Serpico (1973)

Al Pacino: Serpico

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Frank Serpico : The reality is that we do not wash our own laundry--it just gets dirtier.

• [Given a detective's gold badge] 

  Frank Serpico : What's this for? For bein' an honest cop? Hmm? Or for being stupid enough to get shot in the face? You tell them that they can shove it.

• Frank Serpico : You know what they say, don't you? If you love a man's garden, you gotta love the man!

• Frank Serpico : You stupid fuck! You didn't know me? You fired without a warning, without a fucking brain in your head? Oh, shit. If I buy one, motherfucker, I ain't buying it from you.

• Frank Serpico : How come all your friends are on their way to bein' someone else?

• Frank Serpico : I'm a marked man in this department. For what?

  District Attorney Tauber : I've already arranged a transfer for ya.

  Frank Serpico : To where? China?

• Frank Serpico : I own a sheep dog.

  Girl : Uh-huh.

  Frank Serpico : Sheep dogs have been in my family... for sixteen generations! Dating back to the Borgias...

  Girl : [laughing]  Oh, shit!

  Frank Serpico : The family crest... is the image of a sheep dog, pissing into a gondola.

  Girl : Shit!

• Gun shop owner : That gun takes a 14-shot clip. You expecting an army?

  Frank Serpico : No. Just a division.

• Tom Keough : Now I ain't sayin' who. They just said ya... ya couldn't be trusted, you know?

  Frank Serpico : 'Cause I don't take money, right?

  Tom Keough : Frank, let's face it. Who can trust a cop who don't take money?

• Frank Serpico : You know that I'm totally isolated in the department. I don't have a friend.

  Chief Sidney Green : Oh, don't give me that bullshit about friends. I've been putting cops away for thirty years. My name's an obscenity to every shithouse wall in every precinct in the city.

  Frank Serpico : I've observed that, sir.

  Chief Sidney Green : Friends! And I fought my way up as a Jew in the department in the days you were supposed to have an uncircumcised shamrock between your legs. I have this nightmare. I'm on 5th Avenue watching the St. Patrick's Day parade and I have a coronary and nine thousand cops march happily over my body.

• Larry : Leslie is a mindfucker.

  Frank Serpico : You gotta be kidding. I didn't know that. What's a mindfucker?

  Larry : Well, it's a chick who digs intellectual types and super bright guys.

  Frank Serpico : Oh, she's very perceptive.

• Don Rubello : [looking suspiciously at Frank's mouse]  What's with the fucking mouse?

  Frank Serpico : He's my partner. He sniffs out drugs. You know, I just send him through his little hole, he's gone for a while, and then he comes back with the heroin.

  Don Rubello : Oh, yeah, I heard of that.

  Frank Serpico : You heard of that? Yeah.

• Leslie Lane : [feeling his gun as she's riding on the back of his motorcycle]  What'ya need a gun for?

  Frank Serpico : Didya ever hear of Barnum and Bailey?

  Leslie Lane : Yeah.

  Frank Serpico : Well, I'm their lion tamer.

• Frank Serpico : [Lombardo has fallen]  You OK?

  Insp. Lombardo : Yeah... makes me feel like a cop again.

• Frank Serpico : You know, you're pretty fuckin' weird for a cop.

  Bob Blair : Me? What about *you*? You're a fucking hippie!

• Frank Serpico : Captain, I think it's only fair to tell you, I've been to outside agencies, and I'm gonna go to more if I have to.

  Capt. Insp. McClain : What outside agencies? Holy mother of God! Frank, we wash our own laundry around here! You're going to be brought up on charges for this.

  Frank Serpico : [they start to shout on top of each other]  Oh yeah? Yeah, I always thought so, but the reality is, sir, that *we do not wash our own laundry*! It just gets dirtier.

  Capt. Insp. McClain : Oh, you are in trouble, Serpico. You are in trouble!

  Frank Serpico : I don't care if I'm in trouble, I don't care who gets it anymore, including myself. Because if I have to go to outside agencies to get somebody to hear my story...

