Mobsters (1991)

F. Murray Abraham: Arnold Rothstein

Quotes 

• Arnold Rothstein : Mr. Luciano, you're walking down the street. Suddenly you realize you're being followed. It's a hit. Walking towards you is a second gunman. You have time to fire at only one of them. Which one do...

  Lucky : [cutting him off]  I don't accept the question. To live, I gotta kill 'em both.

• Arnold Rothstein : What's the secret of America? MONEY! Everything is MONEY, Charlie. But you'll never make any money, because you dress like a schmuck.

• Meyer Lansky : We gotta get tough with Masseria and Faranzano. Only, we can't afford a war. They got armies; we don't.

  Arnold Rothstein : We got balls and brains; you got those, you don't need an army... 100 years ago, Austria was run by a prince named Metternich. Austria was weak, and its neighbors were strong; but Metternich was a cold, caluclating fox. If one country got too strong, he organized an alliance against it. He would bring Europe to the brink of war, and then everybody thanked him when he kept war from happening. He barely had an army, but he had Europe by the *kishkes.*

• Arnold Rothstein : [his last words, while playing cards]  ... What's the matter? Did I make a wrong bet?

  [Mad Dog Coll guns him down from behind] 

• Lucky : I don't have a wife, because emotion is dangerous.

  Arnold Rothstein : Aren't you human?

  Lucky : Would it help?

• Arnold Rothstein : I have ships and distilleries in Scotland. I need distribution in New York.

  Lucky : Masseria? Faranzano?

  Arnold Rothstein : Either of them would kill me.

  Lucky : And I wouldn't because...?

  Arnold Rothstein : You have Jewish partners.

  Lucky : Maybe I kill them too.

  Arnold Rothstein : You can't afford to; you're in the squeeze. Either Masseria or Faranzano realize you exist, they squash you like an ant...

  Lucky : [the penny drops for him]  ... Unless I get a powerful friend, right?

  Arnold Rothstein : [indicates himself]  Exactly.

• Arnold Rothstein : ...When war comes, the winner will be the one who gets his enemy to trust him.

  Lucky : How do I do that?

  Arnold Rothstein : You save his life.