Tom Hagen No Sicilian can refuse a request on his daughter's wedding day.
4th most-quoted character in The Godfather (1972): in 21 of its 97 quotes
Most scenes with: Michael Corleone (5), Santino "Sonny" Corleone (4), Tessio (3)
If we lose the old man, we lose our political contacts and half our strength. The other New York families might wind up supporting Sollozzo just to avoid a long, destructive war. This is almost 1946. Nobody wants bloodshed anymore. If your father dies, you make the deal, Sonny.
More lines from Tom Hagen
3 quotes Tom Hagen Tom Hagen [to Sonny, about Don Vito]
He's as much a father to me as you or Mike.
Tom Hagen I found out about this Captain McCluskey who broke Mike's jaw...Now he's definitely on Sollozzo's payroll, and for big money. McCluskey has agreed to be the Turk's bodyguard. What you have to understand, Sonny, is that while Sollozzo is being guarded like this, he is invulnerable. Now nobody has ever gunned down a New York police captain -- never. It would be disastrous. All the Five Families would come after you, Sonny. The Corleone Family would be outcasts! Even the old man's political protection would run for cover! So do me a favor -- take this into consideration.
Scenes with Tom Hagen
17 scenes Tom Hagen I was sent by a friend of Johnny Fontane's - his friend is my client, who'd give his undying friendship to Mr. Woltz, if Mr. Woltz would grant us a small favor.
Woltz is listening.
Tom Hagen Give Johnny the part in that new war film you're starting next week.
Tom Hagen You're gonna have some union problems; my client could make them disappear. Also, one of your top stars has just moved from marijuana to heroin...
Are you trying to muscle me?
Tom Hagen Absolutely not.
Now listen here, you smooth-talking sonofabitch! Let me lay it on the line for you and your boss, whoever he is. Johnny Fontane will never get that movie. I don't care how many d**o, w*p, g**nea, gre**eball g***bas come out of the woodwork.
Tom Hagen I'm German-Irish.
Well, let me tell you something, my kr**t-m**k friend. I'm gonna make so much trouble for you you won't know what hit you!
Tom Hagen Mr. Woltz, I'm a lawyer. I am not threatened.
I know almost every big lawyer in New York. Who the hell are you?
Tom Hagen I have a special practice. I handle one client. Now, you have my number. I'll await your call. By the way, I admire your pictures very much.
Why didn't you say you worked for Corleone, Tom? I thought you were just some cheap, two-bit hustler Johnny was running in trying to bluff me.
Tom Hagen I don't like to use his name unless it's really necessary.
Just tell him he should ask me anything else. But this is one favor I can't give him.
Tom Hagen He never asks a second favor when he's been refused the first, understood?
You don't understand. Johnny Fontane never gets that movie. That part is perfect for him. It'll make him a big star. And I'm gonna run him out of the business, and let me tell you why...And let me be even more frank, just to show you that I'm not a hard-hearted man, and it's not all dollars and cents. She was beautiful, she was young, she was innocent. She was the greatest piece of ass I ever had, and I had 'em all over the world. And then Johnny Fontane comes along with his olive-oil voice and guinea charm. And she runs off. She threw it all away just to make me look ridiculous. And a man in my position can't afford to be made to look ridiculous! Now you get the hell outta here! And if that gumbah tries any rough stuff, you tell him I ain't no band leader! Yeah, I heard that story.
Tom Hagen Thank you for the dinner, and a very pleasant evening. Now, if your car could take me to the airport... Mr. Corleone is a man who insists on hearing bad news immediately.
Tom Hagen [to Don Corleone, about Virgil Sollozzo]
He's known as 'The Turk.' He's supposed to be very good with a knife, but only in matters of business or some sort of reasonable complaint. His business is narcotics. He has fields in Turkey where they grow the poppies. And in Sicily, he has the plants to process them into heroin. Now, he needs cash and he needs protection from the police, for which he gives a piece of the action. I couldn't find out how much. The Tattaglia family is behind him here in New York.
There's a lot of money in that white powder.
