The Frisco Kid (1979)

Harrison Ford: Tommy

Photos 

Quotes 

• Tommy : You sure talk funny. Where you born at?

  Avram : Poland.

  Tommy : Oh. Is that near Pittsburgh?

  Avram : No, that's near Czechoslovakia.

• [Tommy and Avram are in a saloon, where Tommy is sawing away at a huge steak, but Avram is too depressed to eat] 

  Tommy : Now, look. You go up and change, and then we'll go together and we'll tell your people that the new rabbi's arrived. All right?

  Avram : I told you that I can't be a rabbi.

  Tommy : [Tommy hurls a piece of bread at him]  Don't you tell me that. Just don't say that again. Not after what I've been through to get your goddamn ass here alive. If you hadn't have shot that man, then we'd both be dead. Do you understand that, you ignorant asshole? You do understand that? He was gonna kill you and then he was gonna kill me, am I right? When you shot that son of a bitch, that was not a sin. Then what the hell are we talking about?

  Avram : When those men were shooting at you, I ran to save the Torah.

  Tommy : So? I understand that. You're a man of God. I understand that.

  Avram : I wasn't thinking about God. I didn't do it because of God. I don't know one thing about God. I was thinking about a book. I cared more for a book than I did for my best friend. I don't know if you can understand that. I don't want to insult you. But do you understand what I mean? I chose a piece of paper instead of you!

  Tommy : But I forgive you.

  Avram : I know that you do.

  Tommy : But you're a good man!

  Avram : I am a good man. I am. But I'm not a rabbi.

  Tommy : Don't say that!

  Avram : Tommy, I'm not a rabbi.

  Tommy : Don't say that! You are a rabbi. I'm a bank robber. I'm a card player and a whoremonger. That's what I am. You are a rabbi. You can fall in the mud, you can slip on your ass, you can travel in the wrong direction. But even on your ass, even in the mud, even if you go in the wrong direction for a little while, you're still a rabbi! That's what you are!

• Tommy : What do you call this in Jewish?

  [Points to his horse's rump] 

  Avram : A - a tokhes!

  Tommy : Well, you keep your eyes on this too-kus - and don't take 'em off till I tell you.

  Avram : Keep my eyes on the tokhes.

• Avram : ...In that case, would you like to fight for that last fish?

  Tommy : You think you got a chance?

  Avram : I think I can say with complete confidence... none, whatsoever. But I'm still hungry.

  Tommy : Help yourself.

• [Samuel Bender, his daughter Rosalie, and other members of the Jewish community enter the saloon, looking for their new rabbi. Rosalie points out the table where Tommy and Avram are sitting. Since Tommy is wearing a fine new suit, Bender approaches and begins welcoming him to town, in Yiddish] 

  Tommy : Huh?

  [Bender continues in Yiddish; Rosalie gazes dreamily at Avram] 

  Tommy : What's he talking about? What's he talking about?

  Avram : He wants to know if you're the rabbi.

  Tommy : [amused]  Me?

  [Wealthy Mr. Bender and his affluent associates look back and forth between Tommy and Avram, frowning, because Avram is dressed in ordinary Western working clothes] 

  Tommy : You tell him.

  Avram : I'm the rabbi.

  Samuel Bender : [looking him up and down with contempt and disbelief]  You're the rabbi? Funny, you don't look like a rabbi.

  Avram : I just traveled three thousand miles across this country.

  [He pulls his bandanna from his neck] 

  Avram : And I was thanking my best friend

  [he pulls off his dusty coat] 

  Avram : for getting me here alive. My name is Avram Belinsky, and I come from a small village in Poland.

  [He pulls on his black rabbi coat] 

  Avram : And don't you judge people by their appearance!

  [He yanks off his cowboy hat, revealing his yarmulke] 

• [Tommy and Avram look out over the Pacific Ocean] 

  Tommy : Well, cuz, we made it. It was just like I told you. Right at that big tree; then left for a couple days; sharp right; and then straight as piss till you come to the ocean.

  Avram : Who would have dreamed it could be so simple?

  Tommy : Yeah. You don't know me the next time you see me, I'm gonna kick your ass all the way back to Poland.

  Avram : Why wouldn't I know you? You going away someplace?

  Tommy : Well, yeah. This is where we say goodbye, Avram.

  Avram : What do you mean?

  Tommy : Well, you follow that beach for a day and a half, you'll be in San Francisco. You don't need me no more.

  [Avram can't believe what he's hearing] 

  Avram : Where are you going?

  Tommy : Well, I'm going that way.

  [He points] 

  Tommy : Sutter's Mill. That's where the gold is.

  Avram : But I don't want you to go.

  Tommy : Well, I gotta go.

  Avram : Why?

  Tommy : Well, I got people to see. Banks to rob. You know. I gotta make a living.

  Avram : Who's going to be the best man at my wedding?

  Tommy : What do you mean? That's for one of your Jewish friends. You gotta pick your best friend for that.

  Avram : [getting weepy]  You... you *are* my best friend.

  Tommy : I'm your best friend?

  Avram : You're my only friend.

  [Avram points to the back of his horse] 

  Avram : Now, listen to me, cuz. You keep your eyes on this tokhes, and don't you take them off till we get to San Francisco!

  Tommy : I never had a best friend.

