Podcast 63: GoodFellas (1990)

June 2, 2022 Jon S Movies, Podcasting 01:43:29146MB 0 Comments
GoodFellas - Robert Di Nero, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci

The 3 Guys Podcast

Recorded on 5/29/2022

As far back as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be a gangster. In this episode we review the movie GoodFellas (released 1990) starring Robert De Niro. Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco and Paul Sorvino. WARNING: There will be SPOILERS!

The 3 Guys Rating

4.7/5
GoodFellas (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Interested in owning the GoodFellas (Two-Disc Special Edition)? Click the button below.

GoodFellas (Two-Disc Special Edition)

This is the true-crime bestseller that was the basis for Martin Scorsese’s film masterpiece GoodFellas.

Book: Wise Guy by Nicholas Pileggi
Wiseguy book by Nicholas Pileggi

Notes From The Show

  • Quick Synopsis

  • Released: September 19, 1990

    Directed By: Martin Scorsese

    Screenplay By: Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese

    Based on the Book: Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi

    Stars: Robert De Niro. Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco, Paul Sorvino and a bunch of other people.

    Plot: The story of Henry Hill and his life in the mob, covering his relationship with his wife Karen Hill and his mob partners Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeVito in the Italian-American crime syndicate.

    Tagline:  “As far back as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be a gangster.” — Henry Hill, Brooklyn, N.Y. 1955.

    How did this movie do
    Budget: $25 Million
    Box Office: $47 Million


  • Awards

  • Academy Awards

    • Nominated: Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay and Film Editing.
    • Won: Best Supporting Actor – Joe Pesci

  • Casting

    • Martin Scorsese originally offered Joe Pesci the role of Paulie, since Pesci was decades too old for the role of Tommy. Scorsese even auditioned young unknown actors for the role of Tommy, including Michael Imperioli, who would go on to play Spider in the film. However, Pesci eventually convinced Scorsese to cast him as Tommy and try to make him look younger using makeup.

    • Tom Cruise, Nicolas Cage, Sean Penn, Alec Baldwin and John Travolta were considered for the role of Henry Hill.

    • Ellen Barkin was considered for the role of Karen Hill.

    • Al Pacino was offered the role of Jimmy Conway. He turned it down due to fears of typecasting. The same year, Pacino ended up playing an even more stereotyped gangster, Big Boy Caprice, in Dick Tracy (1990). He admits regretting the decision.

  • Inaccuracies

    • The film, told from Henry Hill’s perspective, portrays him as a major player in the world of organized crime. Real-life gangsters of that era have said that Hill was a minor figure, and more of a hanger-on like most of the other guys who took part in the Lufthansa heist (apart from Jimmy Burke, who was an important Mafia associate).

    • Henry Hill doesn’t kill a single person in the movie. That might not be accurate in real life, since Hill said on The Howard Stern Show that he had killed three people for the mob, and that he was free to talk about it because he had immunity.

    • Henry states that Tommy was shot in the face so that his mother could not give him an open-casket funeral. It was later intimated that he was not killed instantly as shown but was tortured beforehand. Tommy’s real-life counterpart, Tommy DeSimone, was killed in January 1979. His remains have never been recovered.

    • The character of Frankie Carbone, like some mobsters depicted in the movie, was a fictional composite of a mobster named Angelo Sepe (who was actually present with Tommy DeVito/DeSimone in the scene of Parnell “Stacks” Edwards’ murder) and a small-time drug dealer and con man named Richard Eaton (the infamous trailer freezer scene). Eaton fleeced Jimmy Conway/Burke out of $250,000, then was murdered; the money came out of the Lufthansa robbery. In real life, this was the only murder that Burke was ever convicted of despite committing countless murders.

    • Other than Henry Hill and his family, Prosecutor Ed McDonald, and some of the deceased, most of the characters last names were changed, presumably for fear of libel suits. For example, Jimmy Conway’s real name was Jimmy Burke, his mother’s last name was Conway. Tommy DeVito’s real name was Tommy DeSimone. Paul Cicero’s real name was Paul Vario. Morris “Morrie” Kessler’s real name was Marty Krugman. His name was censored with bleeps in the DVD Commentary by the real Henry Hill and Ed McDonald, who was instrumental in getting Hill into the Federal Witness Protection Program.

    • In the movie, Henry and Tommy hung around a lot. In the book though, Tommy and Henry knew each other, but, the latter actually hung out more with Paulie, Jr., son of mob chief Paul “Paulie” Vario, who is Paul “Paulie” Cicero in the movie.

    • According to US Attorney Edward MacDonald, who plays himself in the film, one important real life detail was left out of the scene of him sitting in the office with Henry and Karen Hill discussing entering the Witness Protection Program: Waiting outside of the office were two of Henry’s mistresses whom he also wanted to be brought along into the program.

    • An important detail left out of the film was Henry Hill and Jimmy Burke’s involvement was the sports bribery scandal in which they paid players of the Boston College Basketball Team to shave points. This scheme was intertwined with the Luftansa Airlines Heist chronicled in the film. Both Henry and Jimmy used the earnings from the heist to make bets on the team with different bookmakers all over New York City. In an interview for the ESPN series “30 for 30” which chronicles this scheme in the episode “Playing For The Mob”, Henry Hill says that Jimmy was making large bets everywhere using money from the heist. According to Henry, he had no idea for certain how much Jimmy bet on the fixed games but guessed that he was making bets totaling tens of thousands of dollars because Jimmy would fly into a rage whenever the players failed to deliver on the fixes, costing him untold thousands of dollars.

  • Trivia

    • According to Henry Hill, whose life was the basis for the book and film, Joe Pesci’s portrayal of Tommy DeSimone was 90-99% accurate, with one notable exception; the real Tommy DeSimone was massively built.

    • The “How am I funny?” scene is based on something that actually happened to Joe Pesci. While working in a restaurant, a young Pesci apparently told a mobster that he was funny, a compliment that was met with a less-than-enthusiastic response. Pesci relayed the anecdote to Martin Scorsese, who decided to include it in the film. Scorsese didn’t include the scene in the shooting script, so that Pesci and Ray Liotta’s interactions would elicit genuinely surprised reactions from the supporting cast.

    • For the scene where Sonny Bunz complains to Paulie, Martin Scorsese secretly told Tony Darrow to improvise more lines for his character without telling Paul Sorvino. Sorvino’s confused reaction was real.

    • The dinner scene with Tommy’s mother was almost completely improvised, including Tommy asking his mother if he could borrow her butcher’s knife and Jimmy’s “hoof” comment.

    • Ray Liotta turned down the part of Harvey Dent in Batman (1989) in order to make this movie.

    • The long tracking shot through the Copacabana nightclub came about because the filmmakers couldn’t get permission to go in the short way, forcing them to go around the back. Martin Scorsese decided to film the sequence in one unbroken shot in order to symbolize that Henry’s entire life was ahead of him. “It’s his seduction of her (Karen), and it’s also the lifestyle seducing him”. This sequence was shot eight times.

    • “Fuck” and its derivatives are used 321 times, an average of 2.04 per minute. Joe Pesci says about half of them. The script called for the word to be used 70 times, but much of the dialogue was improvised during shooting, and the expletives piled up. At the time of the films’ release, it had the most profanity of any movie in history. As of 2020, it’s #15; The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), also directed by Martin Scorsese, is #3. After Joe Pesci’s mother saw the film, she told him the movie was good, then asked him if he had to curse so much.

    • Jimmy Burke, on whom Jimmy Conway was based, would’ve been eligible for parole in 2004. He died of lung cancer in 1996, while still in prison.

    • Although Martin Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi collaborated on the screenplay (and received Oscar nominations for doing so), much of the film’s eventual dialogue was improvised by the cast.

    • Ray Liotta had said on a documentary special that his first person narration for the film was often done by him actually saying his narration to another person in a room. That way it felt more authentic, and made it easier for him to tell a story.

