♪ I know you think that you know me well ♪
♪ you got some stories that I would not have you tell ♪
♪ but when push comes to shove, baby ♪
♪ who can ring your bell?
♪ Today is a brand-new day
♪ and today is the day
♪ that we say
♪ hello again
[ gunshot ]
Where are the pictures?
They were here, I swear. I don't know what happened.
Liar!
Hey, les.
I missed you at church.
Double-crossing bitch.
You put me in a corner. Your turn.
I'd say you're outgunned.
It ain't a gun.
[ Grenade pin pops ] Oops.
That's close enough.
I don't suppose you brought my money.
Slipped my mind.
Disappointing.
We'll have to try this again later.
What about the damn pictures?
We'll be in touch...
After me and you have a chat about that very topic.
Aah!
[ Grunts ]
This guy bothering you, miss?
Easy, fellas!
It's union station, not the o.K. Corral.
What'll it be, Joe?
Uh, I don't suppose any of you guys see a pin, do you?
The kind that goes in a grenade?
Anybody?
Will this work?
There's nothing to see here, folks --
just a man choking on a bone.
[ Grunts ]
[ Panting ]
[ Grunting ]
Good thing I had a friend listening in tonight.
I didn't know you had a friend.
Neither did I.
Get up. Get up.
You got to stop doing us favors.
It only confuses things.
I'll gut you.
When I see you again, I'm gonna gut you!
Save it for the coyotes.
Come on.
Terry: Teague.
Not so fast.
You hurt your leg?
How does it feel walking with a dead woman?
Where the hell are my pictures?
You switch them to another locker?
You want them? Earn them.
Her life -- that's my price.
That's not my decision to make.
Then I'd talk to the man that can make it.
You know the one.
Don't waste your breath.
Hecky had a deal with these bastards,
and they shot him in the back.
[ Chuckles ironically ]
You didn't tell her?
[ Chuckling ]
Sullivan, I owe you one.
You owe me a few.
[ Laughing sardonically ]
[ Laughing continues ]
San Francisco -- they'll have men waiting.
You're gonna get off somewhere between here and there,
you're gonna switch trains.
What did he mean?
Don't tell anyone you go -- you don't tell anyone.
If you have to call me, use a pay phone,
but you call me only at the station, understand?
Joe. Listen to me.
You're running for your life now.
I'll try to fix things from here, but if I can't,
y-you can't come back...
Ever.
What haven't you told me?
The oil field.
The moment I saw negatives, I knew you took those pictures,
even if they hadn't been in the plastic sleeves you love,
you have to special-order from back east.
Hecky spouting off about tri-x film like he's some expert.
"Push it to a stop,
you can shoot most anything, even at night."
It's words I've heard a thousand times out of your mouth.
If I'd arrested them that night like I was supposed to,
your photos, they would have hit the front page by morning.
You'd be dead by the end of the week,
or if I'd let hecky blow town
with you and the money instead,
the mob would have found you sooner or later.
Either way, it's the same -- both of you dead.
No. He had it worked out.
Oh, he had a lot of things worked out.
His plans got him killed.
Pardon my lack of faith.
You did it?
[ Gasps ]
[ Panting ]
He was headed for the grave!
He was taking you with him!
Yeah, I killed him.
And I'd kill him again.
To keep you safe,
I'd kill 100 men like him and 100 after that!
I'd burn down the world if I had to.
[ Exhales sharply ]
[ Train chugging ]
[ Chugging continues ]
[ Cork pops, cheering ]
[ Camera shutter clicks ]
To Benny Siegel! He rides again!
[ Cheers and applause ]
[ Festive music playing ]
Tell me you got the pictures.
Teague has them.
He wants to work a deal with Ben --
the pictures for the girl.
These pictures are the bane of our fricking existence.
I thought this cop was your friend.
I thought hecky was yours.
Difference is, Joe wouldn't stab me in the back for money.
Look, somebody's got to say it. It's not a bad deal.
Can we trust her not to talk?
She knows what happens if she does.