Tom Hagen Well, I say yes. There's more money potential in narcotics than anything else we're looking at. Now if we don't get into it, somebody else will. Maybe one of the Five Families, maybe all of them. Now, with the money they earn, they can buy more police and political power - then they come after us. Now we have the unions, we have the gambling, and they're the best things to have. But narcotics is a thing of the future. And if we don't get a piece of that action, we risk everything we have - I mean not now, but ten years from now.
Tom! Tom Hagen! Merry Christmas! He, I'm glad I run into you.
Tom Hagen Well, I haven't got time.
Aw, make time, consiglieri. Get in the car. What are you worried about? If I want to kill you, you'd be dead already. Get in.
Your boss is dead. I know you're not in the muscle-end of the family, Tom, so I don't want you to be scared. I want you to help the Corleones, and I want you to help me. Yeah, we got him outside his office just about an hour after we picked you up. Drink it. So now it's up to you to make the peace between me and Sonny. Sonny was hot for my deal, wasn't he? And you knew it was the right thing to do.
Tom Hagen Sonny'll come after you with everything's he got.
That'll be his first reaction, sure. That's why you gotta talk some sense into him. The Tattaglia family is behind me with all their people. The other New York Families will go along with anything that will prevent a full-scale war. Let's face it, Tom, and all due respect, the Don, rest in peace, was -- slippin'. Ten years ago, could I have gotten to him? Well now, he's dead. He's dead, Tom, and nothing can bring him back. So you gotta talk to Sonny, you gotta talk to the caporegimes, that Tessio and that Fat Clemenza. It's good business, Tom.
Tom Hagen I'll try, but even Sonny won't be able to call Luca Brasi off.
Yeah, well, let me worry about Luca. You just talk to Sonny and the other two kids.
Tom Hagen I'll try my best.
Good. Now, you can go. I don't like violence, Tom. I'm a business man. Blood is a big expense.
He wants us to send Michael to hear the proposition. And the promise is that the deal is so good that we can't refuse.
No more meetin's, no more discussions, no more Sollozzo tricks.
We can't wait. I don't care what Sollozzo says about a deal, he's gonna kill Pop, that's it. That's the key for him. Gotta get Sollozzo. They wanna have a meeting with me, right? It will be me, McCluskey, and Sollozzo. Let's set the meeting. Get our informers to find out where it's gonna be held. Now, we insist it's a public place, a bar, a restaurant, some place where there's people so I feel safe. They're gonna search me when I first meet them, right? So I can't have a weapon on me then. But if Clemenza can figure a way to have a weapon planted there for me, then I'll kill 'em both.
[Smiles]
Hey, whatcha gonna do, nice college boy, eh? Didn't want to get mixed up in the Family business, huh? Now you wanna gun down a police captain cuz he slapped ya in the face? Hah? What do you think this is the Army, where you shoot 'em a mile away? You've gotta get up close like this and bada-bing,you blow their brains all over your nice Ivy League suit! Come here!
You're taking this very personal. Tom, this is business and this man is taking it very personal.
Where does it say that you can't kill a cop?...I'm talking about a cop that's mixed up in drugs. I'm talking about a dishonest cop and a crooked cop who got mixed up in the rackets and got what was coming to him. That'd make a helluva story. Now we got people in the newspapers, right Tom? They might like a story like that.
Tom Hagen They might; they just might.
It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business.
Tom Hagen It was Michael who killed Sollozzo, but he's safe and we're starting to work to bring him back.
I want you to find out where that ol' pimp Tattaglia is hiding - I want his ass now, right now.
Tom Hagen Things are starting to loosen up a bit. If you go after Tattaglia, all hell's gonna break...
Oh, Tom.
Tom Hagen ...loose. Let, let the smoke clear. Pop can negotiate.
No, Pop can't do nothin' till he's better. I'm going to decide what's going to be done.
Tom Hagen All right, but your war is costing us a lot of money, nothing's coming in...We can't do business...
Well, neither can they! Don't worry about it.
Tom Hagen They don't have our overhead...We can't afford a stalemate.
Well, then, there ain't no more stalemate - I'm gonna end it by killin' that ol' bastard! I'm gonna...kill...
