Fallon quotes from White Heat (1949)

You put it on a pole, wind a spool of silk thread around it, and you hold the pole over the water. Then you sit under a nice shady tree and relax. After a while, a hungry fish comes along, takes a nip at your hook, and you've got dinner. For the next two weeks, I'm not gonna think about anything except the eternal struggle between man and the fish. I've been promised a vacation. You remember?

Evans

Sorry, Hank, that's out.

Look at me. College degree, lovable personality, and I spend most of my time in prison, an undercover specialist. Eight sentences in five years! ...Sing-Sing, Leavenworth. I joined the Department to put criminals behind bars - and here I am, stir crazy!

A hoodlum turns himself in on a phony rap and beats the gas chamber. I'll betcha he's thumbing his nose at Uncle Sam right now and loving it. Jarrett outsmarted you!

Evans

That's just what we want him to think. We're working with the Springfield police. We arranged for the confession to check. So what happens? Jarrett does a stretch in the penitentiary - and in case he gets lonely, wants to talk to someone, we're gonna let one of our own boys do a stretch right in the same cell...You'll be one of Jarrett's cellmates. Stick with him until you find out where he unloaded three hundred thousand dollars in federal currency without a single bill showing up. Also, try to learn the identity of the very special fence that engineered this deal.

How does he operate?

Evans

Buy stolen money here at thirty-four cents on the dollar. Peddles it on the European black market for - who knows how much. No questions asked. Sweet racket.

Evans

This job isn't gonna be like any of your others, Hank. You see, there's insanity in the Jarretts, and some of it rubbed off on Cody. His father died in an institution...When he was a kid, he used to fake headaches in order to get his mother's attention away from the rest of the family. It worked. As he grew up, the fancied headaches became real, until now they tear him to pieces. Any minute, he's apt to crack open at the seams. And there goes our case. So you'll be workin' against time...Except that Cody's not an easy guy to get close to in a hurry. The only person he's ever cared about or trusted is his mother. No one else has ever made a dent, not even his wife. His mother's been the prop that's held him up. He's got a fierce, psychopathic devotion for her. All his life, whenever he got in a spot, he just put out his hand and there was Ma Jarrett. Without her, maybe Cody'd - just like his old man.

You mean I'm supposed to take Mama's place?

Evans

You can never tell. He might need someone.

I'll practice up on my lullabies.

Creel

Hey Cody, that guy's a copper.

Cody

What?

Creel

He's a T-man. I know him. His name is Fallon.

Cody

Are you sure?

Creel

Yeah. He pinched me four years ago.

Don't go for your guns.

Cody

A copper! A copper! How d'ya like that, boys? A copper. And his name is Fallon. [He begins to laugh hysterically] And we went for it. I went for it. Treated him like a kid brother. And I was gonna split fifty-fifty with a copper. Maybe they're waitin' to pin a medal on him.

Solid gold. Come on, get up, get your hands up.

Cody

Yeah, that's it. A nice gold medal for the copper. Only maybe he's gonna get it sooner than he thinks.

Evans

Cody Jarrett.

He finally got to the top of the world. And it blew right up in his face.