- Dr. Walters: [to Captain Munsey] That's why you'd never resign from this prison. Where else whould you find so many helpless flies to stick pins into?
- Dr. Walters: [after Munsey has backhanded him] That's it. Munsey. That's it. Not cleverness. Not imagination. Just force. Brute force. Congratulations! Force does make leaders. But you forget one thing: it also destroys them.
- Miss Lawrence - Warden's Secretary: Dr. Walters: There's a meeting this morning. You'd better get straightened out.
- Dr. Walters: The same to you.
- Gallagher: Those gates only open three times. When you come in, when you've served your time, or when you're dead!
- Calypso: [Guards are taking roll call at the prison cells, calling each inmate's name. When he's called, Calypso, instead of a simple "here," answers with a musical verse, sung Calypso-style] "I'm here Mr. Man, I can't tell no lie. And I'll be right here till the day I die."
- Joe Collins: [Spencer is wavering about whether to join in with Joe's escape plan] Spencer. In or out? No guarantees go with this break. It's all or nothing. But you've gotta' make up your mind now. Now! Either way, no hard feelings.
- Spencer: [after long, thoughtful pause] With you, Joe. I'll play along.
- Robert 'Soldier' Becker: I never thought different.
- Spencer: Neither did I.
- Dr. Walters: [after getting a phone call about the death of Wilson while Collins is in his office] Well, this is one rap they can't hang on you, Collins. I'm your witness. Important thing, witnesses. Lucky you asked me before, exactly what time it was.
- Joe Collins: Yeah, wasn't it.
- Dr. Walters: Fellow named Wilson.
- Joe Collins: Tough break. Accident?
- Dr. Walters: Positively. Witnesses!
- Captain Munsey: I'm a realist, I don't believe in coincidence. Especially when it happens more than once.
- Ruth: If I weren't so sick, I could help you.
- Joe Collins: There are all kinds of sick people, Ruth. Maybe we can help each other.
- Spencer: Driving along with such a dream doll beside me, I figured myself a pretty lucky guy. Flossie had looks, brains, and all the accessories. She was better than a deck with six aces.
- Calypso: [sings, as Collins returns from 10 days in solitary] "Your old friend Joe was in the hole, and it was worse than where they diggin' coal. He comes out holding very high his head... and the man to blame soon be very dead."
- Warden A.J. Barnes: [At the meeting in the warden's office] But it's not as easy as all that, Mr. McCallum. This prison... this prison has almost twice as many men as it was built to accommodate. There's not enough work to keep the inmates occupied.
- McCallum: Why not?
- Warden A.J. Barnes: The world we live in. Yes, we can give them real work. Teach them trades. Produce things. But the civilian manufacturer says we're competing with him. Trade unions say we're putting their people out of work. Nobody wants to help. Not us.
- McCallum: [Scoffing] Manufacturers. Unions. You might as well blame the weather! What you're really saying is, you can't handle the situation!
- Captain Munsey: Excuse me, sir. I don't think you quite understood what the warden meant. It's not only a matter of controlling the men. He wants to help them.
- McCallum: Munsey, what this prison needs is absolute discipline - not charity! Your loyalty to the warden doesn't change the fact that he may be getting too OLD for his job.
- Dr. Walters: Age, Mr. McCallum, is a matter of arteries, not years.
- McCallum: It's a pity, Walters, that you're a better philosopher than you are a doctor, but I'm getting tired of you in both roles! I was sent here today for one reason: to tell you that if there's any more trouble, if this prison isn't brought under the strictest control, there'll be an immediate change in practically all personnel. We don't want to be bothered any more! Is that clear, warden?
- Warden A.J. Barnes: [Meekly] Yes.
- McCallum: Clear to you, doctor?
- Dr. Walters: Oh, absolutely. You can't be bothered. Well, that simplifies everything. The great public
- [turning to scowl at McCallum]
- Dr. Walters: and its servants... You put up prisons, thick walls, and then your job is over. Finished. But is it over? You and your "patent medicine" remedies.