    • Henry states that he and Jimmy could never be “made”, because they weren’t of full Italian descent. That rule was changed in 2000 by the Commission (the five New York City families). A man can now be “made” if his father is of Italian descent, and his last name is Italian. That would still exclude Henry and Jimmy; Henry’s father in the film was Irish, and Jimmy’s surname is not Italian.

    • Henry Hill was paid roughly $550,000 for the film. Hill considered it chump change compared to the $15,000 to $40,000 a week he made during his gangster days. He claims he blew almost all of his mob money on partying and a “degenerate” gambling problem.

    • The film has 43 songs, the equivalent of about four albums. According to music editor Christopher Brooks, Martin Scorsese had thought about all the songs and where they would appear “three years before he shot the film.”

    • The long tracking shot in the Copa took seven takes. One take was ruined because Henny Youngman forgot his lines. According to Illeana Douglas, Scorsese was inspired by the long Steadicam shot in The Untouchables (1987).

    • Ray Liotta was intimidated by Robert De Niro. He really wanted De Niro to like him. De Niro put Liotta at ease, saying, “Don’t worry about it. This is all going to work out.”

    • Joe Pesci’s Oscar acceptance speech is the sixth shortest in the Academy’s history, “it’s my privilege, thank you.” Pesci later admitted that he didn’t say very much, because he genuinely felt that he didn’t have a chance of winning. Patty Duke said “Thank you” in 1963 when she won Best Actress in a Supporting Role for The Miracle Worker (1962). Louie Psihoyos said “Thank you” in 2010 when he won Best Documentary for The Cove (2009). Gloria Grahame and Alfred Newman both said “Thank you very much.” in 1953. William Holden said “Thank you. Thank you.” in 1954. Alfred Hitchcock said “Thank you. Very much indeed.” when he won an Honorary Oscar in 1968.

    • The film takes place from 1955 to 1980.

    • The film’s name was changed from “Wiseguy” to avoid confusion with both the television series Wiseguy (1987) and Brian De Palma’s similarly titled film. Charles Scorsese, Catherine Scorsese, and Frank Vincent appear in Wise Guys (1986) and this movie.

    • Henry Hill’s testimony against some of the most powerful Lucchese crime family associates led to over 50 convictions. As Hill learned at the very beginning of his career, Mafia rule number one is “never rat on your friends, and always keep your mouth shut.” In 2010, he told The Telegraph “It’s surreal, totally surreal, to be here. I never thought I’d reach this wonderful age.” He theorized that he hadn’t been murdered because “there’s nobody from my era alive.” Following his death in 2012, The Guardian hypothesized that fame or bureaucratic disorganization in the criminal underworld might have been the reason.

    • The Lufthansa heist remained an unsolved mystery until 2014. Most of the members of the crew that were still alive were elderly or arrested.

    • When Henry Hill closes the door to his house at the end, the sound resembles the sound of a prison cell being closed. Implying normal life is his prison now.

    • Martin Scorsese said John Wayne’s final confrontation in Red River (1948) influenced the pistol-whipping scene.

    • As Goodfellas makes clear, many of the mobsters involved with the $6 million 1978 Lufthansa heist-at the time the largest cash robbery in American history-were taken out by a paranoid and greedy Jimmy Burke, while more still were put in jail by Hill’s testimony on unrelated charges. But as of 2014, the Lufthansa heist case was still an active case, as evidenced by the 2014 arrest of Vincent Asaro (who was 78 years old at the time) on cooperating witness testimony. Authorities claim that Asaro served as lookout and helped the getaway. And in a tie to the movie, Asaro is believed to have taken Spider to get stitched up after he was shot.

    • This was the first Martin Scorsese film for which Saul Bass designed the titles.

    • Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Frank Vincent and Tony Sirico (who played Tony Stacks) would reunite seven years later in another crime thriller, 1997’s Cop Land. Sirico, who would play a mobster named Toy Torillo, was not an active character in the film, but was seen in newspaper clippings and surveillance photos.

    • After the premiere, Henry Hill went around and revealed his true identity. In response, the government kicked him out of the Federal Witness Protection Program.

    • While filming the scene in which his character is killed by Joe Pesci, Michael Imperioli broke a glass in his hand and had to be rushed to the emergency room. When doctors saw what appeared to be a gunshot wound in his chest, they tried to treat it. When Imperioli told them what was really up, he was made to wait for three hours. Martin Scorsese told Imperioli that some day he’d be telling that story on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (1992).

    • When Henry and Karen Hill are negotiating to enter the Witness Protection Program, former U.S. Attorney Edward McDonald played himself, reenacting what he did in reality.

    • The scene in which Tommy kills Spider was mostly improvised. The only line that was said as scripted was Spider’s “Why don’t you go fuck yourself, Tommy”.

    • When Paulie confronts Henry after Hill’s released from prison, Paul Sorvino improvised the slap to Ray Liotta’s face, hence Liotta’s reaction.

    • As he enters the Witness Protection program, Henry requests not to be sent to a cold place. In the final scene, Henry picks up the Youngstown Vindicator, the local newspaper for Youngstown, Ohio, which gets very cold in the winter.

    • In the book “Wiseguy”, Henry Hill cites a few reasons why Tommy was killed. The main reason, of course, was because he killed Billy Batts and a guy named Foxy. Another chilling reason is probably because he once stated that mob chief Paulie “didn’t like having Tommy around”.

    • Late in his life, Henry Hill launched GoodfellaHenry.com, a website devoted to the film and life in the mob. Many of the people visiting the site derided Hill as a snitch. Hill died in 2012. As of fall 2021, the site is still up selling memorabilia from the film.

    • The house where Tommy was killed is located at 80th Street and Shore Road, in the Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn, New York. The interior was re-created on a soundstage after the scenes shot on-location were deemed unacceptable.

    • CAMEO: Martin Scorsese’s father appeared in the film. He is one of the two men who take Tommy DeVito to be killed. He is not the one who pulled the trigger. He earlier appeared in prison, where he made spaghetti sauce. The character played by Martin Scorsese’s mother is often seen making spaghetti sauce outside of prison. Off-camera, they pressed the collars on all of the suits.

    • Henry Hill explained to a fan on the Howard Stern Show in March 2003 that neither he nor Jimmy Burke (his last name was changed to Conway in the film) were executed along with Tommy Desimone (Tommy DeVito) for the murder of Billy Batts because both Hill and Burke were huge money makers for the mob.

    • After Henry is arrested for the first time, Jimmy tells him that he just learned the two most important things in life: “never rat on your friends, and always keep your mouth shut.” By the end of the film, Henry will have violated both of these principles.

Released: September 19, 1990

Directed By: Martin Scorsese

Screenplay By: Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese

Based on the Book: Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi

Stars: Robert De Niro. Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco, Paul Sorvino and a bunch of other people.

Plot: The story of Henry Hill and his life in the mob, covering his relationship with his wife Karen Hill and his mob partners Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeVito in the Italian-American crime syndicate.

Tagline:  “As far back as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be a gangster.” — Henry Hill, Brooklyn, N.Y. 1955.

How did this movie do
Budget: $25 Million
Box Office: $47 Million


Academy Awards

  • Nominated: Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay and Film Editing.
  • Won: Best Supporting Actor – Joe Pesci
  • Martin Scorsese originally offered Joe Pesci the role of Paulie, since Pesci was decades too old for the role of Tommy. Scorsese even auditioned young unknown actors for the role of Tommy, including Michael Imperioli, who would go on to play Spider in the film. However, Pesci eventually convinced Scorsese to cast him as Tommy and try to make him look younger using makeup.

  • Tom Cruise, Nicolas Cage, Sean Penn, Alec Baldwin and John Travolta were considered for the role of Henry Hill.

  • Ellen Barkin was considered for the role of Karen Hill.

