Black Caesar (1973)

Fred Williamson: Tommy Gibbs

Quotes 

• Tommy Gibbs : You can sleep until noon, if you want anything, just press a button.

  Mama Gibbs : Me? Live in this apartment? Why they'd hang me right off that terrace, Jew folks ain't even allowed here.

• Tommy Gibbs : [at Mama's tombstone]  I gave her the best. I never really made her happy, Rufus.

  Reverend Rufus : I'd like to pray for her. I really would. I kind of feel - I could pray for her.

  Tommy Gibbs : Go ahead. She always said you were a good kid, Rufus. If it means that much to you.

  Reverend Rufus : Oh, Lord, have mercy on this poor black woman's soul. All she ever wanted to do was to bring her baby into this world. To work for him. To love him. To raise him like every other black woman in this earth. Please, Lord, let her rest in peace. No more waitin' tables. No more cleanin' other people's houses. Let this strong, black woman rest in heaven, in peace.

• Helen : I've worked all night. This place has been crowded all night and I've had it! I've had it up to here.

  Tommy Gibbs : Yeah, right.

  Helen : They're pinching my ass.

  Tommy Gibbs : I understand.

  Helen : And they're thinking I'm a prostitute.

  Tommy Gibbs : I'll talk to them.

• Grossfield : Who the hell are you?

  Tommy Gibbs : Did you know that a man's beard keeps right on growing even after he's - dead?

• Tommy Gibbs : We'll see that those apartments got heat in the winter. That ought to convince all those black people we got their welfare at heart, huh?

  Crawdaddy : And we'll make sure that the garbage is picked up and dropped off in them white neighborhoods.

  Tommy Gibbs : Yeah, right on!

• Cardoza : I don't use the same man in the same city twice. They can be easily identified.

  Tommy Gibbs : I got a built in disguise. They never look at me. They never look at my face or my nose or my lame foot. All they know is that I'm black.

  Cardoza : Your kind has no guts. You get picked up, right away they start to talk.

• Cardoza : Alright, you'll get your 200.

  Tommy Gibbs : Since when did the price go down?

  Cardoza : Since when did spades make as much as whites? Huh? Hey, listen, shadow, you're lucky I'm even talking to you.

• Tommy Gibbs : It's no problem! As far as the national organization is concerned, we want them to think that you are still in charge. You will be the white face; so, everybody will make it easier to swallow. You know what I mean? What do you call it? What do you call it? Eh? Token white, huh!

• Alfred Coleman : I can't imagine why you want all our belongings?

  Tommy Gibbs : I grew up wearing your things, mister, everything you wore out, got dirty, or you out grew. I even ate your leftovers.

• Cardoza : Hey, you know, those colored boys you ordered from Philadelphia and Detroit - they're great. They're really wonderful and they work cheap.

  [laughs] 

  Cardoza : Hey! Who says Lincoln freed the slaves?

  Tommy Gibbs : Who? Eh? Who Lincoln?

  Cardoza : Hey, some creep who didn't have enough sense to sit facing the door.

• Tommy Gibbs : I want him - nice and fat, before I kill him.

• Tommy Gibbs : This is all mine. I bought it.

  Momma Gibbs : Done bought it?

  Tommy Gibbs : Right down to his pajamas, Momma. I bought it!

  Momma Gibbs : Well, I ain't workin' for you. You are a ungrateful bum! I would work for just about *anybody* - but you. I quit.

  Tommy Gibbs : You can't quit, Momma. You don't work here. It's your place. I'm giving it to you!

  Momma Gibbs : In this building? Why, they'd hang me off that terrace. Jewish folk ain't even allowed in here!

  Tommy Gibbs : Ain't nobody gonna bother Tommy Gibbs' Momma!

• Momma Gibbs : You been taken dope? I knew it. I knew you were going to end up a dope fiend!

  Tommy Gibbs : Yeah, yeah. I'm on a high, Momma.

• Tommy Gibbs : Everybody used to wipe up the street with him. I protected him. He was fag bait and I saved his black ass!

• Tommy Gibbs : Every time I give somebody something, they don't appreciate it.

• Tommy Gibbs : Who invited you?

  Virginia Coleman : I kind of missed my old bed. And besides, I thought you might be lonesome tonight.

• Helen : Stop it, please. Don't do that. Please, give me time. I got to think about it. I got a lot to think about, okay? Tommy, stop it. Please.

  Tommy Gibbs : So, this is the only way you like it, huh? You have to be raped! I got no objections, lady.

  Helen : Stop it! Don't. Don't you do this to me! Stop it! No! No, let me go. Let me go. Let me go! Stop it, you bastard. You dirty bastard. You killer! You murderer! You're no good! Let me go. Let me go! Stop it! Stop! Oh, no. No, no. No.

• Tommy Gibbs : It was a clean job.

  Cardoza : You call that a clean job? In the middle of the afternoon? In a barber shop with witnesses?

  Tommy Gibbs : That's why I did it in front of everybody. So they could see it. Everybody knows your organization don't employ no niggers.

