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L.A. Confidential (film)

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All I ever wanted was to measure up to my father.

L.A. Confidential is a 1997 film about a group of LAPD officers in the 1950s, and the intersection of police corruption and Hollywood celebrity.

Directed by Curtis Hanson. Written by Brian Helgeland and Curtis Hanson. Based on the 1990 novel of the same title by James Ellroy.
Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush... (taglines)

Edmund "Ed" Exley

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You may well reap the benefit, Edmund, but are you truly prepared to be despised within the department?
  • (At the end of an interrogation session) You know, I'm talking about the gas chamber, and you haven't even asked me what this is about. You've got a big "Guilty" sign around your neck.

Captain Dudley Smith

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  • You may well reap the benefit, Edmund, but are you truly prepared to be despised within the department?
  • Wendell, I'd like full and docile co-operation on every topic...
  • Go back to Jersey, sonny. This is the city of the angels and you haven't got any wings.
  • (after Bud sees pictures of Ed with Lynn) I wouldn't trade places with Edmund Exley right now for all the whiskey in Ireland.
  • Don't start trying to do the right thing, boyo. You haven't had the practice.
  • (to a person he has just fatally shot) Have you a valediction, boyo?

Lynn

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You're afraid of Bud because you can't figure out how to play him. He doesn't follow the same rules of politics as you do. It makes him dangerous.
  • It would be easier for you if there was an angle wouldn't it? You're afraid of Bud because you can't figure out how to play him. He doesn't follow the same rules of politics as you do. It makes him dangerous. I see Bud because I want to I see Bud because he can't hide the good inside of him. I see Bud because he makes me feel like Lynn Bracken and not some Veronica Lake look-alike who fucks for money. I see Bud because he doesn't know how to disguise who he is. I see Bud for all the ways he's different from you.