Wouldn't be the first time we walk away
from a witness for smart reasons.
Okay, fixer, go fix.
Broker a meeting. Let's see how good you are.
If not, we'll have to kill everyone on general principle.
No pressure.
[ Music continues ]
[ Footsteps approach ]
Bowron: Don't stop on my account.
In fact...
Dutch courage.
You're here to fire me.
That's the smart play --
distance yourself as much as possible
from this God-awful mess.
I read your comments to the press.
You didn't have to take the fall for this, but you did.
You shielded me.
It was my play in the first place.
It backfired.
And you've got an election looming.
A screw-up this big,
somebody usually has to fall on the sword.
I've had to make some compromises along the way,
but you're not gonna be one of them.
You've spent your career eating shit
because you refuse to look the other way.
That's the type of man this city needs
as its chief of police.
Last I heard, that job's taken.
I read his comments, too.
I noticed that he didn't try to shield me.
Quite the opposite.
He didn't have any kind words for either of us.
I get the feeling he doesn't like you much.
As long as you're committed
to exposing the corruption in his department,
he'll be committed to showing you the door.
Tell me something I don't know. Try this.
It's not just your job -- mine, too.
He thinks "mayor horrall" has a nice ring.
It's pleasing to his ear.
What makes you think he'll run?
He'll run, all right.
You know what that makes you and me?
Allies.
I can't promise you the job, but I promise you this --
I want that corrupt son of a bitch gone.
I want his head on a pike for the crows to peck
and the entire kingdom to see.
If you bring me his head,
I will use every ounce of my political leverage
with the police commission to give you what you want.
I'll go after horrall...
...but not because you promised me anything.
If that was your reason, bill,
I wouldn't want you for the job.
[ Sets glass down ]
[ Mellow piano music playing ]
Who was the twerp with the hand grenade?
Hecky's silent partner. Tipped him to the greenie hit.
So that asshole started this whole thing?
Right now he's in a warehouse somewhere wishing he hadn't.
I told her about hecky.
All of it.
How'd she take it?
If I hadn't put her on the train,
she'd still be slapping me.
You did her a favor.
It's funny, she doesn't see it that way.
Women.
I hear you want to talk deal.
Get us on the same side.
You mean the side that kills cops?
We all got boxed in here.
It's not pretty, but it's where we are.
So, now what?
I meet with Siegel.
Beg him for Jasmine's life -- is that the approach?
I don't beg.
And he backs off or I send him to the gas chamber.
I've got the pictures to do it.
That sounds like blackmail.
Yeah.
Well, you call it what you want.
All he's got to do is see reason.
With Ben, that might be asking a lot,
but I'll call you in the morning.
You might wish you'd gotten on that train, too.
[ Sighs ]
Where's the recording?
In the glove compartment.
"Thanks for coming, eddy." You're welcome, Joe.
[ Glove compartment shuts ]
How'd you know to call me?
The night hecky Nash died,
we had Jasmine fontaine in for questioning.
You brought her a cup of coffee.
The first thing anyone does when bringing a stranger coffee
is ask them how they take it. You didn't.
You just gave it to her like you already knew.
It doesn't take much digging
to find a marriage license or a divorce decree.
All that from a cup of coffee.
I'm really good.
So what's in it for you? What's your angle?
It's no angle.
Look, you're trying to protect her.
You still have feelings. I get that.
I have a tender heart.
Not everyone does.
Look, you can't keep her a secret forever.
The truth always catches up.
You need to make things right before that happens.
Give hal the photos,
turn over the evidence that brings down Ben Siegel,
and no one will hold a grudge -- not even Mike.
He's pretty ticked off you punched him in the mouth,
by the way.
I'll think about it.
Don't think too long.
You sit on this, I'll nail your hide to the wall.
[ Sighs ]
You're not an easy man to do a favor for.
I know.
Hey!
Is she worth it?
[ Sighs ]
[ Engine turns over ]
It makes my blood boil.
Not the mobsters -- they're animals.
They don't know any better.
It's whoever gave up the location to our safe house.
