You lose again?
Got my wicks in. Pop, teach me some stuff. I wanna be a boxer. I wanna be a champ.
Yeah. [he and Frank playfully practice some boxing punches]
Just what the world needs, another punch-drunk palooka.
Characters
Frank SinatraPhilip Casnoff · 26 quotes
Ava GardnerMarcia Gay Harden · 6 quotes
Nancy Barbato SinatraGina Gershon · 5 quotes
Marty SinatraJoe Santos · 4 quotes
Tommy DorseyBob Gunton · 4 quotes
Dolly SinatraOlympia Dukakis · 3 quotes
SDSammy Davis JrDavid Raynr · 3 quotes
Most scenes together: Frank Sinatra & Ava Gardner (6), Frank Sinatra & Nancy Barbato Sinatra (5), Frank Sinatra & Marty Sinatra (4)
Frankie! Hey, Frankie! Frankie! Come on, wake up! Hey! [Frank wakes up] C'mon. Why aren't you at work?
Cos I didn't go.
What, first you quit your school, now you quit your job?
Yeah.
[short pause] Dolly! Hey, Dolly! Kid can't stick to anything! He's a quitter!
[Frank gets out of bed, takes out a pint of milk from the fridge]
[to Frank] What the hell's going on?
Mom, pop. I made a decision. I can't do that work no more. I'm gonna find me work being a singer like - like Bing Crosby.
Forget Bing Crosby! Get your job back!
You listen to your mother.
No, I'm telling you! I'm going to be a singer. It's all I do in my free time and free time's not enough no more!
Frankie. You work hard, then you go to college, otherwise your gonna end up like me, a guy that can't even read or write his own name!
I'm not gonna end up like you, pop. I gotta do this.
Than I don't gotta support you! You don't work! You don't live here! [takes the apple out of his hand] And I'll tell you somethin' else! [smashes the apple on the kitchen table] You don't eat here!
Ma, tell him. I can do this. I - I can be someone.
You are someone. Your Frankie Sinatra--
[angrily] He's not! [to Frank] I'll tell you... You pack your bags! Hit the bricks! Out! Cos I didn't raise no kid to be no freeloader!
Fine! [throws and smashes the pint of milk at the sink]
[Frank walks out]
[shouts] You get a good look around this country! People are starving, mister big shot! Our neighbours! And they can't feed the seven kids they've got! Never mind a new one on the way! You know most people in this world today! They'll make $75 a week like you, mister big shot! Most people don't make $75 a month and if they did, they wouldn't quit!
[Marty walks in]
Hi, pop.
I don't get it.
Pop, I've learned a lot while I was on the road, but I'm a soloist.
You couldn't be a soloist in a relief line. You're nothing but a quitter.
Pop, I'm better than those bums. You don't know, you weren't there.
Do you know what happens when cocky kids are in the ring? They go down. Down! Every time, down.
[walks away]
Ma, I met a guy. Hank Sanicola, he's gonna manage me.
You're gonna kill us both if you don't straighten out.
Ma, pop's wrong! I'm not going down! I'm going up!
HCHotel Clerk
Uh, excuse me. We have a problem.
We do? What's the problem?
HCHotel Clerk
We don't serve coloured's here.
[on Sy Oliver] He's with the band.
HCHotel Clerk
I'm sorry, it's hotel policy.
Serve wasps? Tykes, kraut's, hunky's, mix? That's the whole band. Maybe we should all leave.
SOSy Oliver
Hey, Frank, it's okay. I'm used to it.
So am I. It ain't okay. [to the Hotel Clerk] I grew up with bums like this. Now give him the key or I'm gonna wreck this goddamn barn!
Take it easy, Frank.
[angrily grabs the Hotel Clerk by the tie] I said give him the key!
[The Hotel Clerk hands Sy a hotel key]
[to the Hotel Clerk] Thank you.
You don't hang around with the guys much, do you?
Ah, you can't when you run an organisation.
What about me?
Hey, pallie, you and I are a whole other species of human being. So, what's your signature song gonna be?
I don't want a song, I want my own sound. You see, TD, if I can do with my voice what you do with a trombone, I can knock the whole gang right off the charts.
[short pause] Breath control. [walks]
Breath control?
When an entertainer is at the birth of his children, it means he's not working. You are!
You have no right to stop me!
I don't want to stop you. I want you to be the greatest singer there is. I just don't want to lose you.
Tommy! Tommy, c'mon, stop, will ya. I know you got a call.
Yeah, I got a call. So you got yourself a big show business attorney now. And I got a call from Columbia Records, and I got a call from CBS. Oh, and I got a call from your... agent. Congratulations. [bitterly] You got a hell of a back up team all of a sudden.
Tommy, I love ya. You done everything for me. But this just wasn't a fair deal.
Oh, but it's fair for you to break a contract? It's fair that they won't play my records on the radio if I don't let you out?!
It wasn't a contract. It was a life sentence. Now I told you I'd stay for a year, and I will.
Nah, if you're gonna go? Go. [begins walking away]
I'm sorry. But I gotta do this.
