The Sting (1973)

Charles Durning: Lt. Wm. Snyder

Photos 

Quotes 

• Joe Erie : Hello Snyder. Whattya doin' up here?

  Lieutenant William Snyder : I'm on vacation. You see that friend of yours lately?

  Joe Erie : No, no. He packed it in. Enrolled in detective school.

• Billie : Who told you this guy was in here?

  Lieutenant William Snyder : Nobody. I just know what kind of woman he likes. Going to check all the joy houses till I find him.

  Billie : Oh, well maybe I could help you, if you tell me his name.

  Lieutenant William Snyder : I doubt it. Which way are the rooms?

  Billie : Right through there. But I wouldn't go in there if I were you.

  Lieutenant William Snyder : What you are going to do, call the cops?

  Billie : I don't have to. You'd be busting in on the Chief of Police just up the hall.

• Johnny Hooker : Oh, hi there, Snyder. What's the matter? Things a little slow down at the bunco department tonight, huh? Somebody lose the dominoes?

  Lieutenant William Snyder : You scored blood money today, Hooker, and you need a friend.

  Johnny Hooker : Go find yourself a shoplifter to roll.

  [Snyder sucker-punches him in the mouth] 

  Johnny Hooker : You got the wrong guy, pal. I've been home with the flu all day. You can stake out my toilet if you want.

  Lieutenant William Snyder : [throwing him up against a wall]  Keep talking! I'll tell you what you did, smart boy. You tied into a loaded mark on 47th across from Maxie's. And you and Coleman played the switch for him and blew him off to a cab on 49th. If he hadn't been a numbers runner for Doyle Lonnegan, it would've been perfect.

  Johnny Hooker : You're crazy. I ain't stupid enough to play for no rackets money.

  Lieutenant William Snyder : Not intentionally, maybe. That don't cut no ice with Lonnegan. He'll swat you like a fly.

  Johnny Hooker : Yeah, well... well, I'll square it with the fixer.

  Lieutenant William Snyder : Nobody can buy you a prayer if I put the finger on you. Now, I figure your end of the score was at least 3 G's. I want 2, no matter what it was.

  Johnny Hooker : My take was only 1.

  Lieutenant William Snyder : Then you're gonna have to come up with another grand somewhere.

  Johnny Hooker : All right.

  [he takes out a wad of money, but before he can count it out, Snyder takes all of it] 

  Lieutenant William Snyder : You're a smart egg, Hooker. No sense getting dead over two grand.

  [leaving] 

  Lieutenant William Snyder : Relax, Erie. I'll bill you.

  Joe Erie : I thought you blew all your money.

  Johnny Hooker : I did. The stuff I gave him is counterfeit. They'll spot it the first place he tries to spend it.

• FBI Agent Polk : We've got a tip that Gondorff is gonna run a con on the South Side here. All you've got to do is tell us when he's gonna play his chump. We come in at the sting, make the pinch, and you walk out free as a bird.

  Johnny Hooker : No.

  FBI Agent Polk : You want to spend the next 20 years in a federal penitentiary, starting tonight?

  Johnny Hooker : I'll make parole.

  FBI Agent Polk : Like hell. You won't even get a review.

  Johnny Hooker : I'll chance it.

  FBI Agent Polk : Okay. If that's the way you want it. We might even provide you with a little company on your way up the river. That wife of Luther Coleman's, Snyder, what was her name?

  Lieutenant William Snyder : Alva.

  FBI Agent Polk : Alva. That's it. Alva Coleman. Pretty fair grifter in her time. Snyder's given us quite a folder on her. Nothing major by itself, but, uh, put 'em all together, it could add up to a lot of years.

  Johnny Hooker : You stink, mister.

  FBI Agent Polk : Don't be a sap. It's not her I want. If you're too dumb to save yourself, there's no sense dragging her down with you. It's over, Hooker. You can save me a lot of trouble. But I'm gonna get Henry Gondorff whether you help me out or not.

  Johnny Hooker : Will you wait 'til the chump is played?

  FBI Agent Polk : Hell, yes. We don't care about the mark. He deserves what he gets.

  Johnny Hooker : I mean completely played. You come in before we beat him, and I'll kill him.

  FBI Agent Polk : All right, Hooker. But you try to take it on the lam, and we'll shoot you down on sight.

  Johnny Hooker : As long as I get to finish the play.

• FBI Agent Polk : We've been told you know a hustle artist named Johnny Hooker. You know him or don't you?

  Lieutenant William Snyder : Yeah, but I don't know where he is.

  FBI Agent Polk : Well, we do. He's chumming around with a big C named Henry Gondorff. Ring any bells?

  Lieutenant William Snyder : Sure, every Bunco man in the country knows Gondorff.

  FBI Agent Polk : Well, there's word he's gonna run a con on the South Side here. We've got a year-old Florida warrant on him, but it's a thin beef. He can beat it in court unless we catch him cold. All we want you to do is pick up Hooker for us.

  Lieutenant William Snyder : Why don't you pick him up yourself?

  FBI Agent Polk : Because if word gets out that the feds are in on it, Gondorff will fold up the whole thing.

  Lieutenant William Snyder : Wouldn't that be too bad? Then you'd have to move out of this nice office you got here.

  FBI Agent Polk : Don't crack wise with me, flatfoot. I spent too much time in dumps like this eating Gondorff's dust while you guys in the Bunco squad get rich tipping him off! That's not gonna happen this time. We're not gonna tell the police we're here. You keep your mouth shut and do a job, there'll be some reward bucks in it for you. And you better take it, 'cause I make you work for us without it.

  Lieutenant William Snyder : What the hell good is Hooker to you?

  FBI Agent Polk : He's gonna set up Gondorff for us.

  Lieutenant William Snyder : He'll never do it.

  FBI Agent Polk : I think he will.

• Doyle Lonnegan : [being ushered out of "Shaw's" betting parlor]  But my money's in there!

  Lieutenant William Snyder : There's a couple of dead guys in there, too. You can't get mixed up in that.

  Doyle Lonnegan : You don't understand. There's a half a million dollars in there!