- [Paraphrasing McCallum]
- Dr. Walters: "Change the warden." "New personnel." "Absolute discipline." Do you know what this prison is, Mr. McCallum? One big human bomb! And you say, "Kick it, and it'll be quiet. Smash it, and it won't explode."
- McCallum: [Turning to Captain Munsey] Munsey, what do you think of the doctor's viewpoint?
- Captain Munsey: I think, sir, that on occasion, the doctor becomes unduly alarmed.
- McCallum: Warden?
- Warden A.J. Barnes: [Stammering] I... I... I don't know.
- McCallum: I do. Like so many dreamers... and drunkards, the doctor's emotional words are empty.
- [Addressing Dr. Walters]
- McCallum: What's your solution?
- Dr. Walters: All I know, is that when people are sick, you don't cure them by making them sicker. By your methods we send a man back to society a worse criminal than he was than when they sent him to us.
- McCallum: Platitudes, doctor. I'm waiting for your solution.
- Dr. Walters: For men like you, Mr. McCallum, there will never be any solution.
- McCallum: [Angrily reacting to Dr. Walters] Wait a minute...!
- Dr. Walters: All you want is "destroy" instead of "build." What we need here is a little more patience, and much more understanding!
- McCallum: We've been patient too long. And as for understanding, I'm positive the purpose of my visit cannot be MISunderstood. You'll remain here, warden, only as long as there's no further trouble. Good day
- [turning to glare directly at Dr. Walters]
- McCallum: ... doctor!
- Captain Munsey: I'll see you to the gate, sir.
- [Captain Munsey and McCallum leave the warden's office]
- Warden A.J. Barnes: I've been warden here for such a long time.
- [Sitting down, dejectedly]
- Warden A.J. Barnes: I wouldn't know where to go, what to do...
- Gallagher: It'll only make things tougher for everybody else.
- Joe Collins: I don't care about everybody else.
- Gallagher: That's cemetery talk.
- Joe Collins: Why not, we're buried, ain't we? Only thing is, we ain't dead.
- 'Freshman' Stack: [Joe has just been returned to his cell after spending some time in solitary. His cellmates are bringing him up to date on latest developments] About the stool pigeon, Joe, we made arrangements. Everything is okay.
- Joe Collins: Everything's okay? What's okay? Nothing's okay. It never was and it never will be. Not till we're out. You get that? Out.
- Cora Lister: [Flashback scene: Tom Lister is in his prison cell, recalling how he had given his wife Cora an exquisite fur coat] Tom... oh, Tom! It's the most beautiful thing in the whole world!
- Tom Lister: It belongs on you.
- Cora Lister: [Putting the coat on and admiring herself dreamily in the mirror] It makes me feel so... I don't know... like I was "somebody." Oh, Tom...
- Cora Lister: [Suddenly coming to her senses] Where'd you get it? Where'd the money come from? Where'd you get it!
- Tom Lister: Cora, I stole the money. I juggled the books and took three thousand dollars.
- Cora Lister: You? You STOLE? Why?
- Tom Lister: Darling, the way we were going, you wanting things - things you ought to have - and me strapped all the time... we were heading for a split-up. Don't you see? I just had to do it.
- Cora Lister: All my life, the one thing I've really wanted is a fur coat. I CAN'T give it up. I WON'T, Tom!
- Tom Lister: No, darling...
- Cora Lister: But what if something should happen?
- Tom Lister: Nothing that happens could matter, unless I lost you...
- [Loud, ominous knocking on door is heard, returning the scene back to Tom's prison cell]
- Captain Munsey: [Captain Munsey and another guard are walking through the prison mess hall during the breakfast period, stopping at various tables] Oh, good morning, Gallagher.
- Gallagher: Good morning, Captain.
- Captain Munsey: I understand you're responsible for settling that little feud over in cell block "J." We appreciate your assistance, of course, but...
- Gallagher: The boys and I were only trying to help.
- Captain Munsey: [Sarcastically] "You and your boys." There's a very old bylaw in this institution about gangs, or cliques. We don't like them. We don't want them.
- Gallagher: Why don't you break them up, Captain?
