Dick Tracy (1990)

Al Pacino: Big Boy Caprice

Photos 

Quotes 

• Big Boy Caprice : Wait a minute! Wait. I'm having a thought. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. I'm gonna have a thought. It's coming... It's gone.

• Lips Manlis : [muffled pleading as the cement covers him]  Big Boy, we're friends. Big Boy, not the Bath! Not the bath! B-bath. Ahh!

  Big Boy Caprice : I know, and I'm gonna miss you. But, all's fair in love and business. Benjamin Franklin.

• Big Boy Caprice : Around me, if a woman don't wear mink, she don't wear nuttin'.

  Breathless Mahoney : Well, I look good both ways.

• Big Boy Caprice : You get behind me, we all profit; you challenge me, we all go down! There was one Napoleon, one Washington, one me!

• Big Boy Caprice : All right, that's enough! I want 'em dead, both of 'em. I want this no-face character dead and I want Tracy dead. What's the matter, you bums forgot how to kill people? Doesn't your work mean anything to you anymore? Have you no sense of pride in what you do? No sense of duty, no sense of destiny? I'm looking for generals; what do I got? Foot soldiers!

  [yelling] 

  Big Boy Caprice : I want Dick Tracy dead!

• Big Boy Caprice : [after a former gangster ally's car explodes with him in it]  Very upsetting.

• Big Boy Caprice : Because I have a vision. A big boss must have a vision. We gotta town with thousands of small stores and businesses. People are working real hard. I think they should be working real hard. For us. Because we are for the people. "And if you ain't for the people, you can't buy the people." Lincoln.

• Big Boy Caprice : Police brutality, boys. And this is the fifth time. Lucky for me I don't bruise easily.

  Reporter : Mr. Caprice, do you intend to take legal action against the city for false arrest?

  Big Boy Caprice : Why should I blame the city for something one man is doing? This Tracy character's unstable. The city should get rid of him.

  Reporter : You mean if you don't get rid of him first.

  Big Boy Caprice : Who said that?

• [after Pruneface tried rationing with Big Boy about why a plan failed] 

  Big Boy Caprice : You're right. When you're right, you're right and you are right.

• [after 88 Keys told Big Boy about the Blank] 

  Breathless Mahoney : What was that all about?

  88 Keys : My income tax.

  Big Boy Caprice : [seeing this, gets upset]  Hey!

  [88 Keys turns and bolts out of the room] 

  Big Boy Caprice : [to Breathless]  Come here!

  Flattop : You want me to follow him?

  Big Boy Caprice : [to Flattop]  Where? To the piano?

  [to Breathless] 

  Big Boy Caprice : That was none of your business. Come here.

  [pulls her into his lap and slaps her face] 

  Big Boy Caprice : *I'm* you're business.

  [slaps her face again] 

• Big Boy Caprice : Don't tell me about my boys messin' up the Tracy rub-out. They were being tested, they flunked. Now they're just flunkies, like you! I don't care if Tracy puts one and one together, don't matter to me. You're still workin' for me. You're on my side. You're not out! You're *not* out! When you are dead, then you are out! You are mine, I own you!

• [Blank has Tracy and Big Boy cornered] 

  Big Boy Caprice : Whoever you are, *I know* we can make a deal.

• [Big Boy can't see where Tracy is in gear house] 

  Big Boy Caprice : [panicking]  Come on. Just lemme see ya. I just wanna see your face. I just wann- I just wanna talk some sense in- I wanna-

  [angry] 

  Big Boy Caprice : I just wanna take your head and I wanna crush it like an egg!

  [panics] 

  Big Boy Caprice : No, no! I didn't mean that!

• Big Boy Caprice : [after finding the bug in the ceiling, whispers]  We're being bugged, we're being bugged. We're being bugged.

• Dick Tracy : Hello, Big Boy. I've brought your garbage.

  Big Boy Caprice : Tracy.

  Dick Tracy : We meet again, huh? Where's Lips?

  Big Boy Caprice : This is a private club, coppa. You got a membership card?

• Big Boy Caprice : Look what you did to your pretty tuxedo.

  Lips Manlis : Big Boy, ain't we pals?

  Big Boy Caprice : No pals in this business, Lips. You taught me that.

• Big Boy Caprice : You know, Dick - You mind if I call you "Dick"? My associates here would very much like to see you have a little accident. But I tell 'em, "No. I'll take care of Tracy myself," I tell 'em. You know why? I want you on my side!

  [Itchy hands Big Boy a suitcase. Big Boy takes out of it a large wad of cash] 

  Big Boy Caprice : And let me tell you what my side is. My side is a lifetime of action and adventure with no clock to punch. It's treating that gal of yours 100%. She should be treated like a princess. Protected like a baby.

  Dick Tracy : You gonna put *all* that money down there?

  Big Boy Caprice : Fifteen thousand clams.

  [Big Boy drops the money on the table. The Kid watches from the small window] 

  Big Boy Caprice : It's a deal.

  [Big Boy pushes the money toward Tracy] 

  Itchy : Fifteen thousand clams.

  [Tracy takes the money. The Kid gapes in disbelief, sad and disappointed to see his hero take the bribe. Itchy chuckles] 

  Big Boy Caprice : Welcome to new waters, Dick! We're gonna run one hell of a ship with you aboard. There's a big world out there, and it's up for sale. All of it. All we gotta do is make sure that the people know I'm the one big enough to run it.

  Dick Tracy : [dryly]  And that you are guilty of attempting to bribe an officer of the law.

  [Tracy throws all the money back in Big Boy's face. The Kid smiles, realizing Tracy never meant to take the bribe money. The thugs grab hold of Tracy] 

  Itchy : Hey, hey!

  Flattop : Not so fast, coppa.

  Big Boy Caprice : [angrily]  You dumb dick!

• Spaldoni : I'm out.

  Big Boy Caprice : It only works if we're all in.

  Spaldoni : Then it don't work.

• [after a horrible rehearsal, 88 Keys and the singers complain that it's 2 am] 

  Big Boy Caprice : It's 2 a.m.? I'm about to turn this *dump* into the best place of a new era in entertainment, you're telling me it's 2 a.m.?

  [smashes 88 Keys' fingers on the piano keys] 

  Big Boy Caprice : [yelling]  Play the piano!

  Breathless Mahoney : Hey! That was a silly thing to do. He's the best piano player in town.

  Big Boy Caprice : Shut up! Come here.

  [88 Keys starts playing again] 

  Big Boy Caprice : Next time, I take his fingers and I turn them into pretzels. I just might do the same thing to your face.

  [slaps her] 

  Big Boy Caprice : [88 Keys seems to play smoother] 

  Big Boy Caprice : See? He's playing better already.

• Big Boy Caprice : You have just said goodbye to oxygen. You silly, stupid cop. You refused me. I offer you the keys to a kingdom and you tell me you're an officer of the law? I AM THE LAW! ME!

• Big Boy Caprice : You're dirty, Lips. You need a bath.

  Lips Manlis : Not "the bath". Not "the bath", Big boy, not "the bath"!

• Big Boy Caprice : "A man without a plan is not a man at all." Nietzsche.