The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)

Frank Sinatra: Frankie Machine

Photos 

Quotes 

• Sparrow : You all right... you know?

  Frankie Machine : The monkey's gone.

• Frankie Machine : Guy teaches me drumming down there, says I'm a natural, arms made of pure gold.

• Frankie Machine : I'm the kind of guy, boy when I move - watch my smoke. But I'm gonna need some good clothes though.

• Frankie Machine : I don't need it is all, I kicked it.

  Louie : Oh, kicked it... wanna bet?

  Frankie Machine : I mean it.

  Louie : Sure, I'll be around.

• Sparrow : Not even a postycard.

  Frankie Machine : You can't read anyway.

  Sparrow : You coulda drawed pictures.

• Frankie Machine : You got any money, Molly?... I feel so sick. I hurt all over...

  Molly : Jump off a roof if you're gonna kill yourself but don't ask me to help ya...

• Frankie Machine : I'll do anything for ya, Molly, but right now, you gotta help me. I need a shot...

  Molly : You mustn't take that dirty stuff no more...

• Frankie Machine : Right now I need a fix. Just one fix to help me stop hurting'...

  [Molly suggests he quit using] 

  Frankie Machine : You mean just stop? Cold turkey? You don't understand... the pain...

  Molly : What else can you do?

  Frankie Machine : All I need is one shot, just one.

  Molly : All right.

  [She takes money from a drawer] 

  Molly : Here. Take it. Go on and take it all. Cause all that you're gonna need after that one shot is another and then another and then another. Take it.

  [She throws her money at him] 

  Molly : Take it. Why should you hurt like other people hurt? Yeah, so you had a dog's life with never a break. Why try to face it like most people do? No, just roll up all your pains into one big hurt and then flatten it with a fix.

• Frankie Machine : He's a lush, Molly. He's a hundred per cent habitual drunk.

  Molly : Look, everybody's an habitual somethin'. With him it's liquor is all.

• Molly : What do you think you'll find just outside that door? Dontcha think the pusher knows what ya are and what ya need? Just to get through that next hour? Don't you know he's just waitin' for ya to come and get it? Go on, let him kill ya. Let him kill ya. It'll be quicker and better than doing it your way.

  Frankie Machine : No. I won't let him kill me. No. And I won't run into no grave.

• Frankie Machine : Who knows why I started in the first place? I guess in the beginning it grew on me for kicks. Louie gave me my first shot for nothin'. And I thought I could take it or leave it alone. So, I took it and I took again and again. One day Louie wasn't around. I nearly went crazy till I found him. Oh, I was sick. I was so sick. You can't be that sick and live. That's when I knew I was hooked. There was a forty-pound monkey on my back. The only way to get along with a load like that is to keep leaning on a fix.

• Schwiefka : [about prison]  Well, it didn't do you no harm. Did it, Frankie? Ooh, you look good!

  Frankie Machine : That's right, Schwiefka, it was a real country club...

• Molly : You didn't have to do that, Frankie.

  Frankie Machine : No reason you should go losin' money, by wastin' your time talking to me.

  Molly : You know you're no waste. I was hopin' you'd come see me.

• Molly : I got lonely. I needed somebody and he's a poor beat guy, who needs somebody too.

  Frankie Machine : Everybody needs somebody. But you can do better than him.

• Frankie Machine : You understand?

  Molly : Sure, sure I understand.

  Frankie Machine : You're a good girl, Molly.

  Molly : Sure, real good.

• Frankie Machine : Here's to it, Molly-O.

• Frankie Machine : I was thinkin' maybe I'd take a stage name. Jack Duvall.

  Molly : Jack Duvall. Yeah, that's real class.

  Frankie Machine : It is, ain't it?

  Molly : Oh, it's a swell name. Just fits you, Frank.

• Molly : It just doesn't add up. It never did, it never can.

  Frankie Machine : Well, give it a chance. I told you it would one day.

  Molly : All my life has been one day. On and on and on.

• Frankie Machine : You slip me a smile and I'll give you my autograph. You won't have to fight your way through the bobby-soxers to get to me.

  Molly : I bet those bobby-soxers go for you, at that.

• Frankie Machine : You mean just stop? Cold turkey? You don't understand! The pain...

• Frankie Machine : Big aces, here we go, down and dirty.

• Frankie Machine : Man with a hammer bums a buck. Jack calls. Bucket of paint all red. Coffee! Doesn't mean a thing if you haven't got the king. Winner every hand. You bet more you get more. Slip me half make me laugh.

• Frankie Machine : When I move, I move like a street punk.

• Frankie Machine : Tell me somethin'. you think those bobby-soxers will really go for me?

• Frankie Machine : I've got a cravin' for something sweet. You got anything sweet?

  Molly : Sugar.

  Frankie Machine : Gimme'.