The Front Page (1974)

Charles Durning: Murphy

Photos 

Quotes 

• Murphy : May the wind at your back never be your own.

• Mollie Malloy : I never said that I loved Earl Williams and was willing to marry him on the gallows. You made that up!

  Murphy : Oh, come on. You've been sucking around that cuckoo ever since he's been in the death house.

  McHugh : Everybody knows you're his soul-mate.

  Mollie Malloy : That's a lot of bunk! Like all that other stuff you been writing. Calling me an Angel of the Pavement and the Midnight Madonna. Who ya kiddin'? I'm a two-dollar whore from Division Street and you know it!

• Roy Bensinger of the Tribune : [picks up his phone]  This is Bensinger. Give me a rewrite man. Oh, Marty, is that you?

  [reads from notes] 

  Roy Bensinger of the Tribune : "New lead on the Earl Williams Hanging"... Yes, the execution is still set for seven o'clock in the morning. "The authorities are prepared for a general uprising of radicals at that time".

  Murphy : [picks up his phone while playing poker]  Murphy here. Get me rewrite.

  Roy Bensinger of the Tribune : "Extra guards have just been thrown around the jail, the municipal building, railroad terminals, elevated stations".

  Murphy : Update on the Williams hanging: Sheriff Hartman's just put 200 more relatives on the payroll to protect the city against the Red Army, which is leaving Moscow in a couple of minutes. Bet a dime.

  Roy Bensinger of the Tribune : "Now, this is what the condemned man ordered for his final meal: shrimp cocktail with Thousand Island dressing, rare roast beef, Brussels sprouts, apple pie à la mode, Ovaltine".

  Murphy : For his last meal, Williams is getting a 95-cent Blue Plate Special from the greasy spoon across the street.

  Roy Bensinger of the Tribune : "At nine o'clock tonight, Williams will be examined by still another psycholigist, Dr. Max J. Eggelhofer, at the request of The Friends of American Liberty"... Eggelhofer. Yes, he's from Vienna... It's in my story this morning! He wrote that book, "Self-Abuse and Anti-Social Behavior".

  Murphy : Poor bastard's gonna swing in the morning, and this big brain from Vienna wants to ask him if he played with himself when he was five. More later.

  [hangs up] 

• Hildebrand 'Hildy' Johnson : [the boys are warning Hildy that he might not last in his new job]  My girl's uncle, he owns that advertising agency.

  Murphy : Well whaddya know, our Hildy going into the nephew business.

• McHugh : Here's to you, ya' lucky bastard.

  Kruger : God speed, Hildy.

  Murphy : And may the wind at your back never be your own.