-
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.
-
I don't want to win the lottery.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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 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.
-
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.