Original subtitles

- [Announcer] Tonight, on Wiseguy.

- Corruption never changes, gentlemen.

It's your basic law of the jungle.

If the workers earn a living wage,

then there's less fat for the owner's to skim.

- Don't let these people intimidate you.

- You anti-sematic commie witch.

- Where's the car?

(speaking foreign language)

- Lee just said she dug her own grave

and to say hello to her ancestors.

- I love my wife.

I love my kid.

Why isn't that enough?

(intense music)

(alarm buzzing)

- Good evening, Mister Chen.

Rightwear closed at 87 and a half last night.

We'll let Z-Mart blow smoke for now.

We could have bought another hundred thousand shares,

but that would take our position up to 4.6,

and we don't want the SCC disclosure regulations

to trigger anything yet.

Fine.

I'll take care of it.

You're welcome.

- [Man] That was wonderful.

- I'm glad one of us thought so.

- You think you can just walk in here

and take over for Terranova?

Where is he?

- [John] Healing.

- Where?

- Someplace where he can't be bothered.

He suffered massive chest trauma

when he got hit by that cab.

- Oh really?

And how come Epstein at the bureau

told me it was a cracked rib and a broken leg?

- You were misinformed.

- I wanna talk to him.

- That's not possible.

The guy can hardly breathe, let alone talk.

- How am I supposed to explain you?

Immaculate conception?

You know what kind of a tightrope I'm walking

letting you guys run your operation

through my father's company?

- Pinzolo thinks I'm Vinny's partner

in the security business.

So does your father.

My cover is secure.

Yours is too.

- Yeah, unless something else goes wrong.

- Look, Mister Sternberg, I've got 10 years field experience

on Terranova.

He's good.

So am I.

- Then how come the bureau didn't send you in first?

- I've got a wife and a kid.

Keeping you safe is one way of ensuring

that I get to see them again when this case is finished.

Now,

how about helping to stop Pinzolo

from bleeding the garment district dry?

- You guys are really a trip, you know.

I keep hearing that.

I keep hearing that,

but so far, all I know is that you guys

have arrested some low lives

who are as significant as fleas.

My father keeps hocking me for paying for useless security,

and Pinzolo still smells like fresh laundry.

- You came to us.

You wanted us to save your business.

- I came to you to stop Pinzolo from ruining my father.

You guys got our goods out of customs.

My father repaid Pinzolo.

I'm grateful.

- You're using Pinzolo's trucks for delivery

at killing rates.

He's got a collar around your neck.

What happens if he decides to squeeze a little tighter?

You know that's inevitable.

- We're late for the Medici show.

(upbeat music) (clicking)

You know how much this stuff costs?

- Yeah, well I don't imagine anybody here

is crying about welfare reform.

- [Commentator] The fabulous Medici!

(audience applauding)

- Hey, isn't that your cousin over there?

- What is she doing here?

You know who she's with?

- No.

- It's Vivian Schneer.

She's the head buyer for Rightwear.

(audience applauding)

How do you know my cousin?

- I met her at your father's office.

- Hi.

- What are you doing here?

- I'm working.

Hi.

- Hi, nice to see you again.

- Why have you been holding out on me?

- Vivian? - Vivian, yes Vivian.

- Oh, this woman, you've got to keep her away from me.

She has a one track mind, and it's fixated on her body.

We belong to the same health club.

She is a riot in the shvitz.

She brings in calipers to measure her body fat.

- She's got eyes like a graphic computer screen.

I bet you she is planning her knockoff for the month

for Rightwear, isn't she?

- David, you know giants only do business with giants.

- (mumbles) favor time.

- Okay, I can't say no to you.

Vivian!

Vivian, I'd like you to meet my cousin, David Sternberg,

with Elrose Fashion.

- How do you do?

A pleasure to meet you.

- And John Henry Raglin.

- An associate.

- Really?

One of my favorite euphemisms.

- So I hear Rightwear's been having

some offshore production problems too.

- A few earthquakes in India.

A couple of revolutions in Dubai.

