Daily Dialogue — November 12, 2019

White approaches Loew in the bathroom after he refused to answer Exley’s questions.

Ellis Loew: Unless you came here to wipe my ass, I believe we’re through.

White looks at him, silently.

Ellis Loew: Come on, don’t try that “Good Cop-Bad Cop” crap. I practically invented it. So what if some homo actor is dead, huh? Boys, girls, ten of them step off the bus to L.A. every day…

White smashes Loew’s head into the mirror, then sticks it into the toilet

Ellis Loew: Pull him off me, Exley!
Ed Exley: I don’t know how.
Bud White: Now, I know you think you’re the A-number one hotshot. But here’s the juice: if I take you out, there’ll be ten more lawyers to take your place tomorrow. They just won’t come on the bus, that’s all!

White drags Loew into his office and dangles him out of the window.

Ed Exley: Was that how you used to run the “Good Cop-Bad Cop”?

— L.A. Confidential (1997), screenplay by Brian Helgeland & Curtis Hanson, novel by James Ellroy

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Interrogation. Today’s suggestion by Thomas Gudeli.

Trivia: The script went through seven drafts before Curtis Hanson felt confident enough to let James Ellroy see it.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Nice use of the callback “Good Cop-Bad Cop” in this interrogation scene.