Dialogue

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Rolo Tomassi...
Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush…
She is Lana Turner.
Do you think you can talk your way out of this, Lieutenant?
Everything is suspect...everyone is for sale...and nothing is what it seems.
[Bud White catches a parolee beating his wife up. He lures the man out by pulling his Santa's sleigh decorations off the roof]
Wife-beater: Who in the hell are you?!
Wendell "Bud" White: Ghost of Christmas Past. Why don't you dance with a man for a change?
Wife-beater: What are you, some kind of smart ass?
[tries to throw a punch at Bud. Bud beats him and handcuffs him to his porch]
Wendell "Bud" White: You'll be out in a year and a half. I'll get cozy with your parole officer. You touch her again, I'll have you violated on a kiddie raper beef. [grabs wife beater by the head] You know what they do to kiddie-rapers in Quentin.
Capt. Dudley Smith: Would you be willing to plant corroborative evidence on a suspect you knew to be guilty, in order to ensure an indictment?
Sgt. Ed Exley: Dudley, we've been over this.
Capt. Dudley Smith: Yes or no, Edmund?
Sgt. Ed Exley: No.
Capt. Dudley Smith: Would you be willing to beat a confession out of a suspect you knew to be guilty?
Sgt. Ed Exley: No.
Capt. Dudley Smith: Would you be willing to shoot a hardened criminal in the back, in order to offset the chance that some...lawyer...
Sgt. Ed Exley: No.
Capt. Dudley Smith: Then, for the love of God, don't be a detective. Stick to assignments where you don't have to make those kinds of choices.
[Bud goes to question Lynn Bracken and encounters a client in his underwear who refuses to leave]
Man: Everything all right, doll? Want me to get rid of him?
Bud: Hit the road, pal.
Man: [stepping closer] Maybe I will. Maybe I won't.
Bud: [showing his badge] LAPD, shitbird. Get the fuck outta here or I'll call your wife to come get you.
[The man stares blankly for a moment, collects his clothes, and leaves]
Man: [nods] Officer.
Bud: [nods] Councilman.
[Lying in bed, Lynn notices a scar on Bud's shoulder]
Lynn: Where'd this come from?
Bud: When I was twelve, my old man went after my mother with a bottle. I got in the way.
Lynn: So you saved her.
Bud: Not for long.
Lynn: I'm sorry, it's none of my business.
Bud: He tied me to the radiator. I watched him beat my mother to death with a tire iron. And he left me there. Three days before a truant officer found us. They never found the old man.
Jack: Why in the world do you want to go digging any deeper into the Nite Owl Killings, Lieutenant?
Ed: Rollo Tomasi.
Jack: Is there more to that, or am I supposed to guess?
Ed: Rollo… was a purse snatcher. My father ran into him off duty, and he shot my father six times and got away clean. No one even knew who he was. I just made the name up to give him some personality. Rollo Tomasi's the reason I became a cop. I wanted to catch the guys who thought they could get away with it. It was supposed to be about justice. Then somewhere along the way I lost sight of that. Why'd you become a cop?
Jack:[long pause] I don't remember.
[Bud has just found Buzz Meeks's decaying remains in Hilda Lefferts' crawl space. He is visibly disgusted as he climbs out.]
Hilda Lefferts: Was it a rat?
Bud White: Yeah. A great big one.
Jack: Do you remember Buzz Meeks, Dudley?
Capt. Dudley Smith: A disgrace as a police officer. Straight-D fitness reports from every CEO he ever served under. What about him?
Jack: 12 years ago he was on a Vice rouse with Dick Stensland. They questioned Pierce Patchett about a blackmail scam. Patchett had Sid Hudgens photographing prominent businessmen with hookers. Anyway, charges were dropped, insufficient evidence. You were the supervising officer on that case and I was wondering if you remember anything about it.
Capt. Dudley Smith: What's this all about, boyo?
Jack: Part of it has to do with a murder, I've been working with Ed Exley on it.
Capt. Dudley Smith: You're in Narco, Jack, not Homicide. Since when do you work with Edmund Exley?
Jack: Well, it's a private investigation. I messed something up. I'm trying to make amends.
Capt. Dudley Smith: Don't start trying to do the right thing, boyo. You haven't had the practice. [He turns to the stove and prepares a cup of tea for Jack] Buzz Meeks and Dick Stensland. So, uh, what does Exley make of all of this?
Jack: I haven't told him yet. I just came straight from the record to you. [Dudley suddenly turns to Jack with a pistol and shoots him once in the chest; a shocked Jack struggles to breathe as he looks up at Dudley]
Capt. Dudley Smith: Have you a valediction, boyo?
Jack: [in a strained whisper, on the verge of death] Rollo... Tomasi.
Johnny: You want an autograph? Write to MGM.
Ed: Since when do two-bit hoods and hookers give out autographs?
Johnny: What'd you say to me?
Ed: LAPD. Sit down.
Woman: Who in the hell do you think you are?
Jack: Ed...
Ed: Take a walk, honey, before I haul your ass downtown.
Johnny: You are making a large mistake.
Woman: Get away from our table.
Ed: Shut up! [leans in] A hooker cut to look like Lana Turner is still a hooker.
Johnny: Hey!
Ed: She just looks like Lana Turner.
Jack: [grinning] She is Lana Turner.
Ed: What?
Jack: She is Lana Turner.
[Lana throws a drink in Ed's face]
[Exley and White question Ellis Loew, who refuses to cooperate and goes to the bathroom. Exley and White share a look, and White enters the bathroom where Loew is preparing for a press conference]
Loew: Unless you're here to wipe my ass, I believe we're through.
[White approaches Loew, who is freshening up in front of a mirror]
Loew: C'mon, don't pull that good-cop bad-cop crap. I practically invented it. So what if some homo actor is dead, huh? Boys, girls, ten of them get off the bus to L.A. every day-
[White smashes Loew's face into the mirror twice and then dunks his head into the toilet while Exley calmly watches. Bud briefly lifts Loew's head out of the toilet.]
Loew: Pull him off me, Exley!
Exley: [calmly] I don't know how.
[White dunks Loew's head back into the toilet and then lifts it up]
White: Now I know you think you're D.A. number one hot-shot, but here's the juice: if I take you out, ten more lawyers will take your place tomorrow. They just won't come on the bus, that's all.
Ed: All I ever wanted was to measure up to my father.
Bud: Here's your chance. He died in the line of duty, didn't he?
Detective: Do you think you can talk your way out of this, Lieutenant?
Ed: No... but I think I can tell the truth.

Taglines

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  • Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush...
  • Everything is suspect...everyone is for sale...and nothing is what it seems.
  • It's a crime saga that will shock you. It's a mystery that will keep you guessing. It's a thriller that will keep you riveted.

Cast

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