ALL A B C D E F G H I J K L M
N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z #

The Big Sleep

The Big Sleep quotes

54 total quotes

Other
Philip Marlowe
Vivian Sternwood Rutledge




View Quote Clerk: Is there something I can do for you?
Marlowe: Would you do me a very small favor?
Clerk: I don't know. It depends on the favor.
Marlowe: Do you know Geiger's bookstore across the street?
Clerk: I think I may have passed it.
Marlowe: Do you know Geiger by sight?
Clerk: Well, I ...
Marlowe: What does he look like?
Clerk: Wouldn't it be easy enough to go across the street and ask to see him?
Marlowe: I've already done that...Do you know anything about rare books?
Clerk: You could try me.
Marlowe: Would you happen to have a Ben-Hur 1860, Third Edition with a duplicated line on page one-sixteen? Or a Chevalier Audubon 1840?
Clerk: Nobody would. There isn't one.
Marlowe: The girl in Geiger's bookstore didn't know that.
Clerk: Oh, I see. You begin to interest me - vaguely.
Marlowe: I'm a private dick on a case. Perhaps I'm asking too much, although it doesn't seem too much to me somehow.
Clerk: Well, Geiger's in his early forties, medium height, fattish, soft all over, Charlie Chan mustache, well-dressed, wears a black hat, affects a knowledge of antiques and hasn't any, and, oh yes, I think his left eye is glass.
Marlowe: You'd make a good cop. [A heavy rain begins to fall, he pulls out a bottle of rye] I'd rather get wet in here.
Clerk: [pulling the shade, letting her hair down, and removing her glasses] It looks like we're closed for the rest of the afternoon.
Marlowe: Hello!
View Quote Female Cabbie: Where are we going?
Marlowe: Followin' a car - a tail job.
Female Cabbie: I'm your girl, bud.
Marlowe: Wouldn't be bad. That station wagon comin' out of the alley. That's the one.
...
Marlowe: Here you are sugar, buy yourself a cigar.
Female Cabbie: If you can use me again sometime, call this number. [She hands him a card]
Marlowe: Day and night?
Female Cabbie: Uh, night's better. I work during the day.
View Quote Brody: What are you up here for?
Marlowe: To keep her [Vivian] from paying you off and to take the cops off your neck.
Brody: What cops?
Marlowe: The cops who want to find out where all that lead in Geiger's body came from. Look Joe, you shot Geiger.
Vivian: I didn't know that...
Marlowe: The cops don't yet. The trouble is he wasn't alone when you shot him. Either you didn't notice that, and I think you did, or you got scared and ran away. But you had nerve enough to take the film out of the camera. And you had nerve enough to come back later and hide the body...
Agnes: [To Marlowe] You're crazy. [To Joe] Joe...
Brody: Shut up.
Marlowe: So you could clean out Geiger's store before the law knew there was a murder to investigate.
Brody: You take chances, mister. It's lucky for you I didn't shoot Geiger.
Marlowe: Yeah, but you can step off for it just the same, Joe. You're made to order for the rap.
Brody: You think you've got me framed?
Marlowe: Positive.
Brody: How come?
Marlowe: Because somebody will tell it that way. I told ya there was a witness. Now don't go simple on me, Joe.
Brody: You mean Carmen, she would. She'd say anything.
Marlowe: So you have got that picture!
Brody: I guess you think I'm dumb.
Marlowe: Just average for a grafter. You see Joe, either you were there last night, or you got the picture from somebody who was there. You knew Carmen was there because you had your girlfriend here threaten Mrs. Rutledge with the police. Now the only way you could have known enough to do that was by being there and seeing what happened or having the picture and knowing when and where it was taken. That makes sense, doesn't it?
View Quote Marlowe: All right, now that's settled. What's Eddie Mars got on you?
Vivian: So that's the way...
Marlowe: That's the way it is. Kissing is all right. It's nice. I'd like to do more of it. First, I want to find out what Eddie Mars has on you.
View Quote Marlowe: Leave her [Vivian] out of it. She's alright Eddie. She made a deal with you and she kept it. She didn't tell me a thing except that she killed Regan but I didn't believe that. Regan's dead all right, but she didn't do it. It was Carmen, wasn't it? How'd it happen, Eddie?
