Dear God in heaven. It's me, Frankie. Look.
I know I probably ain't one of your favorite people down here.
I got on some bad things here and there
and I know I've been asking for a lot of favors lately, too.
So maybe I've use most of mine up.
I know you probably tried to
help me out with this lottery thing tonight.
But the way things are going,
it doesn't look as if it's going to work out.
So I'm asking for one more favor.
Please don't add insult to injury here.
God, please, I'm begging you.
I don't want to win the lottery.
- Your name is? - Frank Pesce.
- P-E-S... - C-E.
Okay. Here you are, Frank. I'm Julie.
Welcome to the Empire Stakes. Follow me.
I have you done for six. Where's the rest of the family?
- What? - Where's the rest of the family?
It's only me.
What are you gonna do if you win?
I really don't know.
Come on, tell me the truth. You feel lucky tonight?
You have no idea.
Good luck, Mr Pesce.
How you doing?
Good luck to you, man.
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Memory Lane himself - Joe Franklin.
Okay. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.
The big moment has arrived at long last.
The very first New York State Lottery, the Empire Stakes,
with some lucky person receiving six million two hundred thousand dollars.
The very first in New York state.
I know the excitement
has been mounting and generating
and mushrooming and snowballing
and escalating and skyrocketing
and the uh... contestants out there the uh... audience...
you're kind of palpitating and drooling
and salivating and getting ready now
for the moment... the moment has arrived
and the lucky person is...
Mr Frank Pesce.
Are you happy now?
Are you happy, God? You had to do this to me.
You weren't happy leaving me alone.
Were you?
I'll kill you.
God!
I never wanted the damn ticket.
Why did you give it to me?
I get up every morning.
I'm fine, I'm a nice guy.
I know I do something's wrong.
I was perfectly happy in my life without it.
- You couldn't leave me alone, could you? - What's going on out here?
What the hell is your problem?
Frank, is that you?
And you? What the hell do you want?
Get back in there, Larry.
What's the matter?
I didn't put on here...
A lot of good you ever did me.
I'm gonna call the cops on you, Frank.
I'm Catholic.
I can do whatever the hell I want.
The atheist is here,
Bring him in.
I gotta go.
Merry Christmas, yeah.
Look, Sergeant. You gotta let me go.
And I ain't got a lot of time.
This priest wants to press charges.
You messed up his manger.
Oh, Larry. I'm sorry.
All right.
Now, all right.
All right, but why did you do it, Frankie?
Just let me go.
All right?
I just can't sit here and bullshit with you, guys.
Uncuff him.
Wait.
You know, Frank?
I checked on what you said.
Your brother is a cop with a 1A.
You've got no prior record.
You look like a nice Italian kid.
What the hell are you doing throwing snowballs at the church,
scaring the priest?
It's Christmas Eve. Don't you belong somewhere?
... who take home 6.2 million dollars.
When his name was called
and he failed to come forward
ushers discovered that Mr Pesce
apparently had left the drawing ceremony.
At any rate, congratulations to Frank Pesce
of Queens New York.
Wherever you are.
New Yorkers are flying over more bad economic news today.
Some say our city is going down...
That's you?
Same guy?
Yeah.
And then you went and broke windows in the church?
What are you? Some kind of mameluke?
It's a long story.
You're not going anywhere, neither am I,
until you make some kind of sense out of this.
I swear to God the only way I know how to tell this story
is from the beginning.
I got all night.
See, I got this... I got this curse.
I've been lucky since the day I was born.
It's like my mother...
She used to work at Lincoln Hospital so...
that's where I was supposed to be born.
But she went into labor at a bingo
a couple of blocks from where we lived.
So they had to rush her to Bellevue Hospital on 29th Street instead.
Actually that was my first stroke of luck,
because on that very night Lincoln Hospital ended up
having a huge fire and the place nearly burnt to the ground.
603 is a combination,
60 cents. 10 cents away. Now the other's a straight action.
717 for a dollar twenty...
I'll get right back.
Would you like to see your son?
My mom said he always cried when he saw us for the first time.
My brother, my sister, me.
Come on. I'm gonna be late. 20 minutes from here to Radio City.
You don't want nothing.
- Let's walk. Such a beautiful night. -It's eight blocks.
Yeah, but we're going to see the students' play.
When I was younger, my dad used to always seem like this giant to me.
This guy who knew everything about everything.
What are you looking at?
- There. - What's that?
What's that say?
Well, that says today is President Eisenhower's birthday.
I want to get my name up there.
I wouldn't want to have it any other way, Frankie,
but only great people get their names up there.
How can I get my name?
You gotta do something big, Frankie.
How big?
- Very very big. - How big?
This big.
I guess everyone wants to make his father proud of them.
So he doesn't feel like a jerk for having you.
And I figured if I could get my name up on that building,
at least I could have left some kind of mark on the world.
In my neighborhood there were two ways to make it.
One's the right way
and the other way is the fast way,
and I gotta tell you the fast way looked pretty attractive to me as a kid.
Wow! Look at that!
Loui Tucci is the biggest wise guy in the neighborhood.
He's poisoned. Don't even look at him.
Yeah, but I still like his car.
I'll be better off walking Frankie. Come on.
My dad could always talk circles around everybody
and I swear to God I should have run for office
and been a politician.
There was this odd thing going on
between him and Loui Tucci.
I know my father couldn't stand him
yet they seemed to be spending a lot of time together,
especially when my dad lost his trucking company,
which I'll get to later.
You say don't look at the guy
because he's no good, then you hang around with him.
- You mean Tucci. - Yeah.
Come on, Frankie. It's business.
You do business with that guy?
Never.
You see, Frankie,
I don't want to be in business with him.
I don't want to spend any time with a guy like that.
- That's why you're with him? - Yeah.
- Because you don't want to be? - That's right.
You mean you spend time with them
because you don't want to spend time with them.
That's exactly right.
If I spend less time with them,
I'd have to spend even more time with them.
So if you spend no time with them...
Then I'd be with him constantly.
I can't wait until I grow up, Pop,
so I can know what the hell you're talking about.
Get out of here, wise guy.
Frankie!
Don't be late.
Mama's cooking ginger paste.
Yeak, dad.
Growing up didn't help.
I still don't know what the hell he's talking about.
This luck thing kept on happening time after time.
I remember one time I was hanging out with my friend Jimmy Vitello,
whose father was also in the mob.
