Edmond O'Brien: Johnny Midnight

Quotes 

• [first lines] 

  Johnny Midnight : [Narration]  My theater, the Midnight Theater, was going to house a new show, and an old friend was in it - Anthony King. An old friend in some kind of trouble. He sent me a message, but when I came looking for him...

• Johnny Midnight : Is that it? Tony King gets his back broken and everybody goes home and gets a good night's sleep?

  Carucci : Well, look, Johnny, let's face facts. I've got no witnesses, no evidence. Unless Tony King can testify, I've got nothin'. I want to check in at the hospital. Wanna come along?

  Johnny Midnight : No thanks. You play it by the book. I'm gonna set off a few fireworks, see if I can make some noise.

  Carucci : Johnny, just make sure none of those fireworks blow up in your own face, huh?

• Johnny Midnight : [Narration]  I had the questions, but I was running short of places to ask them. The next on my list was the girl, Mikito. I had an address in Greenwich Village for her, but that was only where I started. The Village is a Chinese puzzle of back alleys and dead end streets, but I kept asking and I finally ran her down. The Barrel House was a jazz and black coffee joint, a place where a man could feel conspicuous without sneakers and a beard. I went in anyway.

• Johnny Midnight : When you call a man a thief, you give him more than a label. You give him a motive.

• Damon : The critics, those stupid, jealous little men! Eager to plant their knives in my back. But I'll show them. It'll happen again: "Michael Damon Presents," in lights against the sky.

  Johnny Midnight : Michael Damon presents? With luck you'll be able to present the annual Christmas pageant at Sing Sing. All Tony's gotta do is point a finger and say one word - murder.

  Damon : Ah, now it comes out. Don't be stupid, my friend. I'm not one of your sniveling little gutter rats, I'm Michael Damon. Let poor, addle-headed Tony make accusations and I'll hire the best lawyers in New York to disprove them. In real life, money always wins over honest virtue.

• Johnny Midnight : [Narration]  Dawn in New York can be beautiful. But this morning it looked like a fresh bruise. Michael Damon had virtually admitted he tried to kill Tony. But he threw the bitter truth in my teeth and I was still chewing on it - I had no proof.

• Johnny Midnight : I'm gonna put on a little show for Michael Damon. "The play, the play's the thing, wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king." That is, if Damon has a conscience, which I doubt.