because of your tax evasion charges.
He'd rather lose a testicle
than give a dollar up to the government.
- So what do you propose?
- I propose you take it easy,
think about your future, not our demise.
In the meantime,
enjoy the scenery, have a long
drink with one of the girls.
- All right, listen to me very carefully.
I don't want to have to say this again.
I am not your friend.
I don't want the services of your whores.
We are in a business arrangement,
Mr. Schultz threatens this arrangement.
Have I made myself clear?
- Crystal.
It's clear you took the money.
- Cousin, I ain't seen this many
poor folks in Harlem in all my life.
- Well, cousin, welcome to the depression.
The only way a cat can make a dime
these days is running numbers.
You ain't got no glue on
your fingers, now do you?
All right, hey, Toots, I see you.
You can't keep ducking me.
All right.
- My boy is back.
- Whispers, you ain't never had no loot
but you still my favorite boot.
- Oh, it's real good to see you, Bump.
You're late, Illinois.
- Surprise!
- Did somebody say something
about scrooging somebody?
- I can't believe it.
- This is the new guy, Vallie.
- Mr. Johnson.
- Nice to meet you.
- Come on, come on,
Madame Queen is waiting,
been waiting.
There she is.
- Hello, Madame Queen.
- Bumpy Johnson.
You still have the light in your eyes.
Praise God.
- Before we get this,
uh, this soire started,
I need to speak with you for a few ticks.
- All right.
- Illinois said that Dutch
Schultz put six of your men
on the slab at Harlem Hospital.
- Oui.
The Mr. Schultz is trying
to make trouble for me,
but I set up a meeting with him next week,
and it is then I will
make my position clear.
- I want to go with you to that meeting
as your bodyguard.
protect her, lamb's breath?
That for me job, me take care of Queen.
- I have faith in Tee.
- I know Tee-Ninchy got spine,
but faith ain't gonna
get rid of the Dutchman.
I saw what his boys did to Willie Brunden.
I'm not going to stand by and do nothing,
and let something like that happen to you.
The man is threatening
to take over business
that's taken you 10 years to build up.
I want everybody to know
the Queen's still carrying power uptown.
Please.
- I still can't say no to you, eh?
- I had a dream last
night, a big old crawfish
jumped off a plate and bit me.
- Yeah?
- What Madame Zora
dream book say for fish?
- 579, but I wouldn't bother with no 579,
because that stock exchange
thing that they use
for the numbers was at 579 last week,
it ain't going to be 579 again.
- There was some sweet
potato pie on the plate, too.
- Uh huh, potatoes is under potatoes.
Oh, good, here it is, 6-4-2.
Ha, 6-4-2, uh-uh,
I ain't going to play no
6-4-2, it gives me gas.
I tell you this again,
I ain't playing no
number that give me gas.
- Woman, I bet your gas smell
as sweet as flowers in the springtime.
- Don't you be trying to
get in my good graces.
You done had your chance.
- Hey, Ms. Mary.
- Shut up.
Damn, woman, you hard as lard.
- You know what?
I hate crawfish.
I'm just going to head on
and play a dime on 6-4-2 straight.
- That's another dime down the drain.
- Oh, Lord have mercy,
garvey-eyed Francine.
- This is for you and the kids.
Save your money, Sul.
- Hey, hey, hey, watch yourself now.
You don't need to be telling her that.
Why don't you stay out
of grown folk business
before I beat you till
you smell like onions?
- And I'll drag you by
that mile-wide collar
and drop you in the gutter.
- Yeah, yeah, let me see that.
Now, look at this.
gold can jibe to begin with?
You can bake it, boil it, fry it,
fricassee it, hang it out to dry,
it's still just as funky
as a fat man's drawers.
Here, take this.
- Don't you see people hungry, huh?
What do you do for people, numbers man?
- Francine, I have told you several times,
I'm the poor man's race track.
- You take the money out of pockets
and you put food on the table.
A million-to-one odds, it's a scam.
It's gambling, that's what it is.
- Excuse me.
I believe the numbers provide jobs
for over 2,000 colored folks
right here in Harlem alone.
A penny gets you six dollars, that's what,
- That's right, a month
worth of people food,
not this bullshit here.
- It's the only homegrown business we got.
- Are you his partner?
- Y'all make a better
team than Amos and Andy.
- I don't need no partner.
My name is Bumpy Johnson.
- Bumpy?
Your mama named you Bumpy?
- That's all right, what you gonna do
with all that pretty
ham in hot-ass African,
you ain't got no straightening
curls over there, ugly.
Damn, she fine as frog eggs.
- Okay, cousin, tell me
about Miss Francine Hughes.
- Oh, Francine.
She's always quoting Marcus Garvey
about moving back to hot-ass Africa.
at that United Negro
something-or-other.
- Improvement Association?
- That's it.
- Man, she sure is high tolling,
you see the glimmers on that girl?
Where do you think she
got them eyes, cousin?
- Francine Hughes is not going to take up
with the likes of you.
She high-powered and
she got a boot's lace.
Don't even pay that no nevermind.
- All I want to do is converse with her.
- Mm-hm, yeah, I bet you want
to have a long-ass conversation.
Son, the man that walks with Francine
will walk down the Christian path.
Oh, hey, damn!
I've been stepping on corn flakes.
- Well, at least you
won't be sleeping alone.
- Hey, Bumpy, you know,
these last couple of
years, here, with you gone,
I just want to say, I really
missed you, that's all.
- I missed you, too.
- Got you a little present.
Now, it's not new.
Got it from old Clarence up on Saint Nick.
- Hello, there, Mr. Speaker.
- Yeah, figured you might need that
to open a few doors for yourself.
- Yeah.
That's hard-hitting, thanks, cousin.
- Together, we got strength,
we got experience.
Most of all, though, we got organization.
A partnership's going
to increase the profits.
- There will be no profits
with your boys collecting the money.
- What do I got, I got f***ing horns
growing out of my head here?
I don't feel nothing.
Man, I'm stiffy, I'm not
the f***ing devil here.
- But you do the devil's work.
Six of my men is proof of that.
- Yeah, but if I hadn't
sent you an invitation,
you wouldn't have met me, would you?
No, Queen.
From what I hear, you ain't
exactly a f***ing nun yourself.
- Mr. Schultz, we're not here to talk
about your right to own your own bank,
but I ask to respect my right to my own.
Comprenez-vous?
- Oh, yeah, f***ing vous.
- Vous?
- Now, that reminds me, this thing
which that spic, Henry Miro, said.
He said he had the
balls to stand up to me.
Les balls mes grandes,
that's what he f***ing said.