I mean in fact he was the biggest mobster in the tri-state area.
Whoa! Can you believe it? It was just laying here!
Hey, let's take it down to Earf's.
I'll give you five dollars.
- Five dollars? - Yeah.
- Are you nuts?
The thing must be worth a couple hundred bucks.
Don't be a fucking stiff.
What a mouth you got!
You kiss your mother with that mouth?
Where'd you get this?
God left it for us.
Well, I don't want him coming around here looking for it.
Get it out of here.
You know who my father is?
We don't want to have a little misunderstanding, do we?
10 bucks, that's it. Now get out of here, little bastards!
Go ahead.
To a kid this seemed very impressive.
All you had to do was mention Jimmy Vitello's father
and, boom, you got whatever the hell you wanted.
So no matter how far out of line Jimmy got
the cops never showed up at his house.
However a member of New York's finest
did end up in our house.
My brother Vito decided to become a cop.
Personally I think it was like getting the wolf to watch the chickens,
but at least somebody was doing something for the family name.
Meanwhile I hung around with a bunch of guys
who were doing absolutely nothing with their lives.
There was Lenny Nifty.
You know, we called it needle nose.
This guy was the definition of postnasal drip.
Hey, Frank. You know something, Frank?
Girls love poetry.
Dig this.
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.
Grips, baby, it is Petty Pace from day...
Then there was Dom the bomb.
Hello, Frankie, how are you today?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, now listen Frankie...
This guy actually thought he could sing.
What am I gonna do? I gotta lose some weight.
I think I got a gland problem.
Rocky Sav had a gland problem
ever since the day he was born.
Alvus Vinus spat on everything in sight whenever he talked.
And then there was Jimmy Vitello.
Boy, wanna make some money?
Ten thousand dollars cash, tax free.
We had some pizza the other night.
Extra cheese, sausage, pepperoni...
Forget about it.
While I was hanging around on the street
bullshitting with my friends all day long,
my dad was out breaking his ass.
Ever since he lost his own company,
he had been working as a driver for some other outfit.
So every day he had to take the subway to Penn Station.
Then he would catch a connecting train all the way to Union City
to drive a truck five days a week through City traffic.
No wonder the guy had problems relaxing.
This city is full of freaking dogs.
We gotta get out of here.
I've seen that.
We need a house out of Manhattan, a nice house with our own lawn.
That's what we need.
You know, Pop? It's funny that you're saying that,
because of what I've been thinking.
I can't wait to hear this.
The way I figure is that the future is in outer space.
Maybe I could become an astronaut.
It's the last frontier, Pop.
An astronaut?
Think about it. Look, Pop.
I could become the first Italian on the moon.
Oh, don't laugh.
I wanna...
I wanna do things
that I never done before.
Oh!
Why don't you try going inside
and cleaning up your fucking room?
Come on, Pop, I'm serious.
I got longings and desires like everybody.
Are you all right?
Is there little people going around in your head?
Or are you putting me on?
Because I'm talking about reality, here, Frankie.
Reality, you get it?
I'm trying to move us to Queens
and you're talking about picking up
fucking moon rocks.
Wow!
You know what your problem is?
What's my problem?
Your dreams are too small.
Anyway when I was 18 my father got his dream
and moved us all to Queens.
He got his other dream too, his own lawn.
Every afternoon like clockwork he will come home
and set up the sprinkler.
So what are we eating tonight?
She had to order a couple.
Could you watch your language, please?
The hell did it go.
You want this?
- Why don't you just stop liking pizza? - It's a waste of money.
But gambling is not a waste of money, uh?
Who's gambling? You see me gambling?
I heard you took your son Frankie to the track yesterday.
You couldn't buy him a miserable hot dog for a buck,
but I bet you spent four hundred dollars
on a horse that came in dead last.
Go ahead.
Tell me I'm wrong.
You see my name on this?
You see my name anywhere?
I'm so sorry. That must have been
some other guy wearing your pants.
How much does the pizza cost?
Seven bucks.
Seven bucks, huh?
It probably cost 25 cents to make.
- So... - So?
I'm a man of principle
and I ain't paying 27 times what it's worth. That's so.
Not for nothing, Pop. But did you pay for this.
You're making a joke, Frankie?
My family could start a fight over absolutely anything.
What's the weather for tomorrow?
I heard it's gonna rain.
That ain't what I heard.
What the hell do you hear?
Never mind. Frankie.
Where'd you hear rain?
I heard it on the radio.
The weather man says it's gonna rain tomorrow.
Typical, Vito. You listen to the radio?
They're always wrong.
Hey hey ho ho, do me a favor with the goddamn weather here.
With the weather, with the rain,
with Mars with the rain who gives a shit
about sun and rain?
I do, Pop,
you don't pay ten dollars to get your hair done.
My hair frizzes is in the rain.
Listen, witch. Leave your broom at home,
don't go out and your hair won't get wet.
This Christmas I got two seaters you
you could just jump right on with me.
Fucking shit!
Who's gonna marry you with a mouth like that!
Two months later she married a Sicilian guy named Tony.
And Tony didn't make too big of a hit with the family.
The Vietnam war was raging full force.
Guys from the neighborhood were coming up in boxes every week.
We all got letters in the mail
and had to go to the draft board to sign up.
So we were about to do what was right for our country.
You know, I just developed a theory on life.
Oh, yeah. What's that?
Okay, listen,
because it's very complicated.
First you're born and you're like a baby,
a child, and then you start the adolescence.
Then you grow old,
and then you grow old, and then you die.
And that's it.
Like you said,
no offense,
but that's the stupidest fucking thing I ever...
All right, laugh. But if you stop and think about it,
it makes a lot of sense.
Nearly a thousand eighteen year olds who
have reported a city with it.
Getting a load of these guys I figured
we could win a Vietnam War in about 15 minutes.
Quiet down, you motherfuckers!
This guy looks tough.
Yeah, he looks real tough.
Donnie Frank.
All right, as of this minute,
all of you here
is now the property of the United States government.
Now, if anybody here
has been in jail,
who is out on bail,
please move to the right side of the auditorium.
All the fucking room got up.
You've got to be shitting me.
Excuse me, sir.
I don't think it's fair that we got to take a test that we didn't study for.
It's a goddamn urine exmination, boy!
I'm sorry, I misunderstood. I thought it was something else.