Why is it the cheap countries always have

the most expensive catastrophes?

Well Mario's got himself another hit, no?

- There wasn't anything here I can't make look 100% as good

for 70% less.

- Hm.

If you can do it for 80%, maybe we should talk some time.

- How about now?

- Sure.

- Would you excuse us?

- Talk about moving in for the kill.

- Yeah.

- Have you had any feedback from your sales people

on this one?

Everybody loves it.

- It's a dog.

We sold two.

I got 70 units collecting dust.

- We're not even talking three weeks, Mabel.

- I'm not panicking, but I will be soon.

- Well, look at the folds off the waist.

Look at the cut on the neckline.

Have you tried this on?

I mean, this is the way a woman should look.

Maybe we can work something out on the order.

How about some lunch?

Order the cow a tuna with ground glass on white.

Big stores bleed you with mark down.

I can sell condoms to the Vatican council.

Their sales people couldn't give them away

to the Surgeon General.

I'll tell you Raglin, mornings used to be simpler.

You woke up, you had a bagel and a shmear

on a Lexington Line, you went to work,

you earned an honest dollar.

What ever happened?

What's the celebration?

- Vivian Schneer wants two thousand dozen

to hit Rightwear racks under a private label

with The National American Made Promo.

- Don't kid a kidder.

What is this?

- My Medici makeover.

We've hit the big time.

- David.

David.

What's our turnaround?

- Six weeks.

In time for the resorts spending stampede.

I figured we'd do coordinated colors.

The fabrics ordered.

- Six weeks is close.

Our factories are overbooked.

What about our margin?

- 18%.

But we gotta stay local and cheap.

- Yeah, local and cheap.

Local and cheap.

- Chinatown.

- Get me Hong now.

- Hong sujet shop?

Hong smokes so much opium

it's like moving through quicksand.

- His girls work fast, and they work good.

(beeping)

Why is that thing always shrieking?

- You're not my only client.

I got something I've gotta take care of.

- What you better take care of, Mister Security Man,

is making damn sure that there's no high jacking,

no delays and no problems that have to do with this order.

We could be in the hole for?

- One million.

- That's not Corn Flakes, pal.

- Don't worry, I'll take care of it.

- We need another cutter.

Phil's gonna need help on this order.

I want Mo.

- Mo is a washed up Schneider.

- He's the best cutter in the business.

He cut these beauties.

I want him.

It's my deal.

- Oh, it's your deal.

Well, it's my mil,

and it's my neck,

and it's my reputation.

And don't you forget that, David.

- Not a chance, papa.

- Carmine is my best quality man.

Listen and learn from him.

He'll be your eyes, and you be his hands.

There's been some problems in Chinatown lately.

Some unrest.

I don't want any problems with this Rightwear order.

- You mean the Elrose deal?

- Nothing happens in Chinatown that I don't know about.

The fabric for the Elrose deal

and it should be in the Amici warehouse by Thursday.

I want you glued to that cargo until it gets to Hong's shop.

- Tell me, what's the big deal about this shipment?

- We're finished, Raglin.

Thank you.

(phone ringing)

- Sailor Hardware, Mike Terranova.

What can I do you for?

- Agent 3623.

We may have hit on something.

I need a line on an outfit called Rightwear.

- All right.

What's the play?

- There's a Rightwear fabric shipment leaving a mill

in South Carolina tomorrow by one of Pinzolo's transporters.

It arrives at the Amici trucking warehouse on Thursday.

- Okay.

Rightwear Incorporated,

biggest retail clothing chain in America.

Word on Wall Street is they may be looking up the barrel

of a hostel takeover bid by Z-Mart.

- Elrose and Pinzolo are salivating over this deal.

You wanna get me piked to give this cargo a once over?

How do you wanna handle it?

- Well, we'll cover the transport.

You stay on Seventh Avenue.

Hey, nice going.

- See you later.

(suspenseful music)

- What?

- Clean as a whistle.

- This Pinzolo's a walking piece of Teflon.

Nothing sticks.

- Trucks are waiting Mo.

