Atlantic City

Synopsis: Atlantic City is a place where people go to realize their dreams, the promise of the future manifested by the demolition of the old crumbling buildings to be replaced by new hotels and casinos. Someone who recently came to Atlantic City for that promise is native Moose Javian (Saskatchewan) Sally Matthews, who currently works as a waitress at a hotel oyster bar, but who is training to be a black jack croupier and wants to be more cultured, such as learning French, in order to work at the casinos in Monte Carlo. Another dreamer who came to Atlantic City decades ago is Lou Pascal, who has long worked as a numbers runner and who claims to have been a cellmate and thus implied confidante of Bugsy Siegel. Although Lou still dresses to the standard to which he is accustomed, his dream long died as he only works penny ante stuff for Fred, most of his current income from being the kept man of widowed recluse, Grace Pinza. Grace too came to Atlantic City to fulfill her dreams - most specificall
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Director(s): Louis Malle
Production: Paramount Home Video
  Nominated for 5 Oscars. Another 25 wins & 16 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.4
Rotten Tomatoes:
100%
R
Year:
1980
104 min
730 Views


Look, it's Ganesh!

It's a sign from heaven.

Good-bye, little chicks

we are leaving the sticks

We are catching the train

at a quarter to 6:00

So if anyone should drop around

Won't you please tell them

that we can be found

On the boardwalk in Atlantic City

We will walk in a dream

On the boardwalk in Atlantic City

Life will be peaches and cream

There where there's

saltwater air

Brings out the lady's charms

There on the rolling chair

He'll roll right into your arms

Excuse me, ma'am.

You can't bring those bags in here.

- Oh, we're looking for Sally.

- It's a hotel policy.

She's a really great girl

who works here.

Oh, Christ!

Hi. Oh, wow,

it's really good to see you.

I don't want you here.

Get your asses out of here.

When do you finish?

You're not staying with me.

Look, Sally, we've got money.

Great. You're in a hotel.

Check in.

We will have money.

- Can you spell me for an hour?

- Yeah, sure.

- Who are they?

- My husband and my sister.

We drove across Utah.

You'd really love

those waterfalls there, Sally!

And then Colorado.

Did we ever meet some beautiful

Indians that live on a commune.

Did they have

some dynamite mushrooms!

Do you know

even the cows were wrecked?

Then we got lost

in Louisiana.

Lou, you're late again.

Peppy's very nervous.

Peppy knows he's got

an appointment.

I'm ringing this bell

like Charles Laughton...

in The Hunchback of Notre Dame:

You want that from me? To become

a hunchback ringing for you?

You want hash and eggs?

I am nobody's hunchback.

You work for me, Lou!

The cigarettes you put

in your mouth, I pay for.

I ring this bell

and you get down here.

- You got no ketchup.

- Why the hell don't you get some?

- Don't come where I work!

- I came to see you!

I don't want you following me

or any more of your surprises.

What's going on in there?

Dave, leave her alone.

Don't rough her up.

If she doesn't want us,

we can go somewhere else.

It's okay, Chrissie.

Why don't you do

some deep breathing?

Yeah, okay.

He's really a wonderful man, Sally.

Why did you do it?

Running away with her...

humiliating me like that?

If you're gonna knock 'em up, pick

somebody who can care of herself.

What do you want me to say...

I'm sorry?

These things happen.

I want you out of here.

I need you.

I don't want you here.

What about Chrissie?

She needs you.

I'm not taking care

of either of you this time.

Are you seeing someone?

Yes, someone.

You screwed me up in Vegas

so I couldn't get a job.

This is what I've decided.

After I die, I'm gonna

have Peppy buried in my arms.

Do you think I trust you

to take care of him?

You're not gonna get one nickel

to take care of him after I'm gone.

Give me a kiss, Peppy.

Little ass kisser!

What are you saying?

I said we need more dog food.

- Did you cut the coupons?

- Yes, I cut the coupons.

Shoo! Come on now, Peppy.

There were 11 money-saver coupons

in the paper.

There's 11 money-saving coupons

in there now.

Here, you want to count them?

I can't even move my hands anymore.

- I'll rub your fingers for you.

- No, you stay away from me!

Last time you shoved my arthritis

clear up to my elbow.

Let me get going. It's late.

- I'll need five more dollars.

- Five more? You want cigarettes?

You steal cigarettes.

You're the big-time thief...

Mr. Mastermind...

