The Fortune Cookie (1966)

Harry Holcombe: O'Brien

Photos 

Quotes 

• Thompson : [about Willie Gingrich]  This guy is so full of angles and gimmicks and twists; he starts to describe a doughnut and it comes out a pretzel.

  O'Brien : Nevertheless, l suggest we try the friendly approach.

  Thompson : Okay. But after you shake hands with him, l suggest you count your fingers.

• Willie Gingrich : What about Mrs. Cunningham vs. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Ohio, number eighty-nine twenty-seven. Mrs. Cunningham, en route to Cincinnati to visit dying uncle, gets trapped in the toilet on account of a faulty lock. The car is hitched to another train. Mrs. Cunningham winds up in San Bernadino California. By this time, the uncle is dead and she's cut out of the will, so she sues the railroad for damages. Does this ring a bell?

  O'Brien : Never heard of it!

  Willie Gingrich : None of this has? Because you, gentlemen, represented the railroad.

  O'Brien : We did?

  Willie Gingrich : And lost the case.

• O'Brien : We've been going over the hospital report.

  Willie Gingrich : Discouraging, isn't it?

  O'Brien : Naturally, we don't accept it at face value.

  Willie Gingrich : I wouldn't, either.

  Thompson : Look, Gingrich, let's stop horsing around. We demand the right to have our own doctors examine Hinkle.

  Willie Gingrich : You got it.

  Kincaid : Unless you agree to it, we'll get a court order and force you.

  Willie Gingrich : I agree to it.

  O'Brien : Now don't give us any trouble, Gingrich. We know your reputation... what do you mean you "agree to it?"

• [repeated line] 

  O'Brien : Get Gingrich on the phone.

• O'Brien : [On the telephone]  Yes, Mr. Dalrumple. Of course we know it's a million dollars. Of course we know it isn't chicken feed... Please, Mr. Dalrumple, you have three grown-up lawyers handling this case. We have a hospital report right here. We have the Purkey investigation company working on it. So, you can just sit back and leave the worrying to us.

• Willie Gingrich : Lemme guess. You want to settle.

  O'Brien : Settle?

  Willie Gingrich : You don't want to settle?

  O'Brien : Certainly not.

  Willie Gingrich : That settles that.

• O'Brien : In return for a release from all future claims, we're willing to compensate your client with a lump sum. Say $2,000. Fair enough?

  Willie Gingrich : It may be fair, but it's not enough. I had a slightly different figure in mind. Say 500,000?

  O'Brien : 500,000? You're being grotesque!