What's your name, boy?
Frank Pesce, sir.
You know? Pesce means fish in italian.
I don't give a goddamn what it means.
- Sorry, sir. - Is there something wrong with you, boy?
No.
Not that I'm aware of, sir.
You got a high school diploma?
No, sir.
You ain't got no high school diploma?
No, sir. No diploma, sir.
I think he likes you.
Okay, cover your left eye and read line seven on the chart.
Get out of here.
All right.
Yeah.
Where the hell is Frank Pesce?
Pesce!
Frank Pesce, get the hell out of here.
Yes, sir.
Did I not ask you if you had a high school diploma?
Yes, sir. You asked me that. I remember you asking me that.
And what did you tell me?
That I didn't have one.
According to my files, you have a high school diploma.
We have got one,
just not on me.
You get the hell up there and see the psychiatrist.
Get the hell out of here.
You got four cards in your hand...
I don't if...
It's too early in the game.
I'm picking them up.
Here comes General Custer.
Come here, Frank. I want to talk to you.
10 million guys trying to beat the draft
and only you could get away with it.
What do you mean?
You see this letter?
The United States government thinks that
you are a calculated risk.
It's that good or bad?
- They think you are nuts. - So now the Army knows
what the whole neighborhood knows. You're fucking crazy.
I'm very sorry I'm letting you guys down,
by not stepping on a landmine.
What's so funny?
I'm supposed to go to all my friends in the neighborhood
and say that my son's a nut job.
That's why he's not in the Army, huh?
You got to have mental illness, right?
And I'll tell you something else.
You're ruined, you're ruined. You'll never get a city job, never.
Excuse me. I'll just get a rope. I'll hang myself.
Mentally disqualified just reflects
on the whole family.
So I got out of the war but I knew it was no accident.
It was my lucky star.
What do you have to figure out?
My dad was wrong.
I did end up getting a city job,
and it ended up being the luckiest thing to happen to me yet.
And it would show itself in the face of Maria Rios.
The 7:10 train can't leave at 6 30.
Ma'am.
They call it the 7:10 train because it leaves at seven ten.
Ah, you thought that was the number of the train.
I see.
What an idiot!
No, no. Not 7:45.
Ma'am, trust me on my mother's eyes.
The train leaves at 8 30.
I don't care.
All right, all right. I'll tell you what.
Why don't you come down here at 7:45
and if the fucking thing starts moving
jump on it?
Frank, you're bad.
You know you got the most beautiful eyes.
Cut it down, Frankie, we're gonna get caught.
We're not gonna get caught.
I own this place.
Hey, look.
I'm gonna make a family announcement.
I'd like to congratulate my youngest son Frankie Jr,
who bears my name, for having been fired today.
You held that job for uh... eight months?
That's a record. I'm pointing out your progress.
Dad, I didn't like that job anyway.
Besides I got a new angle on my life.
- I can't wait to hear this. - Yeah, me too.
Shut up.
While I was working there,
I was thinking I never had to look at the board,
I always knew which trains went where,
I knew every schedule by heart.
You know what that means.
You got a natural talent for useless information.
No, it means I have a good head for numbers.
I could be in an accounting firm.
That's a terrific idea, Frankie.
You can do that on account.
On account of what?
On account of you, moron!
If they made you a detective anything is possible, you horned one.
Hey, don't curse.
Can I shoot him for saying that?
I got something very serious to say here.
I've been thinking about that lawn out there.
Bluegrass of Kentucky, what do you think?
I got a relative in Kentucky...
Shut up!
What the hell is it?
That's the best grass there is.
Grass is grass, Pop.
You don't know a damn thing about anything, do you?
Enough with this lawn already.
Yeah, you're driving everybody crazy with that lawn.
What happened, Tommy?
Got dressed in a hurry tonight?
You left your shirt home?
Ask her. She hasn't done the wash in a week.
- What? - What do you mean by "she"?
Her name's Madeline.
And what is she? Your servant?
Like I'm not your servant.
That's different.
How's it different?
It's different, that's all.
Pop, could you just not start tonight, please?
Ma, thanks for spaghetti.
It was great.
What's wrong? Where you going?
I'm going out. Can you tell?
Where you going?
- I got a date. - With whom?
With a girl.
- What girl? - Maria.
Who's Maria?
The Spanish girl from Spanish Harlem,
the one you told me to stay away from.
Three months he's been a detective and he's knocking on everybody.
Hey, he's right.
- Mum, you know where my gun is? - Frankie.
I told you to stay away from her.
But she's a nice girl.
Do you see my service revolver around?
- I'm late. - I don't care how nice she is.
She's Spanish, she's a Puerto Rican,
and historically Puerto Ricans hate Italians.
If you go up the Spanish Harlem,
you're gonna get hurt.
Where's my gun?
Enough with the gun, Jesus!
I gotta do everything around here. I gotta find your gun.
Maybe I should ride in the car with you.
Dad, her brother Jesús loves me like a brother, all right?
Do what you want.
Hey, Jesús. How you doing?
Keep away from my sister.
Help me!
Is it a catholic hospital?
I'm a catholic.
If I'm gonna die, I want to die in a catholic hospital.
It's nothing serious,
it's just a little problem.
He just wants to talk to you just for a minute.
You're all right?
Looks good, huh?
How are you, Frank?
What is it? I'm gonna be okay, am I?
God was with you on this one.
If you hadn't received this injury,
we'd never caught this other problem in time.
What?
I'm gonna be okay, am I?
X-ray show that you have a tumor
on one of your ribs, right below your stabbed bone.
A tumor?
That's cancer!
I'm going to have to go in there and remove it.
What's with his eyes?
It's a little condition or something.
Condition?
It's funny.
No, it ain't funny.
This guy's got to cut me up and look inside of me.
One minute he's looking at the air conditioner
and the next minute he's looking at me.
Thank you, Frank. You gotta calm down,
you gotta take it easy.
I mean this surgeon is one of the finest in New York.
He operated on cousin Ernie's lungs.
Cousin Earnie is dead.
That couldn't be helped.
He died of a heart attack. His lungs were clean.
The Neptune Society, a simple dignified
low-cost alternative to the high-priced funeral
wants you to spend your money on the living,
not the undertaker.
Oh yeah, look at that.
It's one of Dr Puccini's patients up there right now.
What are you laughing about?
I'm out of my mind with depression.