Mr. Ten-Most-Wanted.

That's enough!

Nothing's enough.

Sh*t!

I always wanted shoes with...

clear plastic heels

you could see through with...

live goldfish swimming in them.

Wouldn't that be swift?

Have to walk so delicate.

You're like King Midas in reverse.

I don't want you touching my stuff.

You owe me.

Get out!

Who got you out

of f***ing Saskatchewan?

If not for me, you'd be home making

jam, putting out for lumberjacks.

Get out!

You smell, you know that?

Like a can of rotten tuna fish.

I don't think you smell

of tuna fish.

Are you mad at me

for going off with Dave?

I think of this baby as being ours.

Dave and mine and yours.

Dave's got a much higher developed

soul than either you or me.

I've hardly been reincarnated

at all, but Dave...

he can remember all the way back

to ancient Egypt...

building the pyramids

and all of that.

He's had some really hard lives.

I think he's due for

a real big break in this one.

You can stay here tonight.

Thanks.

I am not gonna get upset!

Hi, Peppy.

- Grace says the usual.

- I know what to give Peppy.

Come on, baby.

- A dollar on 123.

- Right.

Going out of business, Lou. No sense

playing the numbers anymore.

Ida Cohen, with the six parakeets...

won $400 on eight quarters

at the casino.

Got anything for me?

- What have you got for me today?

- Got this 421.

Six bits.

Lou! 496.

Fifty cents.

Make me a winner, man!

Sadie.

- 3-2-1.

- Wish me luck today, Lou.

I will.

Good number, 321.

Place your bets.

No more bets.

- You looked!

- You spilled your drink!

No, you took your eyes up.

You allowed me to distract you!

Everyone, listen to me.

The players are coming

to the casino in teams.

One sits here,

one sits there.

The cards are good.

The player at the first base

spills his drink.

Your eye moves.

The player at the third base

triples his bets.

They have a million clever ways

of trying to cheat you.

Focus!

Concentrate! Concentrate.

Go ahead.

Darling, you were late.

Family.

Did you like the music?

Marvelous music...

"Norma Casta Diva."

The chaste goddess

worshipping the moon.

Yeah, I'm beginning to like it.

Dignity, passion, size.

Can I lay a hard ten

on a soft three?

Yep.

Yeah, okay. Bye.

- Forty-eight dollars and six bits.

- You're down this week.

Everybody's broke.

I got any winners?

Better not have.

I can't afford f***ing winners.

Freddy, how 'bout a double sawbuck

for the case? It's a real beauty.

How am I supposed to fit my Cuban

Monte Cristos in this piece of sh*t?

Where are you coming from?

- Do you know a Fred O'Reilly?

- Fred's right over there.

- Thanks.

- You're welcome.

Hi, you Fred O'Reilly?

Yeah. Who are you?

Something new, huh?

Let me see. Very nice.

- I won $300 at the casino.

- Casino.

Hey, Queenie.

Hey, man, I need a little space

around here.

Come on!

I got business!

Let's take a look.

There you go.

Very nice.

Very nice indeed.

There's been a slight dry spell

around here.

Dry spell's over.

White Christmas, perfect timing.

A friend called this a.m.

Could I help him?

Had to say no.

- Where'd you get this?

- I found it in a phone booth.

- In Philadelphia?

- How did you know?

I'll help your friend.

Not looking like that, you won't.

This is a family town.

Better get yourself cleaned up.

A nice leisure suit, powder blue.

- You don't need a tie.

- Maybe you could advance me.

You know, $200? $300?

You know I'm good for it.

This is a very tight town.

I only do business with the people

I do business with.

The people I do business with

find out I do business...

with the people

I don't do business with...

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John Guare

John Guare (rhymes with "air"; born February 5, 1938) is an Irish American playwright. He is best known as the author of The House of Blue Leaves, Six Degrees of Separation, and Landscape of the Body. His style, which mixes comic invention with an acute sense of the failure of human relations and aspirations, is at once cruel and deeply compassionate. In his foreword to a collection of Guare's plays, film director Louis Malle writes: Guare practices a humor that is synonymous with lucidity, exploding genre and clichés, taking us to the core of human suffering: the awareness of corruption in our own bodies, death circling in. We try to fight it all by creating various mythologies, and it is Guare's peculiar aptitude for exposing these grandiose lies of ours that makes his work so magical. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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    "Atlantic City" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 Dec. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/atlantic_city_3223>.

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