  • Al Pacino was offered the role of Jimmy Conway. He turned it down due to fears of typecasting. The same year, Pacino ended up playing an even more stereotyped gangster, Big Boy Caprice, in Dick Tracy (1990). He admits regretting the decision.
  • The film, told from Henry Hill’s perspective, portrays him as a major player in the world of organized crime. Real-life gangsters of that era have said that Hill was a minor figure, and more of a hanger-on like most of the other guys who took part in the Lufthansa heist (apart from Jimmy Burke, who was an important Mafia associate).

  • Henry Hill doesn’t kill a single person in the movie. That might not be accurate in real life, since Hill said on The Howard Stern Show that he had killed three people for the mob, and that he was free to talk about it because he had immunity.

  • Henry states that Tommy was shot in the face so that his mother could not give him an open-casket funeral. It was later intimated that he was not killed instantly as shown but was tortured beforehand. Tommy’s real-life counterpart, Tommy DeSimone, was killed in January 1979. His remains have never been recovered.

  • The character of Frankie Carbone, like some mobsters depicted in the movie, was a fictional composite of a mobster named Angelo Sepe (who was actually present with Tommy DeVito/DeSimone in the scene of Parnell “Stacks” Edwards’ murder) and a small-time drug dealer and con man named Richard Eaton (the infamous trailer freezer scene). Eaton fleeced Jimmy Conway/Burke out of $250,000, then was murdered; the money came out of the Lufthansa robbery. In real life, this was the only murder that Burke was ever convicted of despite committing countless murders.

  • Other than Henry Hill and his family, Prosecutor Ed McDonald, and some of the deceased, most of the characters last names were changed, presumably for fear of libel suits. For example, Jimmy Conway’s real name was Jimmy Burke, his mother’s last name was Conway. Tommy DeVito’s real name was Tommy DeSimone. Paul Cicero’s real name was Paul Vario. Morris “Morrie” Kessler’s real name was Marty Krugman. His name was censored with bleeps in the DVD Commentary by the real Henry Hill and Ed McDonald, who was instrumental in getting Hill into the Federal Witness Protection Program.

  • In the movie, Henry and Tommy hung around a lot. In the book though, Tommy and Henry knew each other, but, the latter actually hung out more with Paulie, Jr., son of mob chief Paul “Paulie” Vario, who is Paul “Paulie” Cicero in the movie.

  • According to US Attorney Edward MacDonald, who plays himself in the film, one important real life detail was left out of the scene of him sitting in the office with Henry and Karen Hill discussing entering the Witness Protection Program: Waiting outside of the office were two of Henry’s mistresses whom he also wanted to be brought along into the program.

  • An important detail left out of the film was Henry Hill and Jimmy Burke’s involvement was the sports bribery scandal in which they paid players of the Boston College Basketball Team to shave points. This scheme was intertwined with the Luftansa Airlines Heist chronicled in the film. Both Henry and Jimmy used the earnings from the heist to make bets on the team with different bookmakers all over New York City. In an interview for the ESPN series “30 for 30” which chronicles this scheme in the episode “Playing For The Mob”, Henry Hill says that Jimmy was making large bets everywhere using money from the heist. According to Henry, he had no idea for certain how much Jimmy bet on the fixed games but guessed that he was making bets totaling tens of thousands of dollars because Jimmy would fly into a rage whenever the players failed to deliver on the fixes, costing him untold thousands of dollars.
  • According to Henry Hill, whose life was the basis for the book and film, Joe Pesci’s portrayal of Tommy DeSimone was 90-99% accurate, with one notable exception; the real Tommy DeSimone was massively built.

  • The “How am I funny?” scene is based on something that actually happened to Joe Pesci. While working in a restaurant, a young Pesci apparently told a mobster that he was funny, a compliment that was met with a less-than-enthusiastic response. Pesci relayed the anecdote to Martin Scorsese, who decided to include it in the film. Scorsese didn’t include the scene in the shooting script, so that Pesci and Ray Liotta’s interactions would elicit genuinely surprised reactions from the supporting cast.

  • For the scene where Sonny Bunz complains to Paulie, Martin Scorsese secretly told Tony Darrow to improvise more lines for his character without telling Paul Sorvino. Sorvino’s confused reaction was real.

  • The dinner scene with Tommy’s mother was almost completely improvised, including Tommy asking his mother if he could borrow her butcher’s knife and Jimmy’s “hoof” comment.

  • Ray Liotta turned down the part of Harvey Dent in Batman (1989) in order to make this movie.

  • The long tracking shot through the Copacabana nightclub came about because the filmmakers couldn’t get permission to go in the short way, forcing them to go around the back. Martin Scorsese decided to film the sequence in one unbroken shot in order to symbolize that Henry’s entire life was ahead of him. “It’s his seduction of her (Karen), and it’s also the lifestyle seducing him”. This sequence was shot eight times.

  • “Fuck” and its derivatives are used 321 times, an average of 2.04 per minute. Joe Pesci says about half of them. The script called for the word to be used 70 times, but much of the dialogue was improvised during shooting, and the expletives piled up. At the time of the films’ release, it had the most profanity of any movie in history. As of 2020, it’s #15; The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), also directed by Martin Scorsese, is #3. After Joe Pesci’s mother saw the film, she told him the movie was good, then asked him if he had to curse so much.

  • Jimmy Burke, on whom Jimmy Conway was based, would’ve been eligible for parole in 2004. He died of lung cancer in 1996, while still in prison.

  • Although Martin Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi collaborated on the screenplay (and received Oscar nominations for doing so), much of the film’s eventual dialogue was improvised by the cast.

  • Ray Liotta had said on a documentary special that his first person narration for the film was often done by him actually saying his narration to another person in a room. That way it felt more authentic, and made it easier for him to tell a story.

  • Henry states that he and Jimmy could never be “made”, because they weren’t of full Italian descent. That rule was changed in 2000 by the Commission (the five New York City families). A man can now be “made” if his father is of Italian descent, and his last name is Italian. That would still exclude Henry and Jimmy; Henry’s father in the film was Irish, and Jimmy’s surname is not Italian.

  • Henry Hill was paid roughly $550,000 for the film. Hill considered it chump change compared to the $15,000 to $40,000 a week he made during his gangster days. He claims he blew almost all of his mob money on partying and a “degenerate” gambling problem.

  • The film has 43 songs, the equivalent of about four albums. According to music editor Christopher Brooks, Martin Scorsese had thought about all the songs and where they would appear “three years before he shot the film.”

  • The long tracking shot in the Copa took seven takes. One take was ruined because Henny Youngman forgot his lines. According to Illeana Douglas, Scorsese was inspired by the long Steadicam shot in The Untouchables (1987).

  • Ray Liotta was intimidated by Robert De Niro. He really wanted De Niro to like him. De Niro put Liotta at ease, saying, “Don’t worry about it. This is all going to work out.”

  • Joe Pesci’s Oscar acceptance speech is the sixth shortest in the Academy’s history, “it’s my privilege, thank you.” Pesci later admitted that he didn’t say very much, because he genuinely felt that he didn’t have a chance of winning. Patty Duke said “Thank you” in 1963 when she won Best Actress in a Supporting Role for The Miracle Worker (1962). Louie Psihoyos said “Thank you” in 2010 when he won Best Documentary for The Cove (2009). Gloria Grahame and Alfred Newman both said “Thank you very much.” in 1953. William Holden said “Thank you. Thank you.” in 1954. Alfred Hitchcock said “Thank you. Very much indeed.” when he won an Honorary Oscar in 1968.

  • The film takes place from 1955 to 1980.

  • The film’s name was changed from “Wiseguy” to avoid confusion with both the television series Wiseguy (1987) and Brian De Palma’s similarly titled film. Charles Scorsese, Catherine Scorsese, and Frank Vincent appear in Wise Guys (1986) and this movie.