I gotta see this nun on my floor
for a little spiritual advice, to help me through all this.
You know what she says?
Whatever is God's will is God's will, my son.
The truth is that it was cancer.
But I ended up beating it because they caught it in time.
Needless to say I recovered quickly.
And though I didn't live in Queens, I was always on 29th Street,
because that's where the action was.
The club was run by Fili D'Neb,
the local bookmaker who smelled
like he was constantly sucking on a clove of garlic.
How can you get such great cards like this
and be so fucking stupid.
God protects the dumb.
You need a lifetime protection.
How about this one?
How does a guy get stabbed up in Spanish Harlem
and have it turned into the thing that saves his life?
The problem is you got the luck. You were born with it.
The pitiful part is you don't know what the hell to do with it.
Some people are born with it and they know what to do with it.
Philly The Nap, a narcoleptic.
He would nod out without warning,
and a second later he'd snap out of it.
How long was I out?
Three and a half weeks.
A wise guy, right? And you, learn what to do with the luck.
You got it.
Will you take it downwind, will you?
Remember what I told you about the right way to make it
and the fast way?
The right way wasn't working out too well for me,
so I decided to try it the fast way.
These heavyweight wise guys came up from Mulberry Street
to set up the gambling operation.
They chose the bakery next door
after talking to Billy, the guy who owned them.
Still being a jerko,
I went to look for a job as a guy at the front door
instead of looking for one's deployment.
So I talked to Jimmy about getting a job there.
I was told to talk to you.
Yeah? And by who?
I can't say.
You know somebody?
Yeah.
But I can't say.
Who do you know?
I told you I can't say.
What the fuck is his name?
Jimmy Vitello.
No. Never mention no names.
Never mention names like that in this joint.
It's a bad thing to do. Never never...
- You asked me! - You're wrong there.
Anyway I got the job,
and I had enough money saved to go in with Vito on a car.
- Who's gonna talk? - I'm talking, this is bullshit.
You know I want to order this car before it goes out of the day.
Right with a white vinyl top and rear defroster.
AM FM stereo, tinted windows, and a tilted wheel.
Shut up, all right?
For our 200th time, I know how to order a car.
- Just relax. - White with a white vinyl top.
What's this? This is not our car.
- This is the car. - What are you talking about?
I told you. White with a white vinyl top.
- But the guy said... - I don't care what the guy said.
- I thought it was wide. - I don't want this.
I'm not gonna pay for it.
Here, come here.
- You stay over there. - Come here for one minute.
- Don't fuck around. - Why would I...
Stay there! Dad!
- Tell him to stay there. - What is that?
This is our car.
Hey, Mr Pesce. How you doing?
Everything all right?
- Punk. - Pop.
You know a man is judged by the company that keeps, Frankie.
What about you, Pop?
Out here keeping company with the crickets.
You're a smart ass, huh?
I'm still very capable of smacking the shit out of you if I have to.
Today you're watching the door.
What are you going to do tomorrow?
You're gonna hold some guy down
while he hits him over the head with a tire iron?
Dad, it's just temporary, all right?
I'm saving the money up so I can do bigger things.
Like what?
I don't know.
Frankie, this is it. This is all there is.
You get a job, you make a living.
You meet a girl, you get married and you have kids.
There's nothing else to it.
Pop, this can't be it, right?
What if I want to do something else?
Like what?
I don't know. Will you quit asking me?
Look, I'm miserable, you're miserable.
You're miserable. You know what you gotta do?
You got to find yourself a hobby.
That's right. You got to get something
that's going to give you pleasure.
Like me and my lawn.
Get out!
Stop! Don't hit the cat!
The heat from his body is burning a hole in my lawn.
Isn't it a big difference?
What?
The bluegrass of Kentucky.
I don't notice any difference.
You don't notice no difference?
No.
That's because you don't have the eye, Frankie.
The eye.
What eye?
The eye! The eye!
What eye!
If you had the eye, you'd know what I was talking about.
But obviously you don't have the eye, Frankie.
Well, Pop. I wish I had this eye,
because then I would know what the hell you were talking about.
Well, I'm just uh listening to a different drum, Frank.
So now there are drums.
There's a lot of shit happening out here.
That's right.
Lottery comes to New York. Take a look.
You and 20 million other people seen that today, all right?
And there's always hope, kid.
Not for your Pop, there's no hope.
Bullshit!
Hi, Mom.
How you doing?
Perfect timing.
Get out of there! What's the matter with you?
Go wash your hands.
You come in bringing them germs
and sticking them in the sauce like that!
Hey! Out of my chair, Bob.
Just get out.
I have to go to work. I have a job.
Not like some people I know.
And what are you doing sticking at this slumber party?
Where is your father?
He's outside with the Bluegrass of Kentucky and the eye and the drums...
Don't give him a hard time.
Why not?
He got laid off from work.
He got laid off?
You heard her.
Would you go call your father, huh?
Get off your ass and go call your father!
All right! I'll go.
That was serious.
We were just getting by as it was
and I knew that we were in for some hard times.
At the same time the neighborhood was going nuts.
Everybody had lottery fever.
Me? I wouldn't have anything to do with it.
Rocky, what are you gonna do with your millions?
You don't play, you don't win, Frank.
So that's original.
You'll turn into a freaking Rockefeller, Rocky.
My father could have probably supported
the New York State Lottery Commission all by himself.
He was going for the big one.
It ain't right, but I've been collecting unemployment checks
while I was working at the club.
And it was a lucky thing too
because I picked Labor Day to cash that check.
The banks were all closed.
Earf's pawn shop was the only joint on the block that was open.
Hey, Frankie!
- How are you? Everything okay? - Yeah.
How's the family? Your mother, your father,
your beautiful sister Mary...
Everybody's fine. Look. I gotta cash a check, all right?
You got an ID?
Earf!
How's my sister? How's my mum? You're asking me for ID?
Frank, I'm sorry, that's the way it is.
You got to have two forms of identification.
Earf, you know who my father is, right?
We don't want to have a misunderstanding, do we?
Well, all right. For you Frankie I'll make an exception.
Thanks, Earf.
But you're gonna buy something, a minimum of 10 bucks.
- I gotta buy something. - Yeah.
What am I gonna buy in this place?
A fucking ukulele?
I'm not Chase Manhattan, Frank. Minimum of 10 bucks.
This looks like the same shit you had here...
All right, all right, all right...
