The script below recounts my favorite scene. Not Terry and Charlie in the back of the cab, but Terry and Johnny on the docks.
I have the habit of too much speaking my mind.
I will watch myself more in the future.
Terry walks compulsively down the ramp to the office.
TERRY
(shouts)
Hey, Friendly! Johnny Friendly, come out here!
Johnny comes out of his office followed by his goons.
JOHNNY
(shouts)
You want to know the trouble with you? You think it makes you a
big man if you can give the
answers.
TERRY
Listen, Johnny—
JOHNNY
Go on— beat it. Don't push your luck.
TERRY
You want to know somethin'—?
JOHNNY
I said beat it! At the right time I'll catchup with you. Be
thinkin' about it.
As he starts to turn back into his office, Terry advances,
steaming himself up.
TERRY
(louder)
You want to know something? Take the heater away and you're
nothin'— take the good goods away, and the kickback and the shakedown cabbage
away and the pistoleros— (indicating
the others) —away and you're
a great big hunk of nothing— (takes a
deep breath as if relieved) Your guts is all in your wallet and your trigger
finger!
JOHNNY (with fury)
Go on talkin'. You're talkin' yourself right into the river. Go on, go on... .
Go on talkin'. You're talkin' yourself right into the river. Go on, go on... .
TERRY (voice rising defiantly)
I'm glad what I done today, see? You give it to Joey, you give it
to Nolan, you give it to Charley who was one of your own. You thought you was
God Almighty instead of a cheap— conniving—good-for-nothing bum! So I'm glad what
I done— you hear me? —glad what I done!
JOHNNY
(coldly)
You ratted on us, Terry.
TERRY
(aware of fellow longshoremen watching the duel)
From where you stand, maybe. But I'm standing over here now. I was
rattin' on myself all them years and didn't know it, helpin' punks like you against
people like Pop and Nolan an'... .
