City Hall (film) Quotes

City Hall (film) is a television program that first aired in 1970 . City Hall ended in 1970.

It features Harold Becker, Kenneth Lipper, Charles Mulvehill, and Edward R. Pressman as producer, Jerry Goldsmith in charge of musical score, and Michael Seresin as head of cinematography.

City Hall (film) is recorded in English and originally aired in United States. Each episode of City Hall (film) is 111 minutes long. City Hall (film) is distributed by Columbia Pictures.

The cast includes: Al Pacino as Mayor John Pappas, Danny Aiello as Frank Anselmo, John Cusack as Kevin Calhoun, Bridget Fonda as Marybeth Cogan, Tony Franciosa as Paul Zapatti, and David Paymer as Abe Goodman.

City Hall (film) Quotes

Bridget Fonda as Marybeth Cogan

• (Bridget Fonda) "You're a mean prick, you know that?"
• (John Cusack) "Where I come from, that's a compliment."

Al Pacino as Mayor John Pappas

• (Al Pacino) "Be careful how you judge people, most of all friends. You don't sum up a man's life in one moment. There are no cold answers, are there? There's no simple yes or no. A man's life is not the bricks, it's the mortar, pappy, it's the stuff that lays between, the stuff -- the stuff you can't see. I've known Walter my whole life. God, the man is; he's a decent man, he's a good man."
• (John Cusack) "This is tough stuff. This is body bag stuff. You tell me, if there's some other way."
• (Al Pacino) "There isn't. The die's been cast; it was cast a long time ago. Go easy: give him a blindfold and have mercy. Walter Stern was a tough man, but he was fair. We give back the same, no?"

• (Al Pacino) "You got the stuff, pappy. I love that."

• (Al Pacino) ""Distance". Distance is something you do to your enemies. It's a thing of the nineties, to make friends extinct. Distance -- is the absence of menschkeit."
• (John Cusack) "Translate that for me."
• (Al Pacino) "You don't know what menschkeit means?"
• (John Cusack) "No, I don't."
• (Al Pacino) "Menschkeit, you know -- something between men -- it's about honor, and character -- untranslatable. That's why it's Yiddish."
• (John Cusack) "I didn't know you'd taken up the language."
• (Al Pacino) "Abe laid it on me."

• (Al Pacino) "I had the fire in the belly just like you, Kevin, and the odd thing is I still have it. Never left me. I had the dream -- and I had the weight. Like one of those guys before me said, "If a sparrow falls in Central Park, I feel responsible.""

• (Al Pacino) "Lyndon Johnson said, "Everybody will give you ideas on how to get out of trouble cheaply and fast. And they all come down to this: deny your responsibility." John F. Kennedy said, "An error doesn't have to become a mistake, until you refuse to correct it.""

• (Al Pacino) "The first and perhaps only great mayor was Greek. He was Pericles of Athens, and he lived some 2500 years ago, and he said all things good of this Earth flow into the city because of the city's greatness. Well, we were great once. Can we not be great again?"

• (Al Pacino) "Do you know what LaGuardia said? Why is it that every time you can do something good, the nice people come in and mess you up?"

• (Al Pacino) "Enough about me, enough about me. What are you going to do tonight, after I'm gone?"
• (John Cusack) "Me?"
• (Al Pacino) "Yeah."
• (John Cusack) "I don't know, I hadn't thought about it."
• (Al Pacino) "Well, you're going to get yourself a good meal. You're going to pass up that double cheeseburger from Roy Rogers, wherever it is you go; you're going go to Dominic's, and you're going to get takeout. On me. Get a decent meal there. But before you go to Dominic's, I want you to go to Macy's and get a chair. With legs, and arms. That apartment of yours looks like something that belongs in a homeless file. Oh, then it's off to Crate and Barrel for a knife, a fork, a spoon -- oh, and a glass, while you're at it."
• (John Cusack) "Then I'll have to get a dishwasher."
• (Al Pacino) "You don't have to wash them, just throw 'em out after you finish eating. It's on me. Get a life."
• (John Cusack) "I've got yours; it's quite enough."

• (Al Pacino) "Your power? What good are you to the people without it? But down deep you know there's a line you can't cross, and after a thousand trades and one deal too many, the line gets rubbed out."

• (Al Pacino) "You are only the boss, Frank. I'm the f***ing mayor. Mayors rule."

• (Al Pacino) "You want an answer? Okay, pappy, think of it as colors. There's black, and there's white, and in between is mostly gray. That's us. Now gray is a tough color, because it's not as simple as black and white; and for the media, certainly not as interesting. But -- it's what we are."