[turns] Not everybody thinks you're gonna be as big as you think. Personally? I hope you fall flat on your ass. [walks away]
BWBob Weitman
Okay, okay, now let's cut through all the crap, boys. I'm still nervous about this. Frank, I think you're a very talented singer, but you got a soft voice. I can't see it filling up the Paramount.
GEGeorge Evans
Don't worry about his voice filling up your Theatre, Bob. The girls will fill up your Theatre. [laughs]
BWBob Weitman
I can't gamble on that.
I filled the Mosque. I can fill the Paramount.
BWBob Weitman
The Mosque is a small Theatre in Newark. We're talking about the Paramount.
Exactly.
[on the set of Anchors Aweigh]
MSManie Sacks
Please, I'm asking you to reconsider.
Manie, stop.
MSManie Sacks
This is important to me, Frank.
[noticing] Hey, that's Ava Gardner. [getting up from his actor's chair]
MSManie Sacks
She's a dish, huh? Now, Frank, ple- Frank...
[Frank runs over to Ava]
Ava. Hi, I'm Frank Sinatra.
[tearfully] Hello, Frank.
What's the matter?
[sighs] Nothing.
Well, nothing's running your mascara. [takes off his sailor tie, gently wipes Ava's tears off with it]
Well, Artie and I had another fight.
Ah, dump the bum. He's just another band leader, I dumped plenty of 'em.
[laughs, smiles] Now look what you've done. [putting his sailor tie back on] You ruined my perfectly terrible mood.
CMCrew Member
Miss Gardner, they're ready for you on the set.
I gotta go.
It was nice meeting you, Ava.
Likewise, I'm sure. [walks away]
[during a New Year's Eve party, Nancy suddenly notices a heart shaped bracelet on Marilyn Maxwell's wrist, the same one she had found earlier in Frank's car]
Marilyn, I couldn't help but notice your bracelet.
MMMarilyn Maxwell
Oh, it's my favourite thing.
Where did you get it?
[nervously] Hey, come on. We're gonna miss the new year.
MMMarilyn Maxwell
[to Nancy] An old dear friend.
Did Frank give that to you?
[Marilyn tries to say something, but nervously looks at Frank]
[angrily to Marilyn] I want you out of my house. Get out!
[tearfully] Don't you see what's happening? I'm sitting here pretending like nothing's going on all the time. I'm doing just what my mother did, and I can't help it because I love you so much. [pause, Frank sits on the sofa] Maybe we should go away together. Just the two of us. No friends, no company. We'll send the kids to my parents house.
Nance, I got another picture.
Well, then when you come home at night, we could spend our nights together.
It shoots in New York.
[pause, tearfully] We moved to Hollywood so you could be closer to your work, and now you're gonna shoot only in New York?!
Nance, it's such a good role.
What's the matter now?
GEGeorge Evans
You hit the papers again. How's your pal Lucky Luciano?
I met him.
GEGeorge Evans
What's that mean, you met him?
What did I do wrong? I can't shake hands now?
GEGeorge Evans
The press and in particular Lee Mortimer is making you the sidekick of gangsters.
Right. I drive the getaway car. [short pause] George, you said no women. You didn't say anything about mobsters.
GEGeorge Evans
Listen, Frank...
This is ridiculous! I grew up in Little Italy, Hoboken, New Jersey, with Joe Fischetti and half these other monkeys! And it's none of Lee Mortimer's goddamn business what I do with my private life!
GEGeorge Evans
It's my business! And it's my business to make you look good, and make people wanna spend money to buy your records and see your movies! I'm just telling you to think about this self-destructive path your on! Now I suggest you get the hell outta here. Go back home like I suggested in the first place! And think about what you're doing! Before you do it! Do you understand?
[short pause] Yeah, I understand. I understand.
You think you, sweetheart, we'd give you permission to come to Houston with me?
I don't need permission. What's Houston?
I'm open in a hotel there.
A hotel?
Yeah. The breads good.
[sarcastically] Awwww, poor Francis, they got you opening hotels now?
[angrily grabs Ava] What is it with you? It's not enough for you to have a guy, you have to screw with his head too?
[pause, they kiss]
Goodbye, Francis.
Ava, for God's sake, what are you doing?
[shouts] Don't you ever grab me like that again!
All right, I'm sorry. I'm sorry! Come on, you're breaking my heart here.
Go home to your wife and kids. I'm not a home wrecker.
You're not a home wrecker. It was over before New York.
Oh sure, does she know that?
You know, I never figured out how to tell her.
Take a lesson from me: Goodbye, Francis.
Ava.
It's never gonna work between us.
Maybe I should get my own place.
[holding baby Tina] I read that you two were an item. You still seeing her? [pause] Listen to me, get my information from the papers.
I guess it's over with her.
Then come home, Frank. You belong here with your family.
[pause, Frank walks over to the window, looks at his kids playing in the garden]
Then why don't I feel it?
[pause] I think it would be better if you did get your own place.
[pause] I tried, Nance. I really tried.
Did you?
Longer than you know.
These quotes come from Wikiquote's Sinatra pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.