  • Henry Hill’s testimony against some of the most powerful Lucchese crime family associates led to over 50 convictions. As Hill learned at the very beginning of his career, Mafia rule number one is “never rat on your friends, and always keep your mouth shut.” In 2010, he told The Telegraph “It’s surreal, totally surreal, to be here. I never thought I’d reach this wonderful age.” He theorized that he hadn’t been murdered because “there’s nobody from my era alive.” Following his death in 2012, The Guardian hypothesized that fame or bureaucratic disorganization in the criminal underworld might have been the reason.

  • The Lufthansa heist remained an unsolved mystery until 2014. Most of the members of the crew that were still alive were elderly or arrested.

  • When Henry Hill closes the door to his house at the end, the sound resembles the sound of a prison cell being closed. Implying normal life is his prison now.

  • Martin Scorsese said John Wayne’s final confrontation in Red River (1948) influenced the pistol-whipping scene.

  • As Goodfellas makes clear, many of the mobsters involved with the $6 million 1978 Lufthansa heist-at the time the largest cash robbery in American history-were taken out by a paranoid and greedy Jimmy Burke, while more still were put in jail by Hill’s testimony on unrelated charges. But as of 2014, the Lufthansa heist case was still an active case, as evidenced by the 2014 arrest of Vincent Asaro (who was 78 years old at the time) on cooperating witness testimony. Authorities claim that Asaro served as lookout and helped the getaway. And in a tie to the movie, Asaro is believed to have taken Spider to get stitched up after he was shot.

  • This was the first Martin Scorsese film for which Saul Bass designed the titles.

  • Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Frank Vincent and Tony Sirico (who played Tony Stacks) would reunite seven years later in another crime thriller, 1997’s Cop Land. Sirico, who would play a mobster named Toy Torillo, was not an active character in the film, but was seen in newspaper clippings and surveillance photos.

  • After the premiere, Henry Hill went around and revealed his true identity. In response, the government kicked him out of the Federal Witness Protection Program.

  • While filming the scene in which his character is killed by Joe Pesci, Michael Imperioli broke a glass in his hand and had to be rushed to the emergency room. When doctors saw what appeared to be a gunshot wound in his chest, they tried to treat it. When Imperioli told them what was really up, he was made to wait for three hours. Martin Scorsese told Imperioli that some day he’d be telling that story on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (1992).

  • When Henry and Karen Hill are negotiating to enter the Witness Protection Program, former U.S. Attorney Edward McDonald played himself, reenacting what he did in reality.

  • The scene in which Tommy kills Spider was mostly improvised. The only line that was said as scripted was Spider’s “Why don’t you go fuck yourself, Tommy”.

  • When Paulie confronts Henry after Hill’s released from prison, Paul Sorvino improvised the slap to Ray Liotta’s face, hence Liotta’s reaction.

  • As he enters the Witness Protection program, Henry requests not to be sent to a cold place. In the final scene, Henry picks up the Youngstown Vindicator, the local newspaper for Youngstown, Ohio, which gets very cold in the winter.

  • In the book “Wiseguy”, Henry Hill cites a few reasons why Tommy was killed. The main reason, of course, was because he killed Billy Batts and a guy named Foxy. Another chilling reason is probably because he once stated that mob chief Paulie “didn’t like having Tommy around”.

  • Late in his life, Henry Hill launched GoodfellaHenry.com, a website devoted to the film and life in the mob. Many of the people visiting the site derided Hill as a snitch. Hill died in 2012. As of fall 2021, the site is still up selling memorabilia from the film.

  • The house where Tommy was killed is located at 80th Street and Shore Road, in the Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn, New York. The interior was re-created on a soundstage after the scenes shot on-location were deemed unacceptable.

  • CAMEO: Martin Scorsese’s father appeared in the film. He is one of the two men who take Tommy DeVito to be killed. He is not the one who pulled the trigger. He earlier appeared in prison, where he made spaghetti sauce. The character played by Martin Scorsese’s mother is often seen making spaghetti sauce outside of prison. Off-camera, they pressed the collars on all of the suits.

  • Henry Hill explained to a fan on the Howard Stern Show in March 2003 that neither he nor Jimmy Burke (his last name was changed to Conway in the film) were executed along with Tommy Desimone (Tommy DeVito) for the murder of Billy Batts because both Hill and Burke were huge money makers for the mob.

  • After Henry is arrested for the first time, Jimmy tells him that he just learned the two most important things in life: “never rat on your friends, and always keep your mouth shut.” By the end of the film, Henry will have violated both of these principles.

About The Movie From IMDB

Goodfellas | September 21, 1990 (United States) 8.7
Director: Martin ScorseseWriter: Nicholas Pileggi, Martin ScorseseStars: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe PesciSummary:

Photos


See all photos >>

Videos


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Cast

Robert De Niro
...
James Conway
Ray Liotta
...
Henry Hill
Joe Pesci
...
Tommy DeVito
Lorraine Bracco
...
Karen Hill
Paul Sorvino
...
Paul Cicero
Frank Sivero
...
Frankie Carbone
Tony Darrow
...
Sonny Bunz
Mike Starr
...
Frenchy
Frank Vincent
...
Billy Batts
Chuck Low
...
Morris Kessler
Frank DiLeo
...
Tuddy Cicero
Henny Youngman
...
Henny Youngman
Gina Mastrogiacomo
...
Janice Rossi
Catherine Scorsese
...
Tommy's Mother
Charles Scorsese
...
Vinnie
Suzanne Shepherd
...
Karen's Mother
Debi Mazar
...
Sandy
Margo Winkler
...
Belle Kessler

See full cast >>
Countries: United StatesLanguages: English, ItalianBudget: $25,000,000 (estimated)
Source: imdb.com
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8.7
Goodfellas | September 21, 1990 (United States)
Director: Martin ScorseseWriter: Nicholas Pileggi, Martin ScorseseStars: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci
Summary:
Countries: United StatesLanguages: English, Italian
Source: imdb.comDisclaimer: This plugin has been coded to automatically quote data from imdb.com. Not available for any other purpose. All showing data have a link to imdb.com. The user is responsible for any other use or change codes.

Quotes

Henry Hill: You're a pistol, you're really funny. You're really funny.

Tommy DeVito: What do you mean I'm funny?

Henry Hill: It's funny, you know. It's a good story, it's funny, you're a funny guy.

[laughs]

Tommy DeVito: What do you mean, you mean the way I talk? What?

Henry Hill: It's just, you know. You're just funny, it's... funny, you know the way you tell the story and everything.

Tommy DeVito: [it becomes quiet] Funny how? What's funny about it?

Anthony Stabile: Tommy no, you got it all wrong.

Tommy DeVito: Oh, oh, Anthony. He's a big boy, he knows what he said. What did ya say? Funny how?

Henry Hill: Jus...

Tommy DeVito: What?

Henry Hill: Just... ya know... you're funny.

Tommy DeVito: You mean, let me understand this cause, ya know maybe it's me, I'm a little fucked up maybe, but I'm funny how, I mean funny like I'm a clown, I amuse you? I make you laugh, I'm here to fuckin' amuse you? What do you mean funny, funny how? How am I funny?

Henry Hill: Just... you know, how you tell the story, what?

Tommy DeVito: No, no, I don't know, you said it. How do I know? You said I'm funny. How the fuck am I funny, what the fuck is so funny about me? Tell me, tell me what's funny!

Henry Hill: [long pause] Get the fuck out of here, Tommy!

Tommy DeVito: [everyone laughs] Ya motherfucker! I almost had him, I almost had him. Ya stuttering prick ya. Frankie, was he shaking? I wonder about you sometimes, Henry. You may fold under questioning.

Henry Hill: [narrating] As far back as I can remember I always wanted to be a gangster.