- Captain Munsey: Gallagher, when are you gonna' remember that you're not back home, running a gang of hoodlums? Let ME be the policeman, eh? You just serve your time. And that way we'll both get paid off.
- Gallagher: That's right, Captain. Like the Book says, we always get what's coming to us. All of us.
- [Gallagher and Munsey exchange poisonous glances, then Munsey and the other guard move on]
- Calypso: [Scene in Dr. Walters office: Dr. Walters is getting ready to go to an important meeting at the Warden's office] Sounds like a very important meeting you're going to this morning, Doc.
- [Pours Dr. Walters a small serving of liquor]
- Calypso: Is, uh, Captain Munsey gonna' be there?
- Dr. Walters: [Nods his head affirmatively] Mm-hmm.
- Calypso: [Nods his head knowingly] Mm-hmm.
- [Accordingly, he proceeds to pour Dr. Walters a much bigger shot of liquor, then sings some musical verse, Calypso-style]
- Calypso: Brandy's the very best drink in the world. If you drink enough your toes get curled.
- Dr. Walters: [Chuckling] Calypso, statistics show that if the level of alcohol in the blood exceeds one half of one percent, the blood pressure is affected, a cerebral condition occurs, and then... you're cockeyed.
- [Dr. Walters takes a drink of the liquor, nods approvingly, then exhales]
- Dr. Walters: And maybe that's the way it should be.
- Calypso: You don't like this place, Doc. What for you stay here?
- Dr. Walters: You haven't got much choice, Calypso. Neither have I.
- [Dr. Walters puts on his coat and leaves the room]
- Muggsy: [Inmate Muggsy, accompanied by prison guard Hodges, walking across the prison yard] You know, the way I got it figured out...
- Hodges: Make sense. What are you trying to say?
- Muggsy: Well, uh, I gotta' favor to pose you.
- Hodges: Don't ask me no favors. I can't be bribed, see? Besides, you ain't got enough dough to bribe me.
- Warden A.J. Barnes: [In the Warden's office: things at the prison have gotten progressively worse] What's the answer to it? Are we going to have to keep every prisoner in ritual solitary? Other prisons must have the same problems, but they clear them up, keep things running smoothly.
- Captain Munsey: We've been through difficult times before, Warden.
- Warden A.J. Barnes: Oh, never like this. And McCollum is coming tomorrow. Why? Why can't he let me alone? Everything's gone wrong. I don't know who's to blame, but... I do know that every prisoner hates us.
- Captain Munsey: Not us. Me. It's ME they hate.
- Dr. Walters: [Sarcastically] I wonder why?
- Captain Munsey: [to Dr. Walters] You put on a guard's uniform and see how much they love YOU.
- Captain Munsey: [Directing his attention to the Warden] You talk to the prisoners over a loudspeaker. I talk to them with a club. You only MAKE the rules. I have to enforce them.
- Warden A.J. Barnes: Maybe it's the way you enforce them.
- Captain Munsey: Maybe it is.
- Gina Ferrara: Bringing us food this way is against the law.
- Robert 'Soldier' Becker: The law is second. My wife comes first.
- Robert 'Soldier' Becker: But you know how the breaks go. With me, one rap lead to another. Anyway, I was never able to make it. Maybe this time.
- Captain Munsey: You don't believe I meant what I said about resigning, do you, doctor?
- Dr. Walters: In a million words... no.
- [They both smile slightly]
- Chaplain: [to a pair of guards who have entered the chapel to keep an eye on "worshipping" prisoners] Shopping or buying?
- Joe Collins: [Trying to convince Gallagher that escape from the prison is possible, in spite of the fact that they both realize that in the past, somewhat misguided inmates have attempted to do so] Look, Gallagher, I know this drum's full of crackpots. One convict's gonna' buy his way out, another knows the governor's cousin. A third guy's even gonna' float out in a homemade balloon. But I'm not buyin' any pipe dreams. It can be done. It's been done before, and it'll be done again. It can be done here... by us.
- Gallagher: Collins, if I ever put in with anybody, it'll be with you.