  Capt. Insp. McClain : You stay away from outside agencies! Do you hear me, Serpico? Stay away from them!

  Frank Serpico : [screaming]  Well, where am I gonna go? Where am I gonna go?

  Capt. Insp. McClain : Just wait until you hear from me! I don't want to talk to you, Frank.

  [turns and walks off] 

  Frank Serpico : I've been waiting a year and a half for you. Where am I going to go?

  Frank Serpico : [shouting after the Captain]  It's *my life*, you fuck!

• Rudy Corsaro : [being arrested by Serpico, who's having trouble finding his badge]  Where have they been hidin' you, kid?

  Frank Serpico : Wouldn't you like to know?

• Cop : Serpico. Get in. You're not wired, are you? Okay, you cocksucker, you might get by in the Bronx with that kind of shit, but down here, eight hundred a month is chicken feed. Last week, one dope dealer sent out these guys making pickups. Forty thousand each. We let 'em collect it all - and then hit 'em. A hundred twenty thousand split four ways. That's serious money. And with that, you don't fuck around.

  Serpico : I got the message.

  Cop : Good. Now, get the fuck out.

• Laurie : Everybody knows about cops. Did you ever hear the story of the wise king?

  Serpico : Nope, but I got the feeling I'm gonna hear it.

  Laurie : Well, there was this king, and he ruled over his kingdom. Right in the middle of the kingdom there was a well. And that's where everybody drank. And one night, this witch came along and she poisoned the well. And the next day, everybody drank from it except the king and they all went crazy. They got together in the street and they said "We got to get rid of the king, 'cause the king is mad." And then that night, he went down and he drank from the well. And the next day all the people rejoiced, because their king had regained his reason.

  Serpico : I think you're trying to tell me somethin'.

  Laurie : Me?

• Barto : How long have you been with the BCI now, Serpico?

  Frank Serpico : All my life.

  Barto : That's long enough to know how we do things.

  Frank Serpico : Barto, it's not just that.

  [in a sarcastic tone] 

  Frank Serpico : You don't like me!

  Barto : BCI never had a weirdo cop before.

  Frank Serpico : Barto, stop buggin' me!

• Frank Serpico : Hey, Pasquale, let me tell you something. See, all day long I work with cops, right? When I go out, I see Mary Ann. Her father is a cop, her brother is a cop, her uncle is a cop and I got a feeling she's a cop too.

• Serpico : All my life I wanted to be a cop, you know. It's like I can remember nothing else. I remember this one time--there was, eh, somethin' happened. A domestic argument or somethin'. Somebody stabbed somebody or somethin'. And - there was this crowd around this tenement. I must have been nine, ten years old. I was this big. I went over to see what was going on. I noticed the red light--goin' around and around, all these people, and I couldn't see. And I kept saying, "Do you know what's goin' on? Do you know?" Nobody knew. It was like a big mystery behind that--that crowd there. All of a sudden, the crowd just parted. Like the Red Sea, you see? And there were these guys in blue, and I said, "They know." What do they know? What do they know?

• Serpico : They're all rotten. Chickenshit. The whole fucking system's corrupt.

• Frank Serpico : [Screaming repeatedly]  It's my life, you fuck!

• Pat - a girl at party : You know, Japanese culture and theater and painting--it's too rigidly stylized.

  Serpico : Well, yeah, you know--Yeah, but, I think after a while, when you get through that, you start to--appreciate the clarity--you know, the authority.

• Bob Blair : You've got a feel for the streets, I got a feel for the politics, I guess.

  Serpico : Oh, yeah?

  Bob Blair : And you and me and one Batmobile, we could clean up the whole city in no time.

  Serpico : Oh. I wonder if we can get candy out of this machine though.

• Tom Keough : You'd never hurt another cop, right? You'd never hurt another cop, would you, Frank?

  Serpico : Well, that'd depend on what he did.

  Tom Keough : That's the wrong answer, Frankie.