Henry Hill: [narrating] You know, we always called each other good fellas. Like you said to, uh, somebody, "You're gonna like this guy. He's all right. He's a good fella. He's one of us." You understand? We were good fellas. Wiseguys. But Jimmy and I could never be made because we had Irish blood. It didn't even matter that my mother was Sicilian. To become a member of a crew you've got to be one hundred per cent Italian so they can trace all your relatives back to the old country. See, it's the highest honor they can give you. It means you belong to a family and crew. It means that nobody can fuck around with you. It also means you could fuck around with anybody just as long as they aren't also a member. It's like a license to steal. It's a license to do anything. As far as Jimmy was concerned with Tommy being made, it was like we were all being made. We would now have one of our own as a member.

Henry Hill: [narrating] Paulie may have moved slow, but it was only because Paulie didn't have to move for anybody.

Tommy DeVito: No more shines, Billy.

Billy Batts: What?

Tommy DeVito: I said, no more shines. Maybe you didn't hear about it, you've been away a long time. They didn't go up there and tell you. I don't shine shoes anymore.

Billy Batts: Relax, will ya? Ya flip right out, what's got into you? I'm breaking your balls a little bit, that's all. I'm only kidding with ya...

Tommy DeVito: Sometimes you don't sound like you're kidding, you know, there's a lotta people around...

Billy Batts: I'm only kidding with you, we're having a party, I just came home and I haven't seen you in a long time and I'm breaking your balls, and you're getting fucking fresh. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you.

Tommy DeVito: I'm sorry too. It's okay. No problem.

Billy Batts: Okay, salud.

Billy Batts: [takes a drink] Now go home and get your fuckin' shinebox.

Tommy DeVito: Mother fuckin' mutt! You, you fucking piece of shit!

Billy Batts: [taunting] Yeah, yeah, yeah, come on, come on, come on!

Tommy DeVito: Motherfucking... He bought his fucking button! That fake old tough guy! You bought your fucking button! You mother fuck... Fuck! Keep that motherfucker here, keep him here!

[leaves]

[last lines]

Henry Hill: [narrating] Anything I wanted was a phone call away. Free cars. The keys to a dozen hideout flats all over the city. I bet twenty, thirty grand over a weekend and then I'd either blow the winnings in a week or go to the sharks to pay back the bookies.

[Henry leaves the witness stand and speaks directly to the camera]

Henry Hill: Didn't matter. It didn't mean anything. When I was broke, I'd go out and rob some more. We ran everything. We paid off cops. We paid off lawyers. We paid off judges. Everybody had their hands out. Everything was for the taking. And now it's all over.

[narrating]

Henry Hill: And that's the hardest part. Today everything is different; there's no action... have to wait around like everyone else. Can't even get decent food - right after I got here, I ordered some spaghetti with marinara sauce, and I got egg noodles and ketchup. I'm an average nobody... get to live the rest of my life like a schnook.

Stacks Edwards: What time is it?

Tommy DeVito: It's eleven thirty, we're supposed to be there by nine.

Stacks Edwards: Be ready in a minute.

Tommy DeVito: Yeah, you were always fuckin' late, you were late for your own fuckin' funeral.

[shoots him]

Henry Hill: [narrating] Now the guy's got Paulie as a partner. Any problems, he goes to Paulie. Trouble with the bill? He can go to Paulie. Trouble with the cops, deliveries, Tommy, he can call Paulie. But now the guy's gotta come up with Paulie's money every week, no matter what. Business bad? Fuck you, pay me. Oh, you had a fire? Fuck you, pay me. Place got hit by lightning, huh? Fuck you, pay me.

Henry Hill: [narrating] Jimmy was the kind of guy that rooted for bad guys in the movies.

Henry Hill: [narrating, Henry has just been busted for dealing drugs] For a second I thought I was dead. But, when I heard all the noise, I knew they were cops. Only cops talk that way. If they'd been wiseguys, I wouldn't have heard a thing. I would've been dead.

Jimmy Conway: [after Tommy shoots Spider] What's the fuckin' matter with you? What - what is the fuckin' matter with you? What are you, stupid or what? Tommy, Tommy, I'm kidding with you. What the fuck are you doin'? What are you, a fuckin' sick maniac?

Tommy DeVito: How am I meant to know you're kidding? What you mean, you're kidding? You breaking my fuckin' balls?

Jimmy Conway: I'm fuckin' kidding with you! You fuckin' shoot the guy?

Henry Hill: He's dead.

Tommy DeVito: Good shot. What do you want from me? Good shot.

Anthony Stabile: How could you miss at this distance?

Tommy DeVito: What? You got a problem with what I did Anthony?

Anthony Stabile: No

Tommy DeVito: Fuckin' rat anyway. His family's all rats. He'll grow up to be a rat.

Jimmy Conway: You stupid bastard, I can't fuckin' believe you. Now, you're gonna dig the fuckin' thing now. You're gonna dig the hole. You're gonna do it. I got no fuckin' lime. You're gonna do it.

Tommy DeVito: Who the fuck cares? I'll dig the fuckin' hole. I don't give a fuck. What is it, the first hole I dug? Not the first time I dug a hole. I'll fuckin' dig a hole. Where are the shovels?

Henry Hill: [narrating] And then there was Jimmy Two Times, who got that nickname because he said everything twice, like:

Jimmy Two Times: I'm gonna go get the papers, get the papers.

Henry Hill: [narrating] If you're part of a crew, nobody ever tells you that they're going to kill you, doesn't happen that way. There weren't any arguments or curses like in the movies. See, your murderers come with smiles, they come as your friends, the people who've cared for you all of your life. And they always seem to come at a time that you're at your weakest and most in need of their help.

Henry Hill: I swear to my fucking mother, if you touch her again, YOU'RE DEAD.

Karen: [narrating] I know there are women, like my best friends, who would have gotten out of there the minute their boyfriend gave them a gun to hide. But I didn't. I got to admit the truth. It turned me on.

Jimmy Conway: I'm not mad, I'm proud of you. You took your first pinch like a man and you learn two great things in your life. Look at me, never rat on your friends and always keep your mouth shut.

Spider: [hesitating] Why don't you go fuck yourself, Tommy?

Jimmy Conway: [stunned silence] Whoa! Can't believe what I just heard. Hey Spider, here. This is for you.

[tosses money on the table]

Jimmy Conway: Attaboy! I got respect for this kid. He's got a lot of fucking balls. Good for you! Don't take no shit off nobody.

Henry Hill: [narrating] For us to live any other way was nuts. Uh, to us, those goody-good people who worked shitty jobs for bum paychecks and took the subway to work every day, and worried about their bills, were dead. I mean, they were suckers. They had no balls. If we wanted something, we just took it. If anyone complained twice they got hit so bad, believe me, they never complained again.

Henry Hill: [narrating] One day some of the kids from the neighborhood carried my mother's groceries all the way home. You know why? It was outta respect.

Karen: What do you do?

Henry Hill: I'm in construction.

Karen: [She feels the softness of his hands] They don't feel like you're in construction.

Henry Hill: Ah, I'm a union delegate.

Jimmy Conway: [after kicking Batts to near death] Look what this fucking mutt did to my shoes.

Tommy DeVito: Sure, mom, I settle down with a nice girl every night, then I'm free the next morning.

Tommy DeVito: We hit the deer and his paw... What do you call it? The paw.

Jimmy Conway: [Speaking through a mouth full of pasta] The hoof.

Tommy DeVito: It got caught in the grill. I got to hack it off.

Henry Hill: [narrating] I felt he used too many onions, but it was still a very good sauce.

Paul Cicero: Vinnie, don't put too many onions in the sauce.

Vinnie: I didn't put too much onions, uh, Paul. Three small onions. That's all I did.

Johnny Dio: Three onions? How many cans of tomatoes you put in there?

Vinnie: I put two cans, two big cans.

Johnny Dio: You don't need three onions.

Henry Hill: [narrating] Killing's got to be accepted. Murder was the only way that everybody stayed in line. You got out of line, you got whacked. Everybody knew the rules.

Tommy DeVito: [sitting in car with Henry] The only thing, is she won't go out with me alone, you know?