We gotta get this stuff to Hong's.

- You want fast, you should've called a hooker.

- Give Hong a little inspiration.

I love the smell of money.

- Your work here is slave labor.

The Seventh Avenue manufacturer.

They don't want you to know

that you're entitled to a living wage.

Safe working conditions with health benefits.

We wanna help you to fight for what you deserve.

Don't be afraid.

These people want to keep you oppressed and silent

to prey on your fears.

They enforce the system, which dehumanizes its laborer.

- Hiya.

Raglin right?

Oh forget about those commie screwballs.

I'm (mumbles).

Raglin, go find Hong.

Probably in the back playing Mahjong.

(sewing mashing humming) (babies crying)

- Oh, I'm sorry.

You okay sweetheart?

Excuse me?

Are you Hong?

- No complaint.

(laughing)

- Mister Sternberg says, "Have a whiff."

(gentle music)

(screaming)

Come on.

Come on, Sweetheart.

Grab hold of my neck.

Come on, baby.

Come on.

Come on.

I got you.

(intense music)

(gentle music)

How can people work like this?

- The Chinese?

They're used to it.

But me, some days I just hate this job.

You gotta watch these Chinese.

They smile and bow and tell you one thing.

Then they do something else.

They think they're smarter than you.

They pray to some fat guy who smiles away

all their problems.

Screwy, huh?

- Maybe not.

Their culture's been around thousands of years

longer than ours.

- Culture?

What culture?

You been to a Chinese movie lately?

(sirens wailing)

- Hey, something I can do?

- Hey you, you don't belong here.

Go on, get out of here.

- Okay, I'm sorry, I was just trying to help out, all right.

Just trying to help.

(gentle music)

- In 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company

lost 146 sweatshop workers.

It became the unions battle cry,

which later turned militant.

- You mean left wing.

- Spare us the prep school prejudice, okay?

We're talking about why these people work

like scared animals.

- In the 1930s, the garment district saw some

of the most brutal strikes this country's ever seen.

The unions were made up of immigrant eastern Europeans

who'd escaped revolutions and (mumbles).

They weren't about to give up a dream

they'd fled here to find.

People lost their lives fighting for a better deal.

Two people died in last night's fire in a non-union shop.

Even though this sujet is a union house,

the workers better not expect much help.

- Corruption never changes gentlemen.

It's your basic law of the jungle.

If the workers earn a living wage,

then there's less fat for the owners to skim.

- Organized crime influences certain union shops.

They set up and control non-union shops.

One hand feeds the other.

They either force the union on you

or help to protect you from it.

Either way, you're in bed with them.

- What are we gonna do to break Pinzolo's union action?

- This guy's a lot smarter than us, Frank,

and throwing temper tantrums in his office

only keeps Pinzolo smiling.

You want him don't you?

- I want the arrogant sucker's face plastered

all over my wall.

- How many people have to die

before we get safe shops and fair pay?

No fair pay, no work today.

- God, what have I done to deserve this?

I thought we had an understanding.

- They're only trying to stand up for their rights.

- It ain't Shabbat.

Spare me the sermon.

Phil, get David.

Tell him to line up another shop pronto.

- You forget where you came from.

Too big now to remember what it was like to have problems.

You should be ashamed.

- We're having problems with the sujet shop.

- We all should be ashamed.

- You better work on getting together another place.

- It's a shame.

- Keep us informed.

- No fair pay, no work today.

No fair pay, no work today.

Save shops, or work stops.

- Now that's (mumbles) to work getting done in the shops.

- Save shops, or work stops.

Save shops,

or work stops. - I give 'em jobs.

They should all be grateful they're working.

- Didn't you hear?

Lincoln freed the slaves.

- Get off the soapbox.

- Don't let these people intimidate you.

They grow fat off your fear.

- That broad's some piece of work.

- That broad is in trouble.

- My life is up there.

I want these people up there sewing.

- They build big houses

and send their children to fancy colleges,

while you live in squalor.

- We're gonna have to show them we're not gonna back down.

- I never crushed a picket line in my life.

