.

You have no right to be here.

No you get back behind the barrier.

- Maybe you'd like to talk to a psychiatrist or a clergyman.

- No!

No look...

I want to talk to Knox Pooley

and nobody else!

Just like Custer huh?

- Custer died at the Little Bighorn, everybody did

and so will we if you don't surrender.

- Oh quit your whining Mr. Shine.

- My name is Thurman McGill.

Look, there's no way you're gonna

shoot your way out of this.

Just put your guns down, I can help you!

I'm serious, Hollis.

I have friends at the DA's office.

- Hey Calvin, do you smell something?

- Yeah must be mud people.

- No man, that ain't it.

- Like I said I've got friends at the DA's office.

I can speak to 'em on your behalf.

Get 'em to plead you down because you released my family.

- Oh come on, don't feed me that line, McGill.

I mean you know you'd try

and say anything to wiggle out of this.

- We both need help.

(flames crackling) - Oh god.

- Oh shut up and tell me what's burning!

- It's Frederickson.

- Well...

We got other things to worry about.

You get up-- - It's all over.

- Come on regroup man, get it together.

- I can't do it!

- Hey hey, what are you thinking huh?

- Out.

- Don't do it man.

- [Officer] Calvin Hollis!

(glass tinkling)

- Tucker!

- Don't shoot!

- He got his toad.

- Don't shoot!

- Where's my phone call?

- Police have not identified the man

who surrendered after jumping through

the home's picture window.

Still inside are Thurman McGill and Calvin Hollis

who has told police he is allied

with the Pilgrims of Promise,

a white supremacist organization.

- Well, we can write finito to that little beauty.

- The victim is believed to be the third

(phone rings) of the three home invaders.

- Stramm, turn that thing down.

- Shortly after 7:30 when the trio burst into...

- McPike.

Somebody wants to talk to you.

- I don't talk to anybody except my lawyer.

Unless of course we can devise a way

to avoid a trip downtown.

- Yeah?

You talk, sport.

- Hello.

- This is the apocalypse, Knox.

No more ice.

This is the fire.

- Give it up, Calvin.

That dog won't hunt.

- [Calvin] What, you can't, you can't walk away.

We're not finished yet.

- Speak for yourself!

- How can you turn your back on me?

I am the one that showed you

what the mud people were doing to us.

- And I'm a richer man for it,

but now it's time to move on.

- [Calvin] That's not fair!

- [Knox] Since when has fairness been a concern of yours?

All you care about is making sure the mud people

don't get ahead of you in the chow line.

- Are you making fun of me?

- You leave me no other choice.

- [Calvin] I mean you're laughing at somebody

who killed for you.

- I did no such thing.

Now you say that, you say it loud and clear.

- [Calvin] I, I was the man of action.

Remember?

And you gave me the ideas.

- Listen Calvin, did I ever tell you to kill anybody?

- It was...

It was for purification.

- Damn it Calvin, shut up and answer the question,

did I ever tell you to kill anybody?

- [Calvin] No.

- That's good.

That's real good.

Get yourself some help.

- I don't want help.

Don't you understand?

I want you.

I...

I mean I love you.

I love you.

- Thank you Calvin.

- Bastard!

- Ritchie!

Knock it off, Ritchie stop it, knock it off hey!

- We believed in you and you lied to us!

You lied!

- It was just one more thing to sell, Ritchie, that's all.

Nothing personal.

I've been selling since I was 11 or 12.

I remember this neighbor of ours

down in Georgia came by one day,

I wound up selling him an old porch swing.

He didn't even have a porch.

Well right then it was like the clouds opened up

so the good lord could look down and say,

Knox Pooley, you are a salesman.

And I've been one ever since.

Doesn't matter whether it's

fish, tires, or ladies underwear.

With me, it's never the noun, it's always the verb.

Sell.

- [Vince] It's all right Ritchie.

- We're gonna burn to death if we don't get out of here!

- I loved him Thurman.

I did everything for him.

- Hey and you're gonna die for him too

if we don't get out of here!

(whimpers)

- It was for the cause.

- Then dying is the worst thing you could do.

When you walk out that door, every newspaper

and television station in New York

is gonna want to hear your story

and you will be the one telling it, not Pooley, you!

- I don't know.

- It's time for you to take the spotlight, Calvin.

You're a better man than Pooley will ever be.

- Yeah.

Yeah I guess, I guess.

- You believe in something.

Pooley doesn't believe in anything except money.

Now he told you so himself.

He doesn't give a damn about

the cause you're giving your life to.

Now come on, want to take your finger off that trigger

and stand up and walk right out that door, right now.

Let's get out of here.

- All right, sure.

- Come on. - All right.

- Okay. - Sure.

- Come on. - Sure sure.

- Come on.

(gun fires)

(dramatic music)

(whimpering)

- Thurman?

(crying)

Thurman?

(booming)

- [Officer] Get the back of the house.

- [Officer] Get in that third window,

third window over there!

- Ritchie, Ritchie, give your fingernails a rest will ya?

They'll feed you when you get there.

- Yeah?

- It's minimum security

and you're only going to do 18 months.

You're gonna make it.

- Yeah I keep telling myself that.

It doesn't help me from being scared.

- I'd worry about you if you weren't.

Now when you get up there I want you to concentrate

on getting yourself squared away okay?

- Yeah, sure.

And the mechanics class, that'll really help.

- Yeah and read some books too.

- Yeah I already started that Mark Twain you gave me.

- Good, good.

- Listen, say hey to Angela for me.

- Okay, I will.

- It's time huh?

- Yeah.

- Vinnie, thanks.

Thanks a lot.

- You take care of yourself, you hear me?

(sighs)

- Congratulations, you won.

- Feel a whole lot better if I was the only winner.

Listen to this.

Dear Vince, I'm sorry I didn't get a chance

to bid you an appropriate farewell

as I was leaving New York,

but I have something I think will

more than make up for my lack of manners.

- A chance to live in high style in one of Florida's

most beautiful ocean view areas.

Coral Harbor, the condominium development I'm representing

would be perfect for you or your lovely mother.

It's a chance to enjoy life that you deserve

Mr. and Mrs. Finklestein.

Now, we have both one and two bedroom condos

with every possible amenity.

Wall to wall carpeting, air conditioning,

custom kitchens.

Are you folks sure I couldn't

offer you a little sip of my sherry?

- No thank you.

- Never until after dinner.

- Well then, rather than have you sit here

and listen to me any longer,

I want you to judge for yourself

just how wonderful Coral Harbor is.

You know, there's one thing I've always said,

the person who does the best sales job

is the one who's got to do the buying.

Shall we?

(somber music)

(dramatic music)