Give me give me that piece of shit binoculars...
Hey.
Beautiful.
- Nine bucks. - Oh, come on.
I gotta charge you ten.
No, no.
Make up the difference, all right?
Give me one of them lottery tickets.
Everything is a chore with this guy.
You've got a beautiful pair of binoculars.
They're beautiful.
All right. One, two, three, four, five...
Come on.
Don't forget the binoculars.
We're gonna forget the binoculars
It cost me nine bucks.
And that was it.
I thought it was such a waste of money
I never even told my father that I bought it.
And then it happened.
I was on a subway sometime in November.
Shit!
I don't believe it. I don't believe it!
I'm a finalist in the lottery!
Right here, I'm a finalist in the lottery!
Yeah, I'm not kidding.
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Look at this. Here's the ticket!
I got a shot of 6.2 million dollars!
Pa! Ma! You know what happened?
I'm a finalist in the lottery!
- Are you serious? - Yes!
Frankie.
They laughed at Christopher Columbus,
they laughed at the Wright Brothers they laughed at Einstein, Mama,
but nobody's gonna laugh at me after Christmas Eve,
because I'm a finalist in a New York State Lottery
and I'm gonna win 6.2 million dollars,
and I'm gonna spend it.
I'm gonna buy you a beautiful home with a big lawn for me.
And Frankie, don't worry about a career. Not that you're ever gonna get one anyway.
Read it.
Who's on the phone?
Madeline, I'm gonna buy you a washer, a dryer,
every appliance you ever hoped for.
Daddy.
She must have fainted.
Celebration! Wine!
And what about you, detective Pesce?
What can I buy for you?
Now, son, I'm busy spending my money over here.
Just listen to Frankie.
Yes, my baby boy, who bears my name.
- That's exactly the point. - Yes. So?
We both got the same name.
What are you trying to tell me, Frankie?
- Pop, it's my ticket. - Come on. What do you mean, your ticket?
Oh, I know, I know.
You don't think I'm gonna share with you, right?
Is that it, you greedy bastard?
It's my ticket! I'll buy you whatever the hell you want.
You're right, kid. You are absolutely right.
For a minute there
you had me going.
Salud!
What's going on?
Honey,
it's Frankie's ticket.
Yeah, Pop.
I went over to Earf's to cash a check
because the banks were closed
and he made me buy something.
So I bought binoculars and a ticket.
You're telling me you bought one ticket.
I got 8 million tickets
sitting in a shoe box upstairs
and you bought one ticket.
Well, Pop. You know I'm lucky.
Can I see the ticket, Frankie?
You're gonna win this miserable fucking thing.
You know that, don't you?
Yeah, Pop, you know what's mine is yours.
Yeah, likewise, Frank. I got nothing.
Suddenly everyone was my best friend.
He's a lucky bastard.
Frankie Pesce is a finalist in the lottery.
It was really ridiculous.
I was one of 50 finalists
and everybody was acting like I'd already won the thing.
Would you bet on a horse that was going off 50-1?
I wouldn't.
Friends were betting on me
as if they were convinced that I could do anything.
So he took us down to Mulberry Street
to this real big gambling joint to see if I could throw some dice.
Hey, hey! Ain't that Loui Tucci?
Go for him, Frankie. Start his own graveyard in Jersey.
They'll cut your throat and go off for calzone afterwards.
He don't give a shit, man.
I got friends too.
Throw the fucking dice, will you?
Come on, will you, jerko? Let's go.
Then it happened. I made history.
I was about to do something nobody had ever seen. Ever.
Anywhere.
Get that fucking kid out of here.
Give me an axe and I'll chop your fucking hands off.
He was really upset.
What are you looking at?
Do you think this is a fucking joke?
I'm just playing some dice here.
Come here, you.
Say good morning to Vinnie, Dad.
I think it's a big joke, don't you?
Why?
Hanging out with the mob guys, shooting dice...
What the hell are you talking about?
You're a legend on Mulberry Street.
Frankie Pesce's kid, the man with the golden arm.
The golden arm and head up his ass.
Keep it up and watch what happens.
Just relax, all right?
I'm having fun, just recreational.
Recreational, okay.
Don't get yourself killed before the drawing.
Then you can do whatever the hell you want.
Oh, great. Thank you.
What the hell is that smelling?
It smells like gym sneakers or something.
It's our pizza.
That don't look like no pizza I ever seen, Pop.
Just shut up and have a slice.
Did you make that?
Did I make it? You see your mother here?
Yeah, I made it. Right?
And it cost me a dollar to make.
One dollar. You know the shit you buy?
Seven bucks. Have a piece.
Come on. Have a piece.
The dough's a little hard.
Oh!
What's wrong? What's the matter?
Pop, you get better pizza in Korea.
Who the hell made that? Michelin?
Put it in the trunk and use it as a spin.
I'm going back to bed.
The only member of our family to appreciate my father's pizza was Vinnie.
My father's not the kind of guy just to sit around the house like a normal person.
The boredom was driving him crazy,
and remember the idle mind is the devil's playground.
And in my father's case it was about to become an amusement park.
Hey!
Where the hell are you three going?
We're going bowling.
That's right, bowling.
Bowling, huh?
You haven't been bowling since Christ left Chicago.
Maybe we'll go bowling and maybe we won't go bowling.
Maybe we'll do something else,
but I figured
it would be nice for a father to spend the evening with his sons.
You got a problem with that?
You are so full of shit!
I don't know.
With dad being out of work,
our money situation was getting worse and worse.
The three of us decided to get rid of the T-bird for the insurance money.
Frankie, Frankie.
- Wait a minute. - What?
- Stand over there. - What are you talking about?
Stand over there, turn around.
Turn around.
Let's go home.
They found the car completely untouched,
except for the damage my father had done,
just where we left it in the Bronx.
There were times when you don't want to be lucky,
but that lucky star keeps on shining no matter what.
Bowling, huh?
To make matters worse we had a 500 deductible on the car
and a broken windshield costs 380 bucks and 40 for the tow,
so now we had to pay 420 bucks
just to get the car back in the shape that it was.
We don't have $420.
Insurance companies are not in business to be taken by idiots,
stupid idiots like you guys.
- Oh, yeah? Idiots?
Well the car really did get stolen in the bowling alley.
And I don't want to get into it again.
Yeah, like I'm five-foot towing blonde.