- Don't give me that commie panko crap.

- You have to listen to our demands.

- Give it a rest Eli.

- Let go.

You got your wires crossed, honey.

We're all losing money here.

That fire wasn't in my shop.

- You're worried about your big mortgage payments,

Mister Manufacturer?

- Come on, honey, work is work.

This is certainly a lot better than picking weeds

out of rice fields.

- How many of you wanna sell your souls

for a new shiny Cadillac?

- You anti-sematic commie witch.

- Where's the car?

We gotta get him out of here.

- Let go, I'm all right.

They don't wanna work, fine.

This is a free country.

And I want your men to protect mine,

because we're going up there.

- You wanna start a riot?

- No, I want somebody to do their job.

- [Crowd] No fair pay, no work today.

No fair pay, no work today.

No fair pay, no work today.

- Move your people away from the doors.

Clear the doors now, or you're going to jail.

- Look, you made your point.

So why don't you back off before this little demonstration

of yours turns into a nasty situation?

- The point is about getting things to change.

- There are laws to help.

- The laws are for the people

who are rich enough to buy them.

My people don't have the money or influence.

- Good luck posting bail.

(speaking foreign language)

- We won't be defeated.

- Reminds me of the old days.

Owners sent scabs, hired thugs.

They could hurt us with those clubs,

but we still never gave in, remember?

- I remember being poor.

- Yeah, but we believed in something.

- Could we talk about buttons instead of nostalgia?

We got an order to get done.

What's going on here?

- Set this broad straight.

- Maxine Tzu?

What am I supposed to do, break her head?

Who gave this order?

- You don't get paid to ask questions.

Just set her straight.

- Who is there?

(speaking foreign language)

What do you want?

- I have a message to deliver.

- From who?

- From people who want to hurt you.

- I saw you at the fire helping people.

I know you're working for the manufacturers,

and now you're here.

I don't get you.

- I'm a surprising guy.

- Take off your shoes.

Surprise me.

- There's a system out there that you may not understand.

A system that's bigger than your crusade.

- My crusade is about people

who can't get any justice from your system.

- I'm not telling you to give in.

I'm telling you to use the system to change the odds.

You make it work for you.

- The system stinks.

And as far as I can see, you're just another part of it.

- It takes more than sounding off to beat the game.

If you wanna win, then you better learn

how the other players think.

Then once you outthink them, that's when you make your move.

- That's not winning.

That's collaborating.

- You afraid if you compromise,

you're gonna get your hands dirty, is that it?

- I'm afraid of losing my integrity.

- No, you're afraid of being wrong.

You think your problems entitle you to stand on a pedestal

and tell everybody else that theirs don't matter.

People like you don't care who's sacrificed

on the alter of their politics,

as long as they get to make the big point.

I don't see that that makes you any different

than the men who run the system.

Who's hurting who?

- Get out of here.

- It's gotta be all or nothing with you, doesn't it?

You have the power right now

to make some of the changes that you want,

but you won't negotiate.

- I have the power to choose sides,

and you can do that and your conscious is clear,

if you're lucky enough to have one.

- You think life threw you a curve, right?

Why?

Because you're a woman?

Because you're Chinese?

Because you're poor?

And you want someone to pay for it,

even if it costs the innocent more

than they can afford to lose.

- The innocent have been paying.

They always do.

When I was a child, I lived in Beijing.

My mother was a poet.

At night, the wind would shiver when she read me her poems.

My father was an economist,

planning the destiny for the great people's republic.

We were marched from our home to the rice field,

so we could be reeducated by the system.

- What happened to them?

- It was like a storm,

madness that came from nowhere.

Young soldiers, boys laughing.

They broke my mother's fingers so she couldn't write.

They beat my father with rakes and hoes

until he went insane.

I hid.

I watched.

He died talking to animals.

She died talking to his ghost.

I couldn't cry.

When I came into this country,

I was so happy just to slave in kitchens and go-go bars

and sweatshops,

so I could afford to study to be strong enough

to fight for the innocent,

to fight the system.

- I'm sorry.