That's somebody under our own roof --
[ taps front page ] A cop.
Hal says you turned this in.
He tells me you're resigning.
We talked it over --
my wife and I.
I'll go back and finish law school
and maybe try for a job at the d.A.'S office.
I've got friends there.
I can make some calls on your behalf
if that's what you decide.
I'll be sorry to lose a good officer.
I'm not cut out for this.
I never was.
The mob threw their best killers at us.
You killed one and wounded the other,
in spite of being wounded yourself.
What part of that do I view as a failure of resolve...
Or nerve?
You weren't there.
I was.
Pinned down in that hallway,
I've never been so scared in my life,
and I couldn't even find my stupid glasses.
The thought of putting on my gun again
makes me want to throw up.
I made my choice.
What if you never had to draw your gun again?
We need to clean up the force from the inside.
I'm creating a new unit to do just that --
an intelligence division.
Intelligence?
You can't fight crime
with half the police on the mob's payroll.
We have to get rid of that half --
keep the good guys, dump the bad,
police the police.
It's a new idea -- never been done,
not on the scale I'm thinking.
That won't be very popular.
Doing the right thing never is.
And you want me to work for this new unit?
I want you to run it.
The division for internal affairs.
You'll determine policies, decide how it runs.
Your first task would expose the mole
that got fat Jack and our witness killed.
[ Scoffs ] Oh, is that all?
No.
Then you're gonna help me bring down our chief of police.
To clean out the rot, you got to start at the top.
[ Chuckles lightly ]
Where do I sign up?
[ Acoustic guitar plays lightly in distance ]
Hey, hon, you come to join the party?
I've come for Ben.
Benny!
Siegel: What?!
There's some guy!
He looks important!
He a cop?
[ Guitar playing stops ]
[ Guitar playing resumes ]
Nuh-uh!
All right! Hold on a sec!
Thank you, my dear.
He's a gentleman yet.
Ladies, scram.
[ Footsteps depart ]
[ Sighs ]
Meyer.
Ben. Glad I found you.
I went to your house first. Esta said you hadn't been home.
Since when are you on the west coast?
Since this morning. I'm at the biltmore.
If you get a chance, I'd love to talk.
Benny --
bring pants.
What do you mean he's not available?
What, are you kidding me?
Ned: It's not his choice.
He's unexpectedly tied up for a few hours.
As soon as he's done, we'll deal with our situation.
Trust me, it's unavoidable.
So, where should I be?
The biltmore. Wait in the lobby.
And stay out of the way until I tell you. Can you do that?
Yeah, I can do that.
[ Line clicks ]
[ Sighs ]
[ Coin rattles ]
[ Soft piano music plays ]
Wait.
[ Door opens ]
Siegel: Nice picture, huh?
This Greenberg business -- not so nice.
He had it coming, the prick, and I dealt with it.
Like a bull in a China shop -- string of witnesses.
Dead witnesses.
Which wouldn't have been necessary
if you hadn't gone off half-cocked in the first place.
That's why we have hitters, Ben.
They get their hands dirty so you don't have to.
Some hitters -- yellow streaks up their back a mile wide!
Benny, Benny, we're old friends here.
Say it calm.
Two years greenie's been spilling his guts to the feds.
Imagine the case they were building.
Half the wise guys on the east coast
would have been behind bars.
They should be kissing my ass.
Instead, they send you.
First, no one questions that you did a solid.
Yes, it could have been more subtle,
but everyone sees it as a mitzvah,
me most of all.
Second, no one sent me.
I came of my own accord,
cross-country by train and snuck into town like a refugee
out of friendship to you.
Now, are you gonna hug me, or you gonna be an asshole?
Come here. It's good to see you, meyer.
Yeah, you putz. Eat something.
It'll help your hangover.
Since when do refugees travel first class?
You're a welcome sight, sid. [ Chuckles ]
How's L.A. working out for you?
Ned: Great, Mr. lansky.
Couldn't be better. Good.
Siegel: I know you didn't come 3,000 Miles
to rank me over greenie.
