The Big Combo (1955)

Cornel Wilde: Police Lt. Leonard Diamond

Photos 

Quotes 

• Leonard Diamond : She's under arrest, Mr. Brown.

  Mr. Brown : What's the charge?

  Leonard Diamond : Homicide.

  Mr. Brown : That's ridiculous, she wouldn't kill a fly.

  Leonard Diamond : She tried to kill herself

  Mr. Brown : Is that a crime?

  Leonard Diamond : It happens to be against two laws: God's and Man's. I'm booking her under the second.

• Rita : When will I see you again?

  Leonard Diamond : Well, if I'm not dead, you'll find me where I always am. In jail.

• Mr. Brown : Joe, tell the man I'm gonna break him so fast, he won't have time to change his pants. Tell him the next time I see him, he'll be in the lobby of the hotel, crying like a baby and asking for a ten dollar loan. Tell him that. And tell him I don't break my word.

  Leonard Diamond : You must have done something pretty fine to get as high as you are, Mr. Brown. I'm looking into that. I'm gonna open you up, and I'm gonna operate. I hate to think of what I'll find.

• Leonard Diamond : Do you know Mr. Brown?

  Nils Dreyer : I had lunch with him last week. He's a very fine gentleman.

  Leonard Diamond : He's a hoodlum.

  Nils Dreyer : Because I have lunch with him, that is not a crime. I'll have lunch with anybody, I'm democratic. I'll even have lunch with you.

• Mr. Brown : Book me, Small Change.

  Leonard Diamond : Alright, take him out, Sam.

  Sam Hill : To the bullpen?

  Leonard Diamond : No, back to the gutter.

• Leonard Diamond : Mr. Dreyer, the secret you think keeps you safe will blow up in your face. You're dealing with a... a ruthless man!

  Nils Dreyer : [Unperturbed]  Mr. Diamond, I was a seaman for 30 years. I went to sea aged 14. I've seen storms, I've seen gunfire, and I've seen torpedoes. I've been wrecked - not once, four times. On a raft, 57 days, nothing but water. Nothing kills me. I'll die in Stockholm like my great grandfather, aged 93. I'm not scared of anything - including you - so, get out.

  Leonard Diamond : [Starts to leave, then turns back to make one final appeal to Dreyer]  If you change your mind, Mr. Dreyer, just phone the 93rd Precinct. I'll send a squad car for you.

• Joe McClure : Mr. Brown is a very reasonable man. You don't know him.

  Leonard Diamond : Oh, is he? Well I'm not. I intend to make life very difficult for your Mr. Brown.

  Joe McClure : You shouldn't talk like that, Lieutenant. You're overstepping your authority.

  Mr. Brown : Joe, the man has reason to hate me. His salary is $96.50 a week. The busboys in my hotel make better money than that. Don't you see, Joe? He's a righteous man.

• Leonard Diamond : I know his name. The name of a man who will pick up a phone and call Chicago and New Orleans and say "Hey Bill, Joe is coming down for the weekend. Advance him fifty thousand," and he hangs up the phone and the money's advanced, protection money. A new all night bar opens, with gambling outside city limits. A bunch of high school kids come in for a good time. They get loaded, they get irresponsible, they lose their shirts. Then they get a gun, cause they're worried, they want to make up their losses. And a filling station attendant is dead with a bullet in his liver. I have to see four kids on trial for first degree murder. Look at it. First degree murder, because a certain Mr. Brown picked up a phone.

• Leonard Diamond : Hey, you're really worried about me.

  Rita : A little.

  Leonard Diamond : That's enough.

  Rita : That's a lot for me.

• Leonard Diamond : I'll wait until I can put you on trial for murder.

  Mr. Brown : Whose murder, Lieutenant?

  Leonard Diamond : Mine, if necessary.

  Mr. Brown : Don't push too hard.

  Leonard Diamond : It's my sworn duty to push too hard.

  Mr. Brown : Diamond, the only trouble with you is, you'd like to be me. You'd like to have my organization, my influence, my fix. You can't. It's impossible. You think it's money, it's not. It's personality. You haven't got it, Lieutenant, you're a cop. Slow, steady, intelligent, with a bad temper, and a gun under your arm. And with a big yen for a girl you can't have. First is first, and second is nobody.

• Leonard Diamond : It's my duty to push too hard.

• Leonard Diamond : Nobody knows how another person feels

• Police Lt. Leonard Diamond : You think this is mink, Miss Lowell? You think these are the skins of little wild animals sewn together for your pleasure? You're mistaken.

  Susan Lowell : Take your hands off...

  Police Lt. Leonard Diamond : These are skins of human beings, Miss Lowell, people who've been beaten, sold, robbed, doped, murdered by Mr. Brown.

• Police Lt. Leonard Diamond : I didn't come here to hurt you, Miss Lowell. You don't have to see me again or even speak to me again. But save yourself. Leave him.

  Susan Lowell : How?

  Police Lt. Leonard Diamond : All you have to do is walk out.

  Susan Lowell : Is that all, Mr. Diamond? You've followed me long enough to know I can't. I live in a maze, Mr. Diamond. A strange blind and backward maze, and all the little twisting paths lead back to Mr. Brown.

• Sam Hill : I know how you feel.

  Leonard Diamond : NOBODY knows how another person feels!