You know why the car can't get stolen?
Because it's under his name.
And you know his lucky curse.
They'll find it
no matter where we hide it.
This is all your fault.
You know what? You're full of shit.
- I'm full of shit? - Yeah, you're full of shit.
Where you going now?
I got something I gotta do, all right?
I paid my cousin Leo a visit in Budd Lake, New Jersey,
and together we figured out
a way to dump the car.
Hey, you know this stuff really works?
Get in there!
30 days later we were told to go down to the insurance company
and pick up the check.
The month had come and gone and no one had found a car,
as I was sure would be the case.
Let's not look like three goons going in there.
We look like a family gonna pick up a check.
Like a pack of fucking wild dogs.
That's what we look like.
I'm going in by myself. You guys wait down.
Why? You don't want us to come in?
Frankie, tell him what I said.
I'm sorry, Mr Pesce,
but it seems that nobody's found your son's car.
Ah, that's too bad!
You know my son Frankie.
He's been sick for the whole month.
You know what he says to me?
He says, 'Daddy,
you know losing my car is like losing my brother.'
I mean the kid's heartbroken.
You know I feel terrible about this.
- Listen. Let me make one more phone... - Oh, no!
Maybe we'll get lucky.
Hi, this is Lucy Sills.
I was wondering if there was anything new
with case uh... ten two one six nine.
Thanks.
They're checking.
Yeah.
What?
- Ivory Gold Mist? - Ah, no. Aqua Velva.
Oh, no. The car is the Ivory Gold missed,
a Ford Thunderbird license plates My Way.
Yes, that's it.
Thank you.
It seems that they found your son's car over the weekend in Budd Lake New Jersey.
Isn't that wonderful? I'm so glad I checked.
- Budd Lake, New Jersey? - Budd Lake.
Budd Lake, New Jersey. You fucking crazy.
They found the car.
- Where? - In Fucking Lake, New Jersey.
What a coincidence! We got family there!
I don't think the insurance company
is going to put that together to you.
Did you go with your cousin Leo, that fucking moron?
Come! Drive the car!
- Get in the car! - I'm getting in the car!
So we ended up selling the car to my cousin Leo.
Two days after the sale it got stolen.
But that money didn't last long.
Now we were hitting rock bottom.
Randy, give me the keys.
Come on, give me the keys.
You're gonna go out?
Come on, give me the keys.
Come on, come on. I need it.
- Got any money? - What?
Money, you got some money?
- I need some money. - Dad, no...
Frankie, look. I'm way behind here.
What do you got?
- I got four hundred dollars. - All right, go get it.
No! What for? - Okay, I got a feeling tonight.
I got a feeling that I can't lose on a fight tonight.
Please, come on, you're my partner. We'll be partners.
Not again, dad.
Jesus Christ! The first time I asked you for money!
All right, I'm gonna get the money.
Come on.
Of course I got him the money.
Frankie. It's in the blue sock,
on the left side of the drawer.
And believe it or not my father actually won on the fight,
so I went down to the club to stop him before he could do any more damage.
But Philly said that my father doubled his money, took the 800 bucks,
put it on a horse, got it up to 1100
and took off like a bat out of hell
with Johnny Cake and Joe Numbers
saying something about going to Yonkers Raceway.
What are you doing?
I'm waiting for you.
Is your mother up?
- Yeah she's so. - Oh, Chris, don't get mad.
What happened?
I lost 400.
Good.
Good. I was really worried.
Listen, Pop.
Why don't you let me hold the rest of the money?
There's no money, Frank.
I thought you said you lost 400.
Right, I lost the 400 bucks.
You had 1100 when you left the club.
Yeah I did.
That means you've got 700 on you.
I don't have a shit on me now.
How can you lose 400 out of 1100
and not have anything on you now?
I lost the 400 bucks you gave me.
You lost eleven hundred dollars!
No, I lost the 400 you gave me.
Then where is the other 700?
It's gone.
You lost it all.
No.
Yeah.
- Technically. - Technically. What technically?
You had 1100 and now you don't have a shit.
That means that you lost eleven hundred.
I don't count the other seven.
- You don't count... - No I don't.
That money ain't real.
It's no good, it doesn't pay the mortgage the gas, the electric.
Look, I don't count it because it's their money.
You see, I gambled with their money.
I lost your 400, but their money is their money.
You had their money in your pocket, didn't you?
Frankie, it's my fucking life!
What the hell do you want from me?
What the hell are you worried about?
You're going to win the lottery.
and then you can hang out on a street
and be a jerko for the rest of your life.
How the hell do you know if I'm going to win that lottery?
And even if I do,
it's not included in my plans that I'm gonna hang out in some street corner.
I'm gonna do something with my life.
- Yeah, like what? - I don't know.
But I'm going to get a real life.
And what am I? A fucking cartoon character?
Oh, shit.
Frank.
I'm sorry.
You listen to me, Frank Pesce. Listen to me good, huh?
I don't wanna hear that shit.
Just don't you die on me, you bastard. That's all.
Not now.
Relax.
You're not going nowhere.
When you get well,
you're gonna come home.
I want the house to stink of them,
them rotten pizzas you've been making.
I want you to see your son Frankie just
make something out of his life, Frank.
You think I'm gonna live...
I'm not kidding, Frank.
You and I have made a deal, a promise to each other.
To live together happily ever after.
Come here.
Let's go.
What did he say, Mum?
Keep the cat off the lawn.
Hey, Pop.
All right?
He said we ruined his lawn while he was gone.
That's when I knew he was all right,
he was back to terrorizing everybody.
I went for the first available job I could find,
and I got one over at Sheldon Toys,
as a sales representative.
Listen up,
from Sheldon toy company
I got the greatest little electric cars you've ever seen.
These electric cars, they're incredible, the kids are going nuts.
You should order maybe 20, 30,
because on the first day, bang... they're out the door.
I'm serious, I'm not kidding.
How many would you like?
It was the best job I'd had yet.
They even let me order a company car.
- What's this? - It's my new car.
Yeah, I know. White with a white vinyl top.
It's a company car.
You order a car for yourself
you get the right color.
Me and you go partners, you get Ivory Gold, you get a fucking Mist.
Take it to Budd Lake and show it to your cousin Leo.
That's the kind you should've chosen the first time.
This time it won't be on my fucking name the insurance, I'm warning you.
Hey, Vitto.