Henry Hill: No.

Tommy DeVito: No, what?

Henry Hill: No.

Tommy DeVito: No, what, Henry? Who the fuck asked you anything? I didn't even ask you anything, at least hear what I have to say.

Henry Hill: Alright, what?

Tommy DeVito: Okay, what? She don't want to go out with Italians alone. She's prejudiced against Italians. Do you believe that? In this day and age? What the fuck is the world coming to? I can't believe this, prejudiced against Ital - a Jew broad - prejudiced against Italians. Anyway, she won't go out with me alone unless her girlfriend comes with her, so I figured you could come along and go out with her girlfriend.

Henry Hill: See? I knew it - I knew it. I knew it. I knew it.

Tommy DeVito: You knew what, Henry? See? What? What the fuck is wrong with that?

Henry Hill: When is this?

Tommy DeVito: Tomorrow night.

Henry Hill: I can't tomorrow night, I gotta meet Tuddy.

Tommy DeVito: You could meet Tuddy. You could fucking come early and then still go.

Henry Hill: Tommy, Tommy. Why do you always do this to me?

Tommy DeVito: Don't give me that fucking "Tommy" shit. What the fuck I asked you for, Henry? I asked you for a favor. I do a lot of fucking favors for you, don't I? I'm trying to bang this fucking broad, you wanna help me out!

[view switches to outside of car with view of restaurant, smoke billows from restaurant windows]

Tommy DeVito: It's like... uh... ah...

Henry Hill: What?

Tommy DeVito: I don't understand you! She's fucking beautiful. Her fucking family, they live in the Five Towns there. You know these Jew broads got a lot of money. Maybe the family owns the whole fucking block. and you happen to end up with a big fucking score, motherfucker.

Henry Hill: [turning to look at the restaurant] Oh fuck!

Tommy DeVito: What?

Henry Hill: See? With your fucking mouth!

[car speeds away]

Henry Hill: [narrating] All they got from Paulie was protection from other guys looking to rip them off. That's what it's all about. That's what the FBI can never understand - that what Paulie and the organization offer is protection for the kinds of guys who can't go to the cops. They're like the police department for wiseguys.

Henry Hill: [narrating] It was revenge for Billy Batts, and a lot of other things. And there was nothing that we could do about it. Batts was a made man, and Tommy wasn't. And we had to sit still and take it. It was among the Italians. It was real greaseball shit. They even shot Tommy in the face so his mother couldn't give him an open coffin at the funeral.

Henry Hill: [narrating] Whenever we needed money, we'd rob the airport. To us, it was better than Citibank.

Tommy DeVito: [Tommy mocks at Spider] Oklahoma Kid. That's me. I'm the Oklahoma Kid. You fuckin' varmint! Dance. Dance. YAHOO, YA MOTHERFUCKER!

[shoots Spider in the foot]

Henry Hill: [narrating; Paul is slicing the garlic with a razor] In prison, dinner was always a big thing. We had a pasta course and then we had a meat or fish. Paulie did the prep work. He was doing a year for contempt, and he had this wonderful system for doing the garlic. He used a razor, and he used to slice it so thin that he used to liquefy in the pan with just a little oil. It was a very good system.

Pete the Killer: [points] By the way, I took care of that thing for ya.

Henry Hill: [narrating] Jimmy had never asked me to do a hit before, and now he's asking me to go down to Florida with Anthony to make a hit.

[Jimmy gives him a pack of matches with a number]

Henry Hill: [narrating] That's when I knew I would never have come back from Florida alive.

Henry Hill: [narrating] When they found Carbone in the meat truck, he was frozen so stiff it took them three days to thaw him out for the autopsy.

Tommy DeVito: You know Spider, you're a fuckin' mumbling stuttering little fuck. You know that?

Tommy DeVito: Hey, Spider, that fuckin' bandage on your foot is bigger than your fuckin' head.

Paul Cicero: I don't want any more of that shit.

Henry Hill: What shit? What are you talking about?

Paul Cicero: Just stay away from the garbage, you know what I mean.

Henry Hill: Look, Paulie...

Paul Cicero: I'm not talking about what you did inside, you did what you had to do, I'm talking about now, from now, here and now.

Henry Hill: Paulie, why would I want to get into that...

Paul Cicero: Don't make a jerk out of me, just don't do it... just don't do it. Now I want to talk to you about Jimmy, you have to watch out for him. He's a good earner but he's wild, takes too many chances.

Henry Hill: Yeah, I know that, I know Jimmy, you think I would take chances like Jimmy?

Paul Cicero: And Tommy, he's a good kid too. But he's crazy, he's a cowboy, he's got too much to prove. You gotta watch out for kids like this.

Henry Hill: Yeah, I know what they are, I only use them for certain things, believe me, you don't have to worry.

Paul Cicero: Listen, I ain't gonna get fucked like Gribbs, understand? Gribbs is 70 years old, and the fuckin' guy's gonna die in prison. I don't need that. So I'm warning everybody, EVERYBODY. It could be my son, it could be anybody. Gribbs got 20 years just for saying "hello" to some fuck who was sneaking behind his back selling junk. I don't need that. Ain't gonna happen to me, you understand?

Henry Hill: Uh huh.

Paul Cicero: You know that you're only out early because I got you a job. I don't need this heat, understand that.

Henry Hill: Uh huh.

Paul Cicero: And you see anybody fucking around with this shit, you're going to tell me, right?

Henry Hill: Yeah.

Paul Cicero: [slaps him] That means anybody!

Henry Hill: All right.

Paul Cicero: Yeah?

Henry Hill: Yeah, of course.

Billy Batts: Hey Jimmy! What's right is right. You understand what I'm talking about?

Jimmy Conway: It's all right. It's all right.

Billy Batts: No. The kid's over here. We're hugging and kissing over here. And two minutes later, he's acting like a fucking jerk.

Jimmy Conway: No, no, no, no, no. You insulted him a little bit. You got a little bit out of order yourself.

Billy Batts: No I didn't insult him. I didn't insult him.

Jimmy Conway: I'm sorry. You insulted him a little bit.

Billy Batts: No, I didn't insult nobody. Give us a drink. Give us a drink.

Jimmy Conway: Yeah.

Vinnie: Yeah.

Jimmy Conway: Who's this?

Vinnie: This is Vinnie.

Jimmy Conway: Vinnie, what happened?

Vinnie: Well we-...

Jimmy Conway: You get it straightened out?

Vinnie: No, we had a problem... and uh, we tried to do everything we could.

Jimmy Conway: What d'you mean?

Vinnie: Well, you know what I mean. He's gone, and we couldn't do nothing about it.

[pause]

Vinnie: That's it.

Jimmy Conway: What d'you mean? What d'you mean? Uh...

Vinnie: He's gone. Uh, he's gone.

[pause]

Vinnie: And that's it.

Jimmy Conway: [smashing telephone] Fuck. Can't fuckin' believe that, can't fuckin'...

Jimmy Conway: [crying] Fuck it, fuck... the fuck...

[Henry exits diner]

Henry Hill: What happened?

Jimmy Conway: They whacked him. They fuckin' whacked him.

Henry Hill: Aw, fuck.

[Jimmy kicks phone booth]

Jimmy Conway: Motherfucker!

[pushes over phone booth]

Jimmy Conway: [cries]

Henry Hill: [narrating] And when the cops, when they assigned a whole army to stop Jimmy, what'd he do? He made 'em partners.

Janice Rossi: [Karen buzzing over and over on her husband's girlfriend's intercom] Hello. Hello?

Karen: Hello? This is Karen Hill, I want to talk to you.

[pressing the 2R button, she hangs up]

Karen: Hello? Don't hang up on me! I want to talk to you! You keep away from my husband, you hear me? Hello? Open the door!

[keeps hitting the buttons]

Karen: ANSWER ME!

