30 years of pounding beats and riding cars, 30 years of dirt and crummy pay. For 30 years, I gave my life to this department. And you allow this foreigner to accuse me. Answer, answer, why do I have to answer him? No sir! I won't take back that badge until the people of this county want me back.
Police Captain Hank Quinlan
Orson Welles · 22 quotes
Susan Vargas
Janet Leigh · 5 quotes
Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas
Charlton Heston · 4 quotes
Schwartz
Mort Mills · 4 quotes
Tana
Marlene Dietrich · 4 quotes
Uncle Joe Grandi
Akim Tamiroff · 4 quotes
Most scenes together: Police Captain Hank Quinlan & Tana (3)
Touch of Evil quotes
Page 1 of 3
Adair
An hour ago, Rudi Linnekar had this town in his pocket.
Coroner
Now you can strain him through a sieve.
Why don't we go somewhere nice and private, huh, where we can sit down and have a drink?
I don't drink.
Marcia Linnekar
I guess that's my father. I'm not acquainted with my father's girlfriends.
Menzies
[to Vargas]
Well, Hank has done it again. He's nailed his man.
Thanks to you, pardner.
Menzies
Me? If that dynamite had been a snake there in the bathroom, it would have bit me.
[to Vargas]
...This is it, we've broken the case. Rudi Linnekar was, uh, blown up with eight sticks of dynamite and, uh, Sanchez stole ten. That leaves two and we've found 'em both. You heard that boy. We found the dynamite.
Sanchez
That's impossible.
We found two sticks.
Sanchez
...Where did you find this?
Right here in your love nest.
Sanchez
Where?
Menzies
Where you had it stashed, of course.
Sanchez
What are you trying to do?
We're trying to strap you to the electric chair, boy.
Menzies
We don't like it when innocent people are blown to jelly in our town.
Menzies
Grandi was strangled.
Grandi was a crook.
Menzies
You're a killer.
Partly. I'm a cop.
Menzies
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Drunk and crazy as you must have been when you strangled him. I guess you were somehow thinking of your wife, the way she was strangled.
I'm always thinking of her, drunk or sober. What else is there to think about, except my job, my dirty job?
Menzies
You didn't have to make it dirty.
I don't call it dirty. Look at the record, our record, partner. Huh?
Menzies
Sure, sure, sure.
Well? All those convictions.
Menzies
Convictions, sure. All these years, you've been playing me for a sucker. Faking evidence...
Aiding justice partner.
Menzies
How many did you frame?
Nobody.
Menzies
Come on, Hank. How many did you frame?
No one - nobody that wasn't guilty, guilty, guilty. Every last one of them - guilty.
Night Manager
That, that friend of yours, Mr. Grandi, he, he ain't gonna leave you here for long. [He winks]
He is not my friend.
Night Manager
He, he brought you here in that, that car, didn't he?
No, he didn't. As a matter of fact, he's under arrest.
Night Manager
Under arrest? Mr. Grandi? [He laughs and then quickly steps away]
Yes he is.
Pete Menzies
[to Vargas, about Quinlan's bad leg]
He got it in a gun fight...He was wounded stopping a bullet that was meant for me.
Pete Menzies
[to Vargas, about Quinlan]
Sure. You can smear him. Ruin his whole life's work. Vargas, I-I don't even know what he is. That's what you've done to him....He's on an important case and he's disappeared. Good and drunk probably.
I don't speak Mexican...Let's keep it in English, Vargas.
Vargas
That's alright with me. I'm sure he's just as unpleasant in any language.
Sanchez
Unpleasant? Strange? I've been told I have a very winning personality. The very best shoe clerk the store ever had.
You weren't workin' as a shoe clerk out in that construction crew...
I'm no lawyer. All a lawyer cares about is the law.
Vargas
Captain, you are a policeman, aren't you?
Mmm hmm. Aren't you? You don't seem very positive about the job.
Vargas
There are plenty of soldiers who don't like war. It's a dirty job, enforcing the law, but it's what we're supposed to be doing, isn't it?
I don't know about you, when a murderer's loose, I'm supposed to catch him.
Just because he speaks a little guilty, that don't make him innocent, you know.
Vargas
If you can show motive, yes, but don't you need a bit more than that?
Oh, we'll get it. Oh, there's my coffee. Didn't you bring me any donuts or sweet rolls?
Vargas
You'll have to put him on the scene of the crime.
We will.
You've got to have some evidence.
We'll get it.
Our friend Vargas has some very special ideas about police procedure. He seems to think it don't matter whether killers hang or not, so long as we obey the fine print.
Vargas
Captain, I don't think a policeman should work like a dog catcher in putting criminals behind bars. No! In any free country, a policeman is supposed to enforce the law, and the law protects the guilty as well as the innocent.
Our job is tough enough.
Vargas
It's supposed to be. It has to be tough. A policeman's job is only easy in a police state. That's the whole point, Captain - who's the boss, the cop or the law?
Well, when this case is over, I'll come around some night and sample some of your chili.
Better be careful. Maybe too hot for you.
What's my fortune? You've been reading the cards, haven't ya?
I've been doing the accounts.
Come on, read my future for me.
You haven't got any.
What do you mean?
Your future is all used up. Why don't you go home?