John Cusack as Kevin Calhoun

• (John Cusack) "Now there's four deaths, they're all connected, and that's all I know, that much I learned --"
• (Al Pacino) "And that's all I want to know."
• (John Cusack) "I'm just trying to circle the wagons here, John."
• (Al Pacino) "Circle the wagons? What do you th; Who do you think you are? Some gumshoe in a dime novel, loose-cannoning around the city? Consorting with known mobsters? Kevin, for God's sakes."
• (Al Pacino) "You see this desk? This desk belonged to Fiorello La Guardia, "the Little Flower". He was about 5 foot tall, used to read the funny papers to his constituents' children over the radio, and was about the best god****ed mayor this city ever had. You know what La Guardia said? "Why is it, every time you can do some good, the nice people come in and mess you up?" Kevin -- be nice, don't mess me up."

• (John Cusack) "And you're just going to wait under that plastic awning for an hour and then ride a Queens bus and then slep on the subway into Manhattan --"
• (Bridget Fonda) "Schlep. Schlep. Not slep, schlep."
• (John Cusack) "Schlep?"
• (Bridget Fonda) "Get the gumbo out of your Yiddish."

• (John Cusack) "Now, who we gonna meet in this diner?"
• (Bridget Fonda) "What are you talking about?"
• (John Cusack) "You surface in front of my car at the cemetery, you show just enough leg so I'd stop, and the Grand Central Parkway is the long way around. Who we gonna meet?"

• (John Cusack) "You look good."
• (Al Pacino) "Of course; I'm the mayor."

• (John Cusack) "Where you going?"
• (Bridget Fonda) "The city."
• (John Cusack) "Thought we were in the city."
• (Bridget Fonda) "Not if you're from Queens."

• (John Cusack) "Walter Stern looked so judicial. How could he be so corrupt?"
• (David Paymer) "The sweater unravels."

• (John Cusack) "The only thing new about this world is the history we don't know."

• (John Cusack) "You keep looking at that thing as if it weren't kosher."
• (David Paymer) "A cut of meat is kosher. A piece of fish, savory foods, and all kinds of dang things are kosher, but a probation report is not kosher. A probation report is merely a probation report."
• (John Cusack) "I am a good Louisiana lapsed Catholic, Abe, so just don't talk to me about kosher, just give it to me straight. What's wrong with this report?"
• (David Paymer) "It's too kosher."
• (John Cusack) "Translate that for me."
• (David Paymer) "Uhhhhh, the virgin looks pregnant to me.; Look, see, the supervisor signed this."
• (John Cusack) "So what?"
• (David Paymer) "That's a lot of weight for a 4C. So what happened to the original little probation officer? Where is his signature?"

• (John Cusack) "If I didn't know better, I'd be bursting with admiration. I thought I'd come here and find you on your knees; instead you're ready to turn adversity into triumph."
• (Al Pacino) "Oh, it's just a reflex, an old habit of mine. But it's still good to hear you say it -- the way you say it, too. "Adversity into triumph." Good to you know still believe in me."
• (John Cusack) "Did I say that?"

Danny Aiello as Frank Anselmo

• (Danny Aiello) "Your boy embarrassed me."
• (Al Pacino) "You're gonna have to live with it."
• (Danny Aiello) "Why?"
• (Al Pacino) "Because he's my boy."

• (Danny Aiello) "Uh, 99 out of a hundred times, we can -- we can beat something like this."
• (Tony Franciosa) "I don't like the odds."
• (Danny Aiello) "We go back a long way."
• (Tony Franciosa) "I know, I know. I tried to close the door, Frank; couldn't get it shut."
• (Danny Aiello) "Uh, what do you want me to do?"
• (Tony Franciosa) "Take the pressure off yourself. Aah, here's the thing. They'll tell you, yeah, yeah, sure, you have the, you have the key to the cell, go ahead. But you won't be able to open it without singing, yeah? You're a singer, Frank."
• (Danny Aiello) "Give me a chance and I'll, I'll, I'll show you how quiet I can be."
• (Tony Franciosa) "It's out of my hands, Frank. Do the RIGHT thing, will you? Make it easy for yourself."
• (Nettie Anselmo) "Frank, honey; lunch."
• (Tony Franciosa) "And your family. Yeah."

• (Danny Aiello) "What are you talking about? He's a reed. You push him and -- and he bends."
• (Tony Franciosa) "Not this one. This one's a terrier. Hm, I had a dog like him once. I went to have him put down. He jumped out of my arms at the vet's and took off for the park. Heh, sometimes I still think I see him out there, watching me, gnawing on an old bone --"

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