• Tommy Gibbs : You forget, huh? You let niggers into your operation. You make fools of your people. You shame 'em. They kill you!

  [laughs] 

• Cardoza : You can do this to me? You can take everything away from me and give me this? Huh? A present - you black bastard!

  Tommy Gibbs : You still get your cut every week. Of course, being Italian is not the same as if you were - a negro.

  [laughs] 

• McKinney : They'd never accept a nigger into the Syndicate.

  Tommy Gibbs : Everybody's a liberal nowadays, McKinney. Get with it!

  McKinney : I guarantee it. You're one dead coon by the end of the week.

• Tommy Gibbs : Now, lets take a look at Harlem. You tell me - who's gonna control these people? Those goddamn Puerto Ricans and those niggers. They too stupid to be afraid. They'll stick a shear in anybody. It's a jungle! And it takes a jungle bunny to run it. I'll keep my hands off the docks. I'll keep my hands off the unions. I'll keep my hands off the narcotics. And I promise you this: that things will be - quiet in the ghetto. Not only here, but in Philly, Chicago, Detroit, LA. I'll keep 'em in line.

• Tommy Gibbs : That used to be home, sweet home, Pa. Top window. Rear

  Mr. Gibbs : Always seemed to me like a much bigger building.

  Tommy Gibbs : You must know what I do for a living.

  Mr. Gibbs : I'm not gonna lecture you. I don't have the right.

  Tommy Gibbs : Did it ever occur to you... That I've been waiting 25 years just to kill you?

  Mr. Gibbs : No. No. Wait, listen please. I mean, it was the depression. I mean, you don't know what it was like to... Then the war and my chance to get away. You never had those responsibilities. I mean, you never been trapped. Oh, no. Not knowing where to run or who to-- or who to hate. I was 20 years old, 20 years old when I enlisted. And I was a cook all through the war. I was a cook!

  Tommy Gibbs : You never sent home one allotment check. My ma had to scrub floors on her hands and knees for pennies!

  [pins his father against a wall pointing his gun at him] 

  Tommy Gibbs : I'm gonna kill you!

  Mr. Gibbs : She-- she couldn't get no allotment! We wasn't married legal! Folks didn't bother much in those days.

  Tommy Gibbs : [lowers his gun and turns away]  She never told me.

  Mr. Gibbs : I--I could have sent you something.

  Tommy Gibbs : Go on. Start walkin.'

  Mr. Gibbs : I didn't mean to break it to you that way. I mean, I wouldn't have said anything...

  Tommy Gibbs : Don't matter. Move on, before I change my mind. Pa! I don't ever want to see you again.

  Mr. Gibbs : I understand, son.

  Reverend Rufus : What are you going to do now? Kill your momma?

• Tommy Gibbs : [at the cemetery where Momma Gibbs is buried]  What are you doing here?

  Mr. Gibbs : I came by to pay my respect to your momma. Didn't anybody else come? Your girl or anybody?

  Tommy Gibbs : No. They weren't invited.

  Mr. Gibbs : Invited or not, I've come to say goodbye to that woman. She was my wife, son.

  Tommy Gibbs : Pa. How is everything?

  Mr. Gibbs : Pardon?

  Tommy Gibbs : I said.. you need anything?

  Mr. Gibbs : I'm fine. Thanks.

  Tommy Gibbs : Would you like to come stay with me, Pa?

  Mr. Gibbs : No. I travel a lot

• Mr. Gibbs : Excuse me Reverend. Is that Mr Gibbs car over there?

  Reverend Rufus : Yes it is.

  Mr. Gibbs : Well I'd like to speak to him.

  Reverend Rufus : Oh, call his office.

  Mr. Gibbs : Well, my name is Gibbs, too, sir.

  Reverend Rufus : Fine, you should've been a relative.

  Mr. Gibbs : Well I am, I'm his father

  [inside the car speaking to his son] 

  Mr. Gibbs : I was just across --just coming into the bar for a drink. I sell you know. Cosmetics. Mainly for colored folks in the south. Well, uh, only been in town for a few days, and it was a coincidence, me seeing you across the street. It'd have been wrong if I didn't take advantage of that coincidence.

  Tommy Gibbs : You want to go up and see mom?

  Mr. Gibbs : Your mom and I didn't get along. You do recollect me, son? Look at me.

  Tommy Gibbs : Yeah. Hey, you, uh, remember Rufus? He used to live next door to us. He's a preacher now.

  Mr. Gibbs : Young Rufus. He was always a bad boy. Never thought he'd take up religion.

  Tommy Gibbs : Hey, pop, uh... Like to take a ride, look at the old neighborhood?

  [Papa Gibbs nods his head yes as Tommy gets out of the car to greet his fans] 

  Reverend Rufus : Take my advice. Get out. Go home.

  Mr. Gibbs : Well, now. I.. I can understand my son saying that, but why should you feel that way towards me?

  Reverend Rufus : Please, listen to me.

• Tommy Gibbs : You're gonna die like a failed nigga!