• Serpico : You want to read something? It's about your pal Corsaro. Here, read it. Read it! He did 15 years. You know what for? For killing a cop. He's a fucking cop killer.

• Serpico : How could you leave the man you love? The future father of your kids?

  Laurie : You never said anything like that to me before. And if I come back, you won't say it again. You want to be free and unattached to go on fighting for your cause and keep torturing yourself.

• Serpico : Police corruption cannot exist unless it is at least tolerated at higher levels in the department.

• Black informant : Would you bust whitey?

  Serpico : Try me. Try me.

  Black informant : This guy's heavy. He's Italian. Mobbed up. Still interested?

  Serpico : Stop fuckin' around. I'm not in the mood. Come on.

  Black informant : He's a loan shark, runs a big numbers operation. This mother's so cocksure, he picks up his own slips while he's collecting his loans.

• Frank Serpico : I'm "being disciplined", your Honour, for what...?

• Lt. Steiger : [Serpico and another cop have just been watching a naked girl out the bathroom window]  Hold it, Serpico. What were you two doing?

  Frank Serpico : What?

  Lt. Steiger : In the shithouse, in the dark! Were you going down on him?

  Frank Serpico : What are you talking about?

  Lt. Steiger : You gonna tell me you were just doing a little Peeping Tom? You were suckin' his cock, weren't you!

  Frank Serpico : Are you crazy?

  Lt. Steiger : I'll show you fuckin' crazy. Last week I found a pair of shorts with semen on 'em.

  [He pushes open a stall and points] 

  Lt. Steiger : There!

  Frank Serpico : Are you actually accusing me of this?

• Capt. Insp. McClain : Frank, has anyone ever told you that you have a tendency toward self-pity?

  Frank Serpico : No, you're the first.

• Serpico : What do you do?

  Leslie : Oh, me? I'm an actress, a singer, a dancer, and a Buddhist.

  Serpico : Oh, in that order? I'm a cop.

• Laurie : Is that Bjoerling?

  Serpico : No. It's DiStefano.

  Laurie : I was sure it was Bjoerling.

• Serpico : Colored cop gave me this. I didn't know what to do with it.

• Bob Blair : I make it my business to know people--people who can help.

  Serpico : Unfair. Unfair.

  Bob Blair : Life is unfair!

• Serpico : What are you, dedicated or somethin'?

  Laurie : That's right, I'm dedicated. Most men can't stand it.

  Serpico : Well, what do they know?

• Kellogg : You have two alternatives. You can force me to take you to the commissioner of investigations. He'll drag you in front of a grand jury.

  Serpico : I don't want that.

  Kellogg : Oh, I can understand that. Word'll get out. Before it's all over, they'll find you face-down in the East River.

  Bob Blair : What's the other alternative?

  Kellogg : Forget it.

• Serpico : McCIain says that Palmer says that the 7th is as clean as a hound's tooth.

• Leslie : [sitting naked, face to face, in a bathtub]  Well, this is a good place to tell you, Paco. You know that guy in Texas I was telling you about?

  Serpico : Yeah. What about him?

  Leslie : I'm gonna marry him in two months--unless you marry me.

  Serpico : What about the theater and your dancing?

  Leslie : A girl has to get married sometime.

  Serpico : Well, you're a long way from sometime, Leslie.

• Laurie : I'll have to take a rain check. I'm due at the hospital.

  Serpico : Why don't you call in sick? Perfect place.

• Serpico : It's amazing. It's incredible. But I feel like a criminal 'cause I don't take money.

• Rubello : So what do you think, Frank? About the money?

  Serpico : Look, Don, if I was broke, if I had a family--I don't know. But I'm not broke and I don't have a family. So why the fuck stick my neck out? You know what I mean?

  Rubello : It's already out, Frank: not taking the money. It's better the other guys don't know that.

• D.A. Tauber : You don't implicate people without sufficient evidence.

  Serpico : That's crap and you know it, because even a dumb cop like me knows a prosecutor can take a grand jury anywhere it wants to take it. Now, you never led me anywhere near the real problems. Nothing about--the bosses, the brass, how corruption like this could exist without anybody knowing about it. Now, a few flunky cops in the Bronx. That's it. None of the shit in Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan?