Looks good, though.
Come here and say that, you fuck.
I'll give you a looks good.
Come here.
Then, about a week ago Jimmy Fratello said
there was a guy who was real interested in meeting me.
All Jimmy would tell me was that
it had something to do with my lottery ticket.
Hey, Pesce.
Get in the car.
I'm coming.
- You? - Yeah. Why? What's wrong with me?
The last time you saw me
it looked like you wanted to kill me.
Nah. That was just that night.
A lot of guys get killed because people are in bad moods.
You're a legend down at Molbery Street, you know that?
What you did that night with them dice,
and everything else lucky that's happening to you.
Got the lottery ticket on you?
Yeah. Why?
I might be interested in buying it.
It ain't for sale, you know?
For ten thousand?
You want to give me 10 grand?
Ain't that what I just said?
The word is you got a shot at this thing with your luck and all.
Maybe you do or maybe you don't.
But if you want to sell it, and do the right thing, kid,
then keep it in the family.
Remember I'm with you and you're with me,
and everybody's with us, capisci?
Hey!
Two minutes I know you guys and already I'm in the family.
You just think about it.
These things have a way of working out.
And I'm easy to find.
I'm hungry? You hungry?
Yeah, I'm hungry. You're hungry?
- Absolutely. I'm hungry. - Yeah, me too. I'm really hungry.
Get the fuck out of here.
Frankie.
Frankie. Frankie, come on, wake up. Frankie!
Come on, wake up.
I really think I nailed it this time.
Get out of here, Dad. Not this morning.
Isn't it better what you're doing here?
Staying at home, away from these mob guys
and all those hangouts?
Watch now.
You're gonna amount to something.
Keep your nose to the grind,
so you're going to do better than that cop upstairs.
I never heard you talk like this before, Pop.
Sometimes it takes something like this to open your eyes.
Frankie, tell me. I want to ask you a question.
When you win the lottery,
you're not going to use that
as an excuse to sit on your ass, are you?
I'll tell you what I want to do.
What?
Don't laugh, all right?
I'm not going up there.
I think I'm going to go to college.
How about that? A college graduate in the family.
If you could be a doctor...
Why don't you put the cigarette out, huh?
She worries about me.
No, not doc. What about a lawyer? You'll be a lawyer.
Your brother can throw everybody in jail
and you can get them back in the street.
Everybody busy.
It's very funny!
First he'd have to arrest someone.
If he can find his gun.
That's culture.
I forgot to tell you.
Jimmy Vitello called.
What'd he want?
Get down and see it. Don't make him feel bad, all right?
I'll see you.
- Get out of here! - How well you can still sing. Real good.
Can I say something?
You know I got a bad heart.
I know you got a bad heart.
You don't want to break it, do you?
Oh, Frank.
- I would never... - Oh wait, wait a minute now...
Excuse me.
You're crazy, you know that you're crazy.
Can I have this dance?
It would be my pleasure.
I went to the club to kill some time before the drawing.
It was here that everything started to fall apart.
A couple of more hours
and you're going to find out if you're a millionaire.
I wish you nothing but the best of luck,
you lucky son of a bitch.
Thanks.
Hey, Richie. Where is my plate?
It's not hot yet.
You let me know before I die, huh?
Where is Frank Pesce?
Right here.
Not you, scumbag. Your father.
Hey hey!
Not in the club.
Your old man owes my uncle a lot of money.
Yeah, I'm talking to you.
What are you, deaf?
What money are you talking about?
What money?
Who do you take us for, jerkos?
Your father's been ducking us
for three fucking weeks.
Not here, not in the club.
You're fucking with him, you're fucking with me.
You don't have anything to do with this, Jimmy.
Bullshit! You know why we're here, Philly.
What do you guys want to do? Start a war over this?
You come in my club at Christmas Eve and you start this shit?
Get out of here!
We'll come to your house tonight.
We're gonna give your father
a Christmas present he'll never forget.
Fuck out of my club now.
Before I cut your freaking nuts off
and have them with my calamar.
What are you looking at, you potato nose? Sucker!
Call me a fat bug, huh?
Guys, go sit down, have fun.
It's Christmas Eve. Sing a song.
Do you know anything about this?
Your old man's into Tucci for 10 grand.
10 grand!
And he's three weeks behind all right.
What does he have in his fucking mind?
How can he be three weeks behind?
Hey, I don't sleep with your father. How the hell do I know?
He's got a mortgage, he's got bills, he's losing his ass here.
I don't know, talk to your old man.
Phil, you got to help me.
I ain't getting freaking involved in this.
I'll kill that son of a bitch.
Jimmy come on.
You gotta help me, all right?
I can't, Frank.
Why not?
I can't, man!
Forget it. All right.
Frankie, Frankie, Frankie...
Fuck!
Oh, thank God, Frankie. What happened to you?
We have an hour and a half to get to the Garden.
I was scared stiff, I thought you was hurt or something.
I'm at least fine, Ma.
Where's Dad?
He's upstairs getting dressed.
Something wrong?
No.
Look. I've been thinking...
I think I should go to the drawing alone.
- What? - Are you crazy? Dad'll go nuts.
Frankie, we've been looking forward to tonight.
I know, Mom.
I bought a new dress, for Christ's sake.
Frankie, what is wrong?
No, Mom. I told you everything's okay.
All right? I just been thinking about it,
and I think I should go to the drawing alone.
That's it, all right?
Wait a minute, wait a minute.
Are you gonna screw it up?
- Shut the fuck up. - Don't tell me to shut up!
You guys gonna stop? What's going on?
Frankie don't want us to go with him.
You don't want us to go?
Just a thought I had, Pop.
Well it's a bad thought.
Get it out of your head and let's go.
It's getting late.
No, Pop. Forget about it.
I'm going by myself
Come on, Frankie.
What is it? We're putting too much pressure on you, am I right?
You're afraid if you don't win we're going to be disappointed...
Forget that shit.
Let's just go and enjoy ourselves.
Whatever happens happens.
Pop, this is what's gonna happen.
I'm going up to my room, I'm getting my ticket,
and I'm going by myself.
Please get out of my way.
What the hell is wrong with you?
What are you doing? You know what this means to us.
It is most important moment of our lives,
for Christ's sake.
No, Pop. It's not your moment.
It's my moment.
You leave this house without us,
win or lose, don't come back.
If you set an example, I stand a good chance to lose them.