Tom Hagen Yeah, well, you're getting a great reputation. I hope you're enjoying it.
Well, you just do what I tell you to do. Goddamn it. If I had a wartime consigliere, a Sicilian, I wouldn't be in this shape! Pop had Genco, look what I got. I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. Ma made me a little dinner. It's Sunday.
Tom Hagen It's alright.
Tom Hagen Michael, why am I out?
You're not a wartime consigliere, Tom. Things may get rough with the move we're trying.
My credit good enough to buy you out?
Moe Greene Buy me out?
Moe Greene The Corleone Family wants to buy me out? No, I buy you out, you don't buy me out.
Your casino loses money, maybe we can do better.
Moe Greene You think I'm skimmin' off the top, Mike?
You're unlucky.
Moe Greene You goddamn guineas really make me laugh. I do you a favor and take Freddie in when you're having a bad time, and then you try to push me out!
Wait a minute, you took Freddie in because the Corleone Family bankrolled your casino, because the Molinari Family on the Coast guaranteed his safety. Now we're talking business, let's talk business.
Moe Greene Yeah, let's talk business, Mike. First of all, you're all done. The Corleone Family don't even have that kind of muscle anymore. The Godfather's sick, right? You're getting chased out of New York by Barzini and the other Families. What do you think is going on here? You think you can come to my hotel and take over? I talked to Barzini, I can make a deal with him, and still keep my hotel!
Is that why you slapped my brother around in public?
Aw now that, that was nothin', Mike. Now, Now uh Moe didn't mean nothin' by that. Sure he flies off the handle once in a while, but Moe and me, we're good friends, right Moe? Huh?
Moe Greene I gotta business to run. I gotta kick asses sometimes to make it run right. We had a little argument, Freddy and I, so I had to straighten him out.
You straightened my brother out?
Moe Greene He was banging cocktail waitresses two at a time! Players couldn't get a drink at the table! What's wrong with you?
I leave for New York tomorrow, think about a price.
Moe Greene Sonofabitch, Do you know who I am? I'm Moe Greene! I made my bones when you were going out with cheerleaders!
Wait a minute, Moe, Moe, I got an idea. Tom, you're the Consiglieri and you can talk to the Don, you can explain...
Tom Hagen Just a minute now, the Don is semi-retired and Mike is in charge of the Family business now. If you have anything to say, say it to Michael.
[Moe Greene leaves]
Mike! You don't come to Las Vegas and talk to a man like Moe Greene like that!
Fredo, you're my older brother, and I love you. But don't ever take sides with anyone against the Family again. Ever.
Barzini wants to arrange a meeting, straighten any of our problems out.
...
Tom Hagen Tessio. I always thought it would be Clemenza.
It's the smart move. Tessio was always smarter.
Tom Hagen You know how they're going to come at you?
They want to arrange a meeting between me and Barzini. On Tessio's ground. Where I'll be safe.
Can you get me off the hook, Tom? You know, for old times' sake?
Tom Hagen Can't do it, Sally.
Tell Michael it was strictly business. I always liked him.
Tom Hagen He understands that.
Tom This is business, not personal!
They shot my father. It's business, your ass!
Tom Even shooting your father was business, not personal, Sonny!
Tom [Don Vito and Tom travel home from the Five Families meeting]
When I meet with the Tattaglia people, should I insist that all his drug middlemen have clean records?
Mention it. Don't insist. Barzini is a man who'll know that without being told.
Tom You mean Tattaglia?
Tattaglia's a pimp. He never could've outfought Santino, but I didn't know until this day that it was... Barzini all along.
Tom I'm sure he will.
Cicci [intercepts the two]
Sal, Tom? Boss says he'll come in a separate car. He says for you two to go on ahead.
Hell, he can't do that. It screws up all my arrangements!
Cicci Well, that's what he said.
Tom I can't go either, Sal.
[Several button men close in around Tessio]
Tell Mike it was only business. I always liked him.
Tom He understands that.
Cicci 'Scuse me, Sal. [disarms Tessio]
Tom, can you get me off the hook, for old time's sake?
Tom Can't do it, Sally. [signals Cicci to take Tessio away]
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