It's about Vegas.
No kidding. When is it not about Vegas?
Ever since you started building this hotel.
It's not the Taj Mahal, Benny.
It is the Taj Mahal.
It's the palace of versailles.
It's a casino --
a place to separate rubes from their paychecks
in the middle of nowhere.
That's where you're wrong.
It's in the middle of paradise...
[ Utensil clatters ]
...where gambling is legal.
It's a license to mint money.
You, of all people, should see the potential, meyer.
You've always been a man of vision.
You were the man who saw the way things were
and how they could be.
You made it all happen.
Sid, tell him how it was back when.
Sid: Prohibition?
[ Scoffs ]
It was idiots killing each other to control street corners.
Meyer brought them all together,
ran it like a real business -- meyer and Luciano.
No more spilling blood over nickels and dimes.
Everybody prospered because of you,
because of your vision.
And now I've got my vision,
and what I see is bigger than anything that's come before.
Ben, the cost overruns on this hotel of yours.
When it started, it was gonna be $900,000 all in.
People thought that was a big number.
You spent 6 million bucks.
That's "million" with an "m".
The Taj Mahal didn't even cost that much.
For what -- some plumbing and some chintz curtains?
[ Indistinct whispering ]
Meyer...
You remember the night we hijacked the irishman's booze?
You blew up the car with the dynamite?
How could I forget?
We were three meshuggeners with more balls than brains.
That was the start of something big,
bigger than all of our dreams -- an empire.
It took us...
From the gutter to this presidential suite,
eating lobsters off of silver trays.
"More balls than brains"? I disagree.
I say balls and brains in equal measure.
And violin lessons. [ Chuckles ]
We made 100 grand on that haul, and that was 1925 money.
Remind me, sid. What did we spend it on --
clothes, fancy cars, loose broads? No.
We used it to build and expand our business.
We reinvested it.
Benny... Millions --
millions we've made since then, but that's peanuts!
What I got going now in Vegas --
the payoff is going to rewrite the rulebook
on what is possible.
It's gonna boggle the senses.
Billions.
Billions with a "b".
Ben...
They pulled the plug.
There's no more funding.
Not another dime.
That's what I came cross-country to tell you.
Also, there's a million and change that's unaccounted for.
They want that back.
They'll consider it a no-interest loan.
I stole it?
That's the idea?
Who's to say?
But that broad you're banging, Virginia hill --
word is she's dumping a lot of money
into private Swiss accounts.
[ Sighs ] Jesus.
You son of a bitch! I'll cut your goddamn head off!
Ben! I will cut your head off!
We do not need a corpse today.
Meyer: Give me the knife.
Ben, give me the knife.
Ben! [ Sighs ]
I am only reporting what nobody else has the balls to say.
You could be more diplomatic.
You let this happen, meyer?
There was a vote.
That's how we set up this empire, remember?
No emperor, just a senate, majority rules.
And how'd you vote, meyer? You're way out of line, Ben.
How'd you vote, meyer?!
I voted my conscience.
[ Sighs, scoffs ]
[ Clatter ]
I don't need you, meyer!
I don't need you or those nutless old women back east
who call themselves men!
Ben.
Meyer was the only vote in your favor.
He voted, knowing it would go against him.
He was willing to be humiliated for your sake,
but that's the kind of friend he is.
That's right. Meyer got outvoted -- first time ever.
Your Taj Mahal has diminished his standing more than you know.
Now, he's too proud to ever say it,
so I'm gonna say it for him.
At a certain point,
what happens to you will be out of his hands.
Is that a threat?
There's no reasoning with you.
Whoever could?
Don't you turn your back on me!
Today I saw a man beg his friend not to commit suicide
and that friend not caring if they both wind up in a hole.
You make me sick to my stomach.
[ Door slams ]
[ Elevator bell dings ]
[ Soft piano music playing ]
Not now. Take my word on this.
[ Huffs ]
Joe!
Joe: Hey!
You don't blow by me.
Joe, another time. I mean it.
This gets settled now.