  D.A. Tauber : While you're at it, why don't you mention Kansas City?

• Serpico : It's bullshit! You're not going after corruption in the department, the division, the Bronx. A few flunky cops thrown to the wolves to protect Delaney and those guys--who've known about this shit for years and won't do a fuckin' thing about it--that's why I won't testify.

• Serpico : I'm gonna have to think about that.

  Gilbert : What is there to think about?

  Serpico : I don't see how the division can investigate itself, sir.

• Lombardo : Anybody in this command you want to work with?

  Serpico : It's not who I want to work with. It's who wants to work with me.

• Bob Blair : It's a goddamn serious step, Frank. I don't know if the timing is right.

  Serpico : Look, I want it to get on the record, that's all, in case something should happen to me. I want it on the record.

  Bob Blair : I don't know if we carry enough weight. I don't know if The New York Times will go that far out on a limb on the say-so of two flunky cops.

• Tom Keough : What's the matter, Frank? What are you worried about? Listen. We don't go overboard here. We're not sloppy. We're careful. Yeah, the spicks, niggers, we bust them. Because they operate so dumb and sloppy anyhow. They get your ass in hot water every time. But the Italians, now, that's a different story. They're men of their word. They're reliable, Frankie.

  Serpico : You really got it analyzed.

  Tom Keough : You're Fuckin'-A right I got it analyzed!

• Frank Serpico : When I come home, I want to come home to a clean house.

  Laurie : Paco, don't take it out on me.

  Frank Serpico : I'm not taking it out on you; I just don't wanna have to pick up *shit*!

  Laurie : [starts crying] 

• Leslie : What's that?

  Serpico : Oh, you got your hands on my money belt. Don't do that.

  Leslie : That's not a money belt. That's a gun!

  Serpico : Well, we got to eat, don't we?

• Serpico : Paco, everybody loves you!

• Potts : [Late at night, Serpico walks into the bathroom, sees Potts looking out the window with binoculars]  Hey, turn off the lights!

  Serpico : Ah, Potts, I wanted to read. I wanted to wee.

  Potts : Positions, positions! Positions like that you don't see in a pretzel factory.

  Serpico : Now I gotta do my pee-pee in the dark.

  Potts : Oh, she's gotta be a nympho with positions like that.

• Serpico : See, you know, my situation's pretty fuckin' sticky up there. I mean, what am I supposed to do? Just wait for him?

  Captain McClain : You must have patience, Frank.

  Serpico : Yeah, but it's pretty fuckin' sticky.

  Captain McClain : Patience and faith.

• Bob Blair : Who the fuck do you think you are, you son of a bitch? You come looking for help, whining, mealy-mouthed, with your humble-pie act--the saint, the injured innocent. Who told you the department or the whole world was some kind of a fucking Boy Scout camp? What do you expect, for Christ's sake, a magician? A big daddy? White knight rides in on a horse, snaps his fingers, the dirty world turns virgin white...

  Serpico : You just keep talking. Keep talking, Bobby, because that's what you can do.

  Bob Blair : While the Pope's choir sings "Ave Maria," is that it?

• Laurie : You go over the same thing, Paco.

  Serpico : So fucking corrupt. Everybody, everyone. Nobody giving a shit! There's gotta be a way to wipe it out. Goddamn it. There's gotta be a way.

  Laurie : Let's get out of here for a while, huh, honey?

• Serpico : I gotta put a dime in the parking meter.

  [walks out] 

  Daley : Ragland, put a dime in the parking meter for Serpico.

• Serpico : They're feeling me up every day. How am I gonna wear a wire?

• Serpico : We stay around here very long, we're gonna get spotted.

  Detective Partner : Well, Frank, why don't you go up there and check it out?

  Serpico : Why don't you?

  Detective Partner : I got the wrong clothes.

  Serpico : I'll take you shopping.

• Frank Serpico : I've always had a thing for you Sid.