• [Tommy and Avram are being chased, but Avram won't ride on the sabbath] 

  Tommy : You give me the pee-doodles! There ain't no Jews in that posse, you know!

• [Matt Diggs considers reaching for his gun] 

  Tommy : Reach for it! Please!

• Tommy : [Tommy sees Avram coming out of a Wells Fargo office]  You did it, didn't you? You give 'em back the money?

  Avram : Yep!

  Tommy : Yep. Well, that ain't the American way. What's more, now you ain't got no money. Well, now what'cha gonna do?

  Avram : Dunno.

  Tommy : You don't know. Well, I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna get me a bath. Then I'm gonna get drunk. Then I'm gonna catch me a whore with great big tits. Then I'm gonna get drunk again. Then I'm gonna rob that Wells Fargo office and get me my money back, you dumb-ass Jew!

• Avram : [Avram and Tommy are cuddled together under a blanket during the blizzard]  We are doing this to keep warm, aren't we?

  Tommy : Uh-huh.

  Avram : In that case, you can put your arms around me.

  Tommy : Come here, darling.

• [the Diggs brothers and Jones ambush Tommy and Avram while they are romping on the beach and, in a shootout, Tommy kills Jones and sends Matt Diggs fleeing. Darryl Diggs shoots Tommy in the shoulder; Avram is obsessed with saving the Torah. Tommy, in pain and fear, screams most of his dialogue] 

  Tommy : He's out of bullets! He dropped the gun. Get the gun!

  [Avram looks up, appalled] 

  Tommy : Shoot him! There, right there, look! It's in the sand! Don't let him get the other gun.

  [Avram runs and gets the gun. Darryl is cornered] 

  Tommy : Shoot him! He's gonna kill us, shoot him! Shoot him, Avram!

  [Darryl spots Jones's gun in the sand] 

  Tommy : He's going for the other gun! Shoot him, for Christ's sake, shoot him! Help me!

  [Avram is pointing the gun at Darryl but is paralyzed. Darryl, walking slowly toward the gun in the sand, grins] 

  Tommy : He's gonna kill us; shoot him! Shoot him, Avram, shoot him! Don't you understand? He's going for the other gun. Don't let him grab that gun!

  [Darryl, snickering, is almost to the gun] 

  Tommy : Don't let him grab the other gun! There, there, right there! Look! It's in the sand. Shoot him, Avram! Shoot him!

  [Darryl is laughing out loud at Avram when Avram shoots him in the chest] 

• Tommy : What's the point of all my experience, if you don't listen to me?

• Tommy : You got it straight?

  Avram : Oh, sure. Right from this tree, I head straight north five or six weeks till I come to the flat country.

  Tommy : Yeah.

  Avram : Then I make a left for two days. That way I avoid the Indians. Then I cross the river and I make a sharp right, away from the mountains. Once I get to the desert, God willing, I just continue straight as piss till I come to the ocean. Take a left, keeping the ocean on my right shoulder, and just hot-tail it right into San Francisco.

• Avram : I'm promised a wife - when I get to San Francisco, but I haven't never met her.

  Tommy : You gonna marry a woman that you never seen?

  Avram : I didn't say I never seen her. I said I never met her. They sent me a picture - before I left Poland.

• Tommy : Aw, that's my kind of woman! You son of a gun. You son of a gun, you! Ha ha ha ha! Shee-it!

• Tommy : You know, rabbi, you're one crazy bastard!

• Tommy : Shee-it! Don't get no closer to that edge, rabbi!

  Avram : What kind of word is dat?

  Tommy : What word?

  Avram : You always say "shee-it" at a certain moment.

  Tommy : "Shee-it"? Well, that's, uh, that's, uh, what do you, uh - well, you must have a word in your language that you... What do you say when you get took by surprise?

  Avram : Oy gevalt!

  Tommy : Oy ga-vault?

  Avram : Ya.

  Tommy : That's it. That's what shee-it means.

  Avram : [slaps his own cheek]  Oy shee-it! Yeah, that makes sense.

• Tommy : Speak any Mexican, do you?

• Tommy : Don't tell me you ain't going to ride today!

  Avram : I ain't going to ride today.

  Tommy : I asked you not to tell me that!

  Avram : That's what I'm telling you.

• Tommy : I ain't gonna let you talk me into this. It's just impossible! Every God damn Indian knows that! Every God damn trapper knows that! I know, you don't like it when I talk that way. But I'm telling ya, you ain't going to talk me into it this time!

  Avram : Am I trying to talk you into anything?

  Tommy : Good night! Have a nice trip.

  Avram : Good night and tanks for everything you did for me - up until the time I needed you the most!

• Tommy : Know what you are? You're a real mesh-a-goona!

  Avram : Meshugena.

• Tommy : They'll hang you!

  Avram : And what if I give back the money?

  Tommy : You mean your half!

  Avram : Yes, I mean my half.

  Tommy : Well, first they'll string you up by your balls, until you tell them where the other half is; then they'll hang you!

• Avram : What did they want?

  Tommy : They wanted our horses, our guns, our scalps, our heads. Jesus, I don't know. They wanted our asses, that's what they wanted.

  Avram : But why? What did we do?

  Tommy : They've been shit on by white men so long, they don't ask questions no more.

• Tommy : Hey, rabbi, you think God sent me to show you the way?

  Avram : Perhaps.

  Tommy : I must be some kind of angel.