Yeah, he's right. Let's settle this.
Come on! Step up. What do you got --
prints, negatives? Show me.
Cameras, too --
the cause of all of my grief.
Grab him. No!
[ Grunting ]
Hold him!
[ Panting ]
Siegel: That picture-taking bitch is already dead.
You got to make a decision.
You want to join her in the coffin?
[ Panting ]
It's my final offer.
Looks like this man could use a little ice.
[ Groaning ]
[ Grunts ]
I'll follow in a cab.
Come on.
Come on. Get up.
You know how many times you saved my life?
Three times. I counted.
Let me save yours.
Listen close,
'cause this is where it happens or it doesn't.
Every fighter knows sooner or later,
there's a fight you can't win.
You got to accept that day is coming.
You told me that.
She's got a target on her now.
Stay down, gunny.
The fight's over.
Let the ref count to ten.
[ Grunts ]
[ Breathing raggedly ]
[ Engine turns over ]
[ Engine shuts off ]
[ Car door closes ]
[ Sighs ]
[ Breathing heavily ]
[ Gun cocks ]
[ Breathing heavily ]
[ Gunshot, glass shatters ]
[ Bullets whizzing, glass shattering ]
[ Shell casings rattling ]
My final offer.
[ Glass shatters ]
Stay down, stay down, stay down!
[ Panting ]
[ Engine turns over ]
I'm not gonna just leave him like that.
You can't be within 100 Miles of this!
I'm the face that talks to the cops!
Terry, get him out of here.
And take this.
Dead or not, they never find these pictures, you understand?
You understand?!
Go.
[ Panting ]
[ Tires screech ]
[ Engine shuts off ]
[ Sighs ]
[ Sirens wailing ]
[ Sirens continue ]
[ Sighs ]
[ Engine turns over ]
[ Indistinct shouting ]
Nice face. What the hell?
I got into it with a thug.
You look like you went 10 Miles.
You should see the other guy.
I was in the hallway when I heard the shots.
I made it to the threshold there when he got hit.
I hear there's a stiff. Anybody we know?
[ Camera shutters clicking ]
Horrall: At approximately 8:45 this evening,
an unidentified gunman fired 11 rounds
from a .30-caliber rifle.
As many as nine of those rounds
entered the body of Benjamin Siegel.
I'm not staying long.
It was good advice you gave, ned -- "stay down."
But you gave it to the wrong guy.
That's one way to look at it.
Another way,
you just created a power vacuum.
You think Jack dragna's gonna sit on his ass
and let Mickey Cohen inherit the rackets?
You think Mickey won't push back and push back hard?
You think bunny's gonna stay calm in the middle
when he gets caught up in the crossfire?
You don't know what a powder keg L.A. really is.
None of you cops do, but you'll find out.
[ Rustling ]
Enjoy the drink while you can. It's on me.
Good old Joe --
always putting out the fire with gasoline.
Try not to take me with you when you go up in flames.
[ Mellow jazz music plays ]
He was a crazy son of a bitch.
[ Sighs ]
That's one of the things that I liked about him.
Guy like that, you get on his good side,
makes you feel like a million bucks.
Class too.
Taught me how to dress.
Took an interest.
[ Sighs ]
I know you were tight.
I offer my condolences.
Ben always praised you, Mickey,
said you were a person who could be counted on.
He said that?
That's how we know we're putting our trust in the right man.
I got to say this.
[ Clears throat ]
You got no resentment from me over what happened...
With Ben, I mean.
I don't like it [Sighs]
But I know there were reasons, so I accept it.
Ben was a handful.
He did not understand compromise,
didn't care who he pissed off.
But the thing is, Mickey...
It didn't come from us.
I'm not saying that it might not have gone that way.
I'm just saying that it didn't.
There has been no vote,
no decision handed down,
no action yet taken.
What this means...
Some motherless piece of shit,
for reasons unknown to us,
just murdered my friend Ben Siegel.
You are gonna find out who.
You are going to find out why.
And you are going to cut us
the pound of flesh that we are owed.