What the fuck did you say?
Are you calling me a loser?
- I'm not a loser. - Have it your way, Dad...
I'm not a loser!
All right, you're a winner.
Is that what you want to hear?
You're a winner?
What the hell did you do that was so great, huh?
Except gamble away everything you ever owned,
including your own fucking business.
I stayed.
That's what I did.
I stayed for 35 years.
I stayed and raised the family for 35 years.
I did anything I had to do to keep a roof over our heads.
That's what the fuck I did.
You stayed, huh?
Big fucking deal!
You stayed, that's what you're supposed to do.
It'd be better if you left them and put up with your shit the whole life.
You squashed every dream that I ever had!
It's not bad if you pissed your own dreams against the fucking wall.
You took me down with you.
You don't know a shit about my dreams.
Not a fucking thing about my dreams.
If you think I gambled my business away,
you don't know what the fuck you're talking about.
I loved my business, it was the only thing that I owned.
I didn't gamble it away.
They took it away.
That's your fucking big explanation?
It's the same old shit, Dad.
You know something, son?
We were doing pretty damn good until you came along.
You know? I didn't want you.
Your mother did.
And she nearly died having you, you sorry son of a bitch.
And I borrowed the money to keep you and your mother alive.
On my fucking knees, and I begged Louie Tucci
to give me the money to pay off the hospital bills.
And when I couldn't pay it back he took control of my company and my life.
You get this straight, you ungrateful son of a bitch.
I am not a loser!
Get your fucking hands off me.
I'm not a loser.
Frankie.
I am not a fucking loser!
Jerk!
What do you want?
I'm looking for Loui Tucci. Do you know where he is?
No, he ain't here.
Who the hell are you?
I work for him. Do you want to see my mate?
I looked all Times Square round. Where the hell is he?
Who the hell are you? Come over here.
Look. My name is Frank Pesce, all right?
Tucci wants to buy a lottery ticket that I have.
A couple weeks ago he offered me 10 grand.
I know all about it. Hurry up.
I'm freezing my balls off.
I want to exchange the ticket
for what my father owes him.
But he's gotta promise me that he won't hurt him.
All right, you wait here. You wait right here.
Sounds fair.
You got the ticket on you?
Yeah, I got it.
Let's have it.
Buon Natale, kid.
So that's that.
Tucci is a very happy guy tonight because he owns 6.2 million bucks.
I saved my father.
Hey.
I had to do what I had to do, you know what I mean?
Then I went down to the Garden,
checked the results...
Lucky me, huh?
The rest you know.
I went crazy down at the church.
You guys picked me up and you brought me here.
Do what you want with me.
I just want to go home and make sure that my father's all right.
Go on home, boy.
Let's forget it ever happened.
- Tolen. - Yes, sir.
Give him a hand. Take him home, anything else he needs.
Thanks, guys.
Frank.
You know, mamaluke.
Thanks, sargeant. God bless you, father.
Hey, Frank. Do you want us to walk you up?
No, I'll be all right.
Hey, Frank.
Merry Christmas.
Thank you.
Hey, Frankie. Congratulations.
We saw the show on TV!
Here's my daughter Sheila. She's dying to meet you, Frankie.
It is so great, Frankie.
God bless you, Frankie.
Mom, we got problems. I gotta talk to Dad.
- Where is he? - He's in the kitchen, making a pizza.
Come on, we're having a party.
Everybody's here.
Congratulations, son.
All right, excuse me, excuse me.
What the hell are you doing here?
I don't know what the fuck you're talking about.
Excuse me, excuse me.
- Can I say something here, Louie? - Yeah.
I want everybody to hear this, Tucci.
I can't borrow money off you anymore.
You wanna know why?
- Yeah. - My son Frankie's a millionaire.
And he's choosy who I borrow money from.
Frank, you're not gonna ruin my moment.
I've been waiting my whole life for this.
I'd like to say something.
I said some bad things
to my son Frankie earlier tonight.
Things that I'm sorry I said.
Me and my kid were big dreamers.
But my problem is that
most of my dreams didn't work out.
And I think I stepped on a lot of Frankie's dreams.
You get a little older
and you get harder and you get harder.
Sometimes you forget what's important.
But today
one of my dreams came true.
I found out why my son Frankie was born.
What is this? A fucking christening?
Where's my money?
Tucci.
You know what's in here?
Ten thousand dollars.
That's what I owe you.
Vitto, give it to Tucci.
No, give it to him.
No, you don't owe him anything.
- Merry Christmas, Pesce. - Likewise, Louie.
What are you doing?
Frankie, I owe it to you.
He can't take that money!
He loaned me the money.
I owed it to him and I paid it.
I heard that you were in trouble,
so I gave Tucci the ticket.
You gave Tucci the ticket?
I gave Tucci the ticket.
You gave him the ticket.
You didn't give him the ticket.
Did you give him the ticket, huh?
Papa, for Christ's sake.
Don't do one of these in front of everybody, all right?
I gave the ticket away, I was at the restaurant.
I gave it to one of his goons.
I got a call from Philly Knapp.
He told me what happened at the club tonight.
You are my son, I'm your father,
so I figured out what you were going to do.
The guy you gave the ticket to,
big friend of mine.
Frankie.
You gave the ticket
back to yourself!
What?
We got it.
Where did you get the money?
Where did I get the money?
The 10 grand?
Jimmy V.
Am I good for the 10g?
You got it, Mr Pesce.
This one you're gonna love it.
Buon Natale.
What the hell did you say to those guys in the car?
I wished them a merry Christmas.
Frankie.
Hey, Pop.
This is yours.
Frankie.
Did you know the first time I saw you made me cry?
What you did tonight was great.
I want to thank you for it.
Just a good thing that you're smarter than me.
I'm just older.
You said some beautiful things in there tonight.
But would you finish the same way you started saying in there?
What?
Know why I was born?
I don't know.
Why don't you go out there and find out yourself?
From time to time I think back on Rocky Savv's theory of life.
You're born, you grow old and you die.
Maybe that's all there is to it.
And we just keep making it more complicated than we need to.
My father's gone now.
But I remember how years later,
when we were up at the new house on Glen Cove,
overlooking his new lawn of Kentucky Bluegrass
about half the size of a football field.
I said to him,
'I guess there's a happy ending for us after all'.
'Happy ending', he said.
I wouldn't have it any other way.