I don't wanna see you hurt.

(romantic music)

- Wait.

That's my (mumbles).

To ward off the evil spirit.

- I'm not a superstitious man.

- Well, I think you're probably hard to know.

- Well for starters, my name--

- Sh.

It's better not to know too much yet.

(gentle music)

Do you trust me?

- No.

Do you wanna hurt me?

- Only if you want me to.

(gentle music)

- My son is crawling up and down the eastern seaboard

looking for a factory that'll take the Rightwear order.

Everybody's charging triple.

- Why don't you just listen to their complaints?

You take a few bucks,

and you can fix the problem where it is.

- Everybody's always got bright ideas

about how to spend my dough.

- Spending money is the cheapest thing you can do.

If you move that order,

it's gonna cost you more in lost time and lousy publicity.

- He's right dad.

- What do I got here, advice and consent?

Some refugee ingrate who thinks he's got a hot date

with the American dream,

or the creeps that wanna squeeze every drop of blood

out of every dime you make?

- Just tell them no.

- You can't say no.

- Not to you.

- I'm holding. - You say no, you're out.

You say yes, and you make the best deal you can.

This is a crystal ball business, baby.

(beeping)

Again with the shrieking.

Let me help you with that.

- I'll call you back.

Come on Eli, cut it out, stop it.

He's only trying to help.

- You see this Raglin?

I made that happen.

Nobody gave it to me.

I sell clothes.

They want it, I cut it, I sew 'em,

it's theirs for the right price.

- Well, if you would use your brains instead of your ego,

you would see that what I'm saying makes sense.

- Well, you're fired, sonny.

- No, you're not.

We need him.

- I don't need anybody.

- You need us more than you know.

The only people you can count on

are the people that care about you,

and you are running out of them fast.

- Yeah, well this business and my sweat

has made a damn good life for all of them.

It put that Armani on your back

and sent your kids to private schools.

- My children,

your grandchildren can hardly remember what you look like.

Every year, they get a hundred bucks of Hanukkah guilt

and a gift certificate on their birthdays.

They think your name is Sacks.

- Don't play emotional blackmail with me.

I don't buy the guilt.

- No, you mortgage it.

My mother gets a condo in Florida,

and a diamond choker that says, Thanks For the Memories.

- She can buy more expensive ones.

Use the alimony payments.

- Oh, and that's supposed to make up

for all the years she spent with you when you had nothing,

so you could dump her like last seasons rejects,

first for a beauty queen and now some scheming shiksa.

- We're talking about my wife.

- A buyer from the Midwest who figured,

hey, why work for it when you can sleep with it?

- David.

- Don't you David me.

- All right, all right David.

I'm sorry.

- Don't say it.

Don't, don't even say it.

You'll only make me pay for it later.

(door banging)

- They don't understand.

I just wanted him

to be better at it than me.

- Yeah.

Well, you're setting one hell of an example.

(dinging)

Where's Pinzolo?

He wants to see me.

- Not anymore.

He told me since you can't take care of things,

that I should take care of them.

- Where is he?

- Upstairs, in the gym.

- Excuse me, sir, are you a member?

- I don't think this crowd is for me, thank you.

- Our data shows Carol Goldman

is the youngest female ever to become a full partner

at Derrick Barton Investments.

Top of her class at Wharton.

MBA in International Finance.

Eli Sternberg paid his nieces tuition.

I don't know.

Maybe just an accidental meeting

between two physical fitness nuts.

- Accidents don't happen to Rick Pinzolo.

They happen to people around him.

I don't think she was there to check

the tread on his sneakers.

- All right, I'll run a match profile

on all the deals and company she's been involved with.

She just may start to fill in some of the dotted lines

on the flow chart.

Anything else?

- Yeah, the Chinese woman.

That strike of hers has Pinzolo in an ugly mood.

- You don't preach revolutions on the streets

of this country without renting drawer space somewhere

in Washington.

What, I tell you something you didn't already know?

- You still happily married, Frank?

- Now, boy there's something I don't like

to think about very often.