Mars: You mean she didn't tell ya?
Marlowe: I asked ya how it happened.
Mars: Well, Carmen liked Regan but...
Marlowe: But he liked your wife. He said no to Carmen. She gets mad when anybody says that. I've seen her that way. Go on.
Mars: She was pretty high. By the time it was over, she couldn't remember much about it.
Marlowe: Yeah, I've seen her that way too. Then you hid the body.
Mars: You can't prove that!
Marlowe: It would be just as bad for you if I prove it to myself. Then you started to blackmail Mrs. Rutledge by telling her what Carmen had done. How did you prove to her that Carmen had done it? Go ahead, prove it to me.
Mars: You've seen Carmen when she's that way.
Marlowe: Sure I have, have you?
Mars: Well, how do you suppose...?
Marlowe: Then why didn't you know her when you walked in that day? Tell me that. You're pretty smart, Eddie, but I've been waiting for this one.
Mars: What are you gonna do about it?
Marlowe: I told you you were smart. You walked in here without a gun. You were gonna sit there and agree to everything just like you're doing now. When I went out that door, things were gonna be different. That's what those boys are doing out there. But everything's changed now, Eddie, because I got here first.
View Quote My name's Marlowe. General Sternwood wanted to see me.
View Quote [to Vivian] Why didn't you go to the police?...Because you were afraid they might turn up something that I couldn't sit on. Then where would the Sternwoods be. Isn't that right?
View Quote [to Carol Lundgren] Oh, and by the way, Carol, you shot the wrong guy. Brody didn't kill Geiger.
View Quote [after grabbing a thug's gun] Somebody's always giving me guns. You can turn around now. I don't like people who play games. Tell your boss.
View Quote [to Inspector Ohls] A nice old guy has two daughters. One of them is, well, wonderful. And the other one is not so wonderful. As a result somebody gets something on her. The father hires me to pay off. Before I can get to the guy, the family chauffeur kills him! But that didn't stop things. That just starts 'em. And two murders later I find out somebody's got something on wonderful....Last night, the two of 'em...they went to the moon to prove to me there was nothing between 'em. But I think there is and I think it's got something to do with Sean Regan.
View Quote [to Vivian] Look angel, I'm tired. My jaw hurts and my ribs ache. I killed a man back there and I had to stand by when a harmless little guy was killed. Do you think I can tell them all that happened because Geiger tried to throw a loop over Carmen? If I tell them that, they'll swarm over your house so fast that every closet you and your family have been in for the last six years will look like a police convention. They'll all ask the same question - where's Sean Regan? Why did Eddie Mars hide his wife to make it look like she ran off with Regan? Why did you hide out there? You're playing with dynamite.
View Quote Marlowe, you're ruining everything, yes you are.
View Quote [to Marlowe, on the phone] You can stop worrying and call off the bloodhounds. We found Sean....he's been in Mexico. He hasn't been very well...an accident of some kind. We didn't get all the details. I'm leaving at once to meet him...We haven't told him [the General] yet. We thought it best to wait.
View Quote Joe Brody: Well, I tapped the old man once six or seven months ago. I figured it might not work twice...Well, she [Vivian] gets around. I figured she might have a thing or two she wouldn't want the old man to know.
View Quote Carmen: You're not very tall, are you?
Marlowe: Well, I, uh, I try to be.
Carmen: Not bad looking. Oh you probably know it.
Marlowe: Thank you.
Carmen: What's your name?
Marlowe: Reilly. Doghouse Reilly.
Carmen: That's a funny kind of name.
Marlowe: You think so.
Carmen: Uh, uh. What are you? A prizefighter?
Marlowe: No, I'm a shamus.
Carmen: What's a shamus?
Marlowe: It's a private detective.
Carmen: You're making fun of me.
Marlowe: Uh, uh.
Carmen: [she leans back and falls into his arms] You're cute.
Marlowe: [to the butler, Norris] You ought to wean her, she's old enough.