[she keeps pressing the 2R button]

Karen: I'm going to tell everybody who walks in this building that in 2R, Rossi, you're nothing but a whore!

[gets on phone]

Karen: Is this the superintendent?... Yes, I want you to know, sir! That you have a whore living in 2R!

Janice Rossi: Shit.

Karen: [hits the 2R button] Rossi! Janice Rossi, do you hear me? He's MY husband! Get your own goddamn man!

Tommy DeVito: Just don't go busting my balls, Billy, okay?

Billy Batts: Hey, Tommy, if I was gonna break your balls, I'd tell you to go home and get your shine box.

[to his friends]

Billy Batts: Now this kid, this kid was great. They, they used to call him Spitshine Tommy.

Tommy DeVito: He said, "No, you're gonna tell me something today, tough guy." I said, "All right, I'll tell you something: go fuck your mother."

Jimmy Conway: [Frenchy is describing a large shipment of cash at Idlewild Airport to Jimmy and Henry] What about the security?

Frenchy: Security? You're looking at it.

Tommy DeVito: All right, so he got shot in the foot, what is it, a big fuckin' deal?

Karen: [narrating] After awhile, it got to be all normal. None of it seemed like crime. It was more like Henry was enterprising, and that he and the guys were making a few bucks hustling, while all the other guys were sitting on their asses, waiting for handouts. Our husbands weren't brain surgeons, they were blue-collar guys. The only way they could make extra money, real extra money, was to go out and cut a few corners.

[Cuts to Henry and Tommy hijacking a truck]

Billy Batts: Give us a drink. And give some to those Irish hoodlums down there.

Jimmy Conway: There's only one Irishman in here.

Billy Batts: On the house. Salud.

Jimmy Conway: Top of the mornin'.

Johnny Dio: How do you like your steak?

Paul Cicero: Medium rare.

Johnny Dio: Huh. An aristocrat.

Henry Hill: Now take me to jail.

Henry Hill: [after Karen points gun at him while he's sleeping] I got enough to worry about getting whacked on the street! I gotta come home for this? I should fucking kill you!

Karen: [narrating] One night, Bobby Vinton sent us champagne. There was nothing like it. I didn't think there was anything strange in any of this. You know, a twenty-one-year-old kid with such connections. He was an exciting guy. He was really nice. He introduced me to everybody. Everybody wanted to be nice to him. And he knew how to handle it.

Tommy DeVito: What the fuck you looking at? Come on. Make that coffee to go. Let's go.

[Frankie mumbles something and goes to the door with the coffee pot in his hand]

Tommy DeVito: What the fuck are you doing? It's a joke! A joke! Put the fucking pot down!

Tommy DeVito: What am I, a mirage?

Karen: [narrating] It was like he had two families. The first time I was introduced to all of them at once, it was crazy. Paulie and his brothers had lots of sons and nephews. And almost all of them were named Peter or Paul. It was unbelievable. There must have been two dozen Peters and Pauls at the wedding. Plus, they were all married to girls named Marie. And they named all their daughters Marie. By the time I finished meeting everybody, I thought I was drunk.

Morrie: Henry, you're a good kid, I've been good to you, you've been good to me. But there's something really unreasonable going on here. Jimmy's being an unconsionable ball-breaker. I never agreed to 3 points on top of the vig! Am I something special? Some sort of schmuck on wheels?

Henry Hill: Morrie, please! You borrowed Jimmy's money, pay him.

Morrie: I never agreed to 3 points on top of the vig! What am I, fuckin nuts? Come on!

Henry Hill: Are you gonna argue with Jimmy Conway? Just give him his money so we can get the fuck outta here!

Morrie: Hey! Fuck 'em! Fuck 'em in the ear! What are you talking about? Fuck 'em in the other ear, that son of a bitch! Did I ever bust his balls? Did I? Did I? I could've jumped the dime a million times, and I wouldn't have to pay tip!

Henry Hill: Come on, Morrie, you're talking crazy, stop it!

Jimmy Conway: [Grabs telephone cord and chokes Morrie with it, then his wig falls off and Henry starts laughing] You got money for that fuckin' commercial. Fuckin' commercial, you don't got my money, you don't got my fuckin' money, huh?

Henry Hill: Jimmy, he'll pay, he'll pay.

Jimmy Conway: I'll fuckin' kill you, get the money, you fuckin' cocksucker, you hear me?

[Phone rings]

Jimmy Conway: Pay me my money.

Morrie: Hello? Who's this? He's here.

[Gives phone to Henry]

Morrie: Jimmy, I'm sorry.

Jimmy Conway: Yeah? You should be sorry. Don't fuckin' do it again and give me the money. Give me the fuckin' money, You hear me? You hear me, I gotta come here and you bust my balls? Give me the fuckin' money.

Morrie: OK, OK, OK. I'll pay you, kid.

Sonny Bunz: But I'm worried, I mean, I'm hearin' all kinds a fuckin' bad things. I mean he's treating me like I'm a fuckin' half-a-fag or somethin'. I'm gonna wind up a lammist, I gotta go on the fuckin' lam in order to get away from this guy? This ain't right, Paulie.

Karen: [after Henry has stood her up on what was to be their second date] You got some nerve standing me up like that last night! Nobody does that to me! Who the Hell do you think you are? Frankie Valli or some kinda bigshot?

Henry Hill: [narrating] So what does she do after she hangs up with me? After everything I told her? After all her "yeah, yeah, yeah" bullshit? She picks up the phone and calls from the house. Now, if anybody was listening, they'd know everything - they knew a package was leaving from my house - they'd even have the time and flight number, thanks to her.

Jimmy Conway: [referring to Henry and Karen] She'll never divorce him. She'll kill him but she won't divorce him.

Henry Hill: [voiceover] I could see for the first time that Jimmy was a nervous wreck. His mind was going in eight different directions at once.

Jimmy Conway: Think Morrie tells his wife everything?

Henry Hill: Morrie? Him?

Henry Hill: [voiceover] That's when I knew that Jimmy was gonna whack Morrie. That's how it happens. That's how fast it takes for a guy to get whacked.

Henry Hill: [With the suitcase open on the desk, Henry counts out stacks of cash] Thirty-five, forty, forty-five, fifty, sixty thousand.

Jimmy Conway: It's gonna be a good summer.

Henry Hill: [narrating] Thirty-two hundred dollars he gave me. Thirty-two hundred dollars for a lifetime. It wasn't even enough to pay for the coffin.

Tommy DeVito: What the fuck are you doing? You're hanging around my fuckin' neck like a vulture, like impending danger.

Morrie: [on Morrie's wig commercial] Don't buy wigs that come off at the wrong time.

Tommy DeVito: [about Morrie's corpse] Hey Frank, let's chop him up.

Frankie Carbone: All right.

[starts to get out of the car]

Tommy DeVito: Where you going? Where you going, you dizzy motherfucker, you?

Frankie Carbone: To chop him up.

Tommy DeVito: At Charlie's, not here!

[Carbone mumbles to himself in Italian]

Tommy DeVito: Come on, what are you doing? Let's get the fuck outta here. I oughta let him

[motions to Morrie]

Tommy DeVito: fucking drive. What are you waiting for?

Frankie Carbone: The car's cold.

Tommy DeVito: Get the fuck outta here! What fucking warm enough? Get outta here!

Billy Batts: [under his breath after Tommy leaves the bar] I'll fuck him in his ass. I fucked kids like him in the can in the ass. Fuckin' trying to break up my party.

Henry Hill: [narrating] By the time I grew up, there was thirty billion a year in cargo moving through Idlewild Airport and believe me, we tried to steal every bit of it.

Tommy DeVito: [Infuriated at Spider and speaking to the other card players] Hey, what's that movie that Bogart made?

Anthony Stabile: Which one?

Tommy DeVito: The one where he played a cowboy. He only did one.

Anthony Stabile: Oh... ah... The Oklahoma Kid.

Jimmy Conway: Shane?