- Well I am.

This time around.

I love my wife.

I love my kid.

Why isn't that enough?

- I don't know Rags.

Maybe you need the action.

- When you're young, you think it's gonna make you a man,

and when you're old, you think it's gonna make you young.

It's not action, Frank, it's the grand elusion.

(gentle music)

- I'm glad you reconsidered.

- What's he doing here?

- Oh, Mister Lee is here to protect our interest

in anyway whatever.

- We'll make it worth your while if you help us.

- It works like this.

Your people go back into the shops,

and we make sure the union takes

a little bit better care of them down there.

- Why should the union listen to you?

- They know who their friends are.

- What's in it for me?

- $5,000.

If you tell your workers to end the strike.

So, we got a deal?

- You can't buy me or my people.

- You commies know how to make a lot of noise,

but you don't know squat when it comes to money.

(speaking foreign language)

- This tape was sent to the bureau anonymously.

Two sets of prints, one unknown.

First we identified from our FBI file.

- This guy Lee runs Chinatown security

for Pinzolo's operations.

- There's enough evidence here to nail both him

and Carmine on conspiracy and obstruction.

- Yeah, but if she doesn't testify

this tape doesn't do us any good.

- But if she does testify,

maybe we can get at Pinzolo through these two creeps.

- Well, that looks good on paper, Frank,

but you know what Pinzolo will do to her.

- Lee just said she dug her own grave

and to say hello to her ancestors.

(suspenseful music)

- Ling?

Why Ling?

Why not me?

- They don't want martyrs.

Remember your father?

They didn't kill him.

They just drove him crazy.

- I'm responsible for people dying.

I'm telling them to go back to work tomorrow.

We can't ever win.

- You can still help them.

You can testify against the men who tried to bribe you.

It doesn't matter how I know.

You won't lose as long as they don't get away with it.

- What difference would it make if I testified?

- If you don't testify,

nothing down here will have changed at all.

- I'm afraid.

- I know.

I know.

(choking)

- So what is fixing up this sujet shop gonna cost me?

- Add on the wiring for the fans,

new elevator door.

Okay, total renovation comes to 4,000.

- It's cheaper than another heart attack.

Are you finding it difficult letting your old man

know you're proud of him?

- Like father like son.

I guess we forget what's important.

- What's important is that those dresses are getting done.

Rightwear is going to get that order

on the promised delivery date, right?

- Yes.

- Good.

I've got millions tied up in Rightwear stock.

What about the syndicate in Hong Kong?

- Mister Chen is prepared for the takeover deal

as soon as my partners think the timing is right.

- Good.

I'll tell my people to sell short on more shares.

- I can't believe that Vivian Schneer would commit suicide

after collection a hundred grand.

She was paid for giving Elrose the Rightwear order,

wasn't she?

- She got everything that you and I agreed upon.

You never know with some people.

- We also agreed that David would not be implicated

when our deal happens.

- Lucky for him, his father's too selfish

to make him a partner.

Eli's the one who'll be swimming in lawsuits.

- 40 years old, and he's still an employee.

Oh, what a joke.

- Just like your father, right?

Saint Phil.

He still won't admit that Eli stole his business away.

- I hope the only thing left in Eli Sternberg's wallet

is enough cash to buy a designer coffin.

- My concern is our deal.

I don't care about your family.

You're a shark when it comes to finance,

but even sharks aren't immune to bait.

Yours is emotion.

I don't wanna see it get in the way of my business.

- Well, Lee and Carmine are gonna be out of action

for a long time.

Thanks a lot.

- There will be others to replace them.

- Well, let's hope the union gets tougher

about enforcing it's contracts in the sweatshops.

- The union is a bureaucracy.

For that, they'd need an army.

- Listen, if you change your mind

about the Witness Protection Program, give us a call.

- Thanks.

- Your people will understand why you testified.

- They understand fear.

That won't have changed.

We Chinese don't like to mess around with fate.

I don't really know you.

- Just someone trying to fight the odds,

like you.

(gentle music)

(clapping)

(soaring music)