Tommy DeVito: Oklahoma Kid!

Tommy DeVito: [to Jimmy] Shane...

[They all laugh]

Tommy DeVito: [Henry, Jimmy and Tommy are digging up Billy Batts' decomposed corpse. Henry is coughing from the stench, while the others don't appear to be bothered] Hey, Henry, Henry, hurry up, will ya? My mother's gonna make some fried peppers and sausage for us.

[Jimmy and Tommy laugh while Henry coughs]

Jimmy Conway: Oh, hey, Henry, Henry! Here's an arm!

Henry Hill: Very funny, guys.

Jimmy Conway: Here's a leg!

Tommy DeVito: Here's a wing!

[laughs]

Tommy DeVito: Hey, what do you like, the leg or the wing, Henry? Or ya still go for the old hearts and lungs?

Henry Hill: [Vomiting] Oh, that's so bad!

Paul Cicero: Tommy's a bad seed. What am I supposed to do? Shoot him?

Sonny Bunz: That wouldn't be a bad idea.

Jimmy Conway: Watch this.

Henry Hill: Ah, don't fuck with them.

Jimmy Conway: I do it all the time. Bust their fucking balls.

Henry Hill: Don't give 'em the satisfaction, the fucks.

Jimmy Conway: [taps on car window of two cops following him, who had fallen asleep] Come on, fuckos, let's go for a ride.

[he and Henry laugh]

Jimmy Conway: Keep 'em up all night.

Tuddy Cicero: [as Paulie is being arrested] Why don't you boys go down to Wall Street and find some real crooks? Whoever sold you those suits had a wonderful sense of humor.

[first lines]

Henry Hill: The fuck is that?

Tommy DeVito: "What do you want to tell me now, tough guy?" I said, "Bing, what are you doing here? I thought I told you to go fuck your mother!"

[group laughs]

Tommy DeVito: I thought he was gonna shit!

Police Detective: [to Henry] Talk to me, when was the last time you took a collar? Hey fuckhead, I'm talking to you. You don't wanna say a fucking word to me, you don't have to. I don't really give a fuck. Twenty five years, pal, that's what you're looking at. Hey, your pals are here. You don't want to talk to me, you're gonna have a fucking problem all night 'cause I'll be on you like shit. New York State. Twenty five fucking years, pal.

[the detectives bring in the utensils Henry used to make coke]

Police Detective: What, were you guys grocery shopping? What, are we going to make a cake? Gonna make a fucking cake? Got anything good in there or what?

[a detective tastes the residue in a pan]

Police Detective: Is it good?

[detective nods; to Henry]

Police Detective: Ha ha ha ha. Bye bye, dickhead. Ha ha ha. See you in Attica, dick.

Karen: [narrating, referring to the other wives] They all had bad skin and wore too much make up. They didn't look very good; they look beat up. The stuff they wore were thrown together and cheap, a lot of pantsuits and double knits. They talked about beating their kids with broom handles and leather belts, and that their kids still didn't pay any attention. When Henry picked me up, I was dizzy.

Morrie: [Talking about point shaving] Oh, it was terrific, yeah. Nunzio, up in... agh!

[Tommy severs Morrie's brain stem from behind with an ice pick]

Tommy DeVito: Thought he'd never shut the fuck up.

Jimmy Conway: Ah, pain in the ass.

Jimmy Conway: [Johnny bought an expensive pink Cadillac coupe for his wife after the Lufthansa Heist] Johnny, are you nuts? We got a million fucking bulls out there. Everybody's watching us and you get a fuckin' car!

Johnny Roastbeef: It's under my mother's name. It's wedding gift.

Jimmy Conway: I don't give a fuck whose name it's on! Are you stupid or what? Did you hear what I said? Don't buy anything, don't get anything! Nothing big. Didn't you hear what I said? What's the matter with you?

Johnny Roastbeef: What am I getting excited for, Jimmy?

Jimmy Conway: Why am I getting all excited about it? Because you're gonna get us all fucking pinched, that's why! What are you, stupid? What's the matter with you? What's the matter with you?

Johnny Roastbeef: I'm sorry, Jimmy.

Jimmy Conway: What the fuck is the matter with you?

Johnny Roastbeef: It's under my mother's name.

Jimmy Conway: [exasperated while interrupting] What did you say? You being a wiseguy with me? What did I tell you? What did I tell you? You don't buy anything, you hear me? Don't buy ANYTHING!

Johnny Roastbeef: I'm sorry.

[to his wife]

Johnny Roastbeef: Let's go have a drink

Jimmy Conway: [to the other bar patrons] That fat fuck! He oughta wear a sign.

Henry Hill: It was easy for all of us to disappear. My house was in my mother-in-law's name. My cars were registered to my wife. My social security cards and driver's licenses were phonies. I never voted. I never paid taxes. My birth certificate and my arrest sheet... that's all you'd ever have to know I was alive.

Stacks Edwards: This drink is better than sex, baby.

Tommy DeVito: I didn't want to get blood on your floor.

Henry Hill: [Narrating] These are the guys Jimmy put together for what turned out to be the biggest heist in American history: the Lufthansa heist. Tommy and Carbone were going to grab the outside guard and make him get us in the front door, Frenchy and Joe Buddha had to round up the workers, Johnny Roastbeef had to keep them all tied up and away from the alarm, even Stacks Edwards got in on it, all he was supposed to do was steal the panel truck and afterwards compact it with a friend of ours in New Jersey. Only Morrie was driving us nuts - just because he set this up, he felt he could bust Jimmy's balls for an advance on the money we were going to steal. He didn't mean anything by it; it was just the way he was.

Young Henry: [after being whipped by father, for missing months of school to work at cab stand] The way I saw it, everybody takes a beating sometime.

Tommy's Mother: Has Tommy ever told you about my painting?

Karen: Please stop feeding the dog from the table... from the plate on top of it.

Frankie Carbone: I could never hit that number.

[unintelligible]

Tommy DeVito: Frankie, Frankie, Frankie. What the fuck does 528 have to do with 460? I can't believe this guy. Fuckin' 528 ain't even close to 460. Now what the fuck does that got to do with anything?

Frankie Carbone: Eh, I been playin' that numba for three years.

Tommy DeVito: What, do you got me on a fuckin' pay-no-mind list, kid?

Tommy DeVito: [Tommy holds up a gun at the truck driver he's hijacking] Where's the strong box, you fuckin' varmint, you?

Paul Cicero: You know anything about this fucking restaurant business?

Sonny Bunz: [Talking to Henry] He knows everything about it. I mean, he's in the joint 24 hours a day. I mean, another fucking few minutes, he could be a stool, that's how often he's in there.

Henry Hill: [narrating] I only bought the damn guns because he wanted them, and now he didn't want them.

Jimmy Conway: What the fuck are these? None of them fit. What's the matter with you? What, do you want me to pay for this shit? I'm not paying for it!

Henry Hill: [narrating] I didn't say a thing. He was so pissed off, he didn't even say goodbye.

Jimmy Conway: Stop with those fucking drugs. They're making your mind into mush. You hear me? Take 'em back!

Truck Driver: [Henry and Tommy just boosted a rig] Hey, you got a phone? Two niggers just stole my truck. You believe that shit, huh? You fuckin' believe that?

Jimmy Conway: [threatening Morrie] Today! Today!

Jimmy Conway: [repeated line to each member of his crew after the Lufthansa heist, telling them what not to do] you don't buy anything

Jimmy Conway: [repeated line to each member of his crew after the Lufthansa heist, warning them what will happen if they purchase extravagant items] don't attract attention

Frankie Carbone: [Morrie jokes at the table] Morrie, stop breaking my balls, all right?

Henry Hill: [Repeated line, narrating while attempting to convince the audience the criminal exploits he was apart of and occurred without exaggerating the events] believe me...

Johnny Dio: Medium rare. Hmmm... an aristocrat.

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