Donnie Brasco
LEFTY Hand me them pliers.
DONNIE The vise grip or the needle nose?
LEFTY Fuggedaboudit. I’ll get it myself.
He leans out. Takes the pliers. Goes back to work dismantling the dashboard.
DONNIE I don’t know, Left. This is the best car I ever had.
LEFTY You didn’t hear that? That rattling?
DONNIE I never had any trouble with this car.
LEFTY Give me a hand with this.
Lefty and Donnie PULL OFF the dashboard. Lefty looks inside. Feels around.
LEFTY (satisfied) It’s clean.
DONNIE (getting it) Hey, you got something to say to me, Left, say it to my face.
LEFTY I ain’t saying nothing, Donnie.
DONNIE You think I got a fucking wire in my car?
LEFTY Did I say that?
DONNIE What do you think — you think I’m a fucking rat stoolpigeon?
LEFTY You can’t be too careful these days. Even the ears have ears. (beat) C’mon. They need some bodies on the street down at Toyland.
CUT TO:
EXT. DAY. TOYLAND LITTLE ITALY
A CAR pulls up and two prosperous-looking SKIPPERS get out — DOMINICK “BIG TRIN” TRINCHERA, fat and fortyish, and PHILIP “PHILLY LUCKY” GIACCONE, 40s, shrewd eyes behind glasses. They disappear into an unimposing SOCIAL CLUB. WISEGUYS stand guard in the cold outside.
Lefty arrives with Donnie in tow.
LEFTY Nicky, this’s Donnie. (they nod) How’d Minx’s Magic do in the fifth?
WISEGUY #1 He lost.
LEFTY How could he lose?
WISEGUY #1 What the fuck does he give a fuck? He’s a horse. You’re the one that’s out ten grand.
LEFTY Fuck! Now I gotta bet another dime Sunday just to get to where I was yesterday.
RED COWBOY BOOTS
move up the block… They belong to ALPHONSE “SONNY RED” INDELICATO, 50s, barrel chest. With him, his son, ANTHONY BRUNO INDELICATO, 20s, pale and balding, COKED OUT.
LEFTY (aside, to Donnie) Fucking Sonny Red.
Sonny Red stops, confronts Lefty.
SONNY RED (nods to Donnie) Who’s this?
LEFTY This’s Donnie, a friend of mine.
BRUNO Just stand there and look dangerous, friend.
LEFTY (proud) Yeah, he does look dangerous, don’t he?
Bruno SNORTS in disgust as he and his father move along.
LEFTY Sonny Red, everything’s a beef with him, him and Bruno, that son of his.
DONNIE He don’t look so dangerous himself.
LEFTY Ah, he’s a stone degenerate, he’s coked-up half the time. Like all these fucking kids nowadays.
A huge LINCOLN pulls up. BODYGUARDS jump out of the car. And CARMINE “LILO” GALANTE, 69, fat and bald, huge CIGAR, emerges from the Lincoln. AWESTRUCK, all watch as, surrounded by WISEGUYS, Galante disappears into the club. Lefty watches, stubs out his cigarette. Turns to Donnie.
LEFTY The boss.
CUT TO:
EXT. SUNSET. ROOF
Lefty tends to the PIGEON COOPS on his roof, Donnie alongside him.
LOUISE, early 30s, a good-looking woman in stretch pants, brings Lefty a SPRITZER.
LOUISE Here you go, Bennie. You sure you don’t wanna spritzer, Donnie?
DONNIE No thanks, Louise.
LOUISE You change your mind, I’m downstairs.
She heads downstairs. Donnie turns back to Lefty.
LEFTY Not for nothing, but… how’d you know that was a fugazy?
DONNIE Jewels are my business. If I buy a fugazy, I lose. I hate to lose.
LEFTY That’s a good business, jewels? Good money in it?
DONNIE Pretty good.
LEFTY You keep your nose clean, be a good earner, listen to what I school you — there ain’t a crystal ball big enough for what we could do.
DONNIE (off pigeon) Did you know there used to be falcons in New York?
LEFTY They got everything in this fucking city.
DONNIE Peregrine falcons. They lived across the river.
LEFTY In Queens?
DONNIE In the Palisades.
LEFTY The Palisades is Jersey, Donnie.
DONNIE I’m saying that’s why there’s so many pigeons now. The falcons used to hunt ’em and kill ’em off.
LEFTY I love these fucking pigeons. I’d die before I’d let anybody touch these pigeons.
DONNIE Those falcons could read a newspaper from a mile up.
LEFTY A bird could read the newspaper?
DONNIE I’m saying their eyesight.
LEFTY Hey, Donnie — you got a couple hundred, Donnie? I got some things I gotta take care of.
Donnie reaches in his wallet.
DONNIE What do you want, two hundred?
Lefty leans over, PEERS into his wallet.
LEFTY Whaddaya got there, three hundred? Gimme three hundred.
Donnie hands over the $300 — EMPTIES his wallet. Lefty takes it, folds it into a ROLL. Puts the hundred on the outside…
LEFTY Don’t be carrying your money in a wallet no more. Wiseguy got his money in a roll, like this. Beaner on the outside.
DONNIE You’re the boss.
LEFTY I’m not the boss, Donnie. The boss ends up dead or in jail. Why the fuck would I want to be the boss?
DONNIE It’s just an expression.
LEFTY And shave off that moustache. That’s against the rules.
DONNIE Hey, Left, if it’s okay, I’m gonna run. I’ll see you tomorrow.
LEFTY Do I gotta school you in everything? Tomorrow’s Mother’s Day. Wiseguys don’t work on Mother’s Day.
CUT TO:
INT. NIGHT. THE COCKEYED CLAM
Donnie sits with Berada as he reads over some documents.
BERADA Benjamin Ruggiero. a.k.a. ‘Lefty,’ ‘Lefty Guns,’ ‘Lefty Two Guns.’ A couple of bullshit cases, never did time.
DONNIE This is way beyond what we talked about — fences and hijackers. This is a made guy. Do you know what that means? There’s only maybe 3000 made guys in the whole fucking country.
BERADA (smiles) It means you’re in, kid.
DONNIE Can you believe it — a made guy? (muses) A very peculiar made guy.
FLASH CUT TO:
INT. THE PRESENT. FBI HEADQUARTERS
Hogue reads a memorandum. LeBow on the phone.
BERADA (V.O.) …In light of the above contacts, we request an additional six months…
HOGUE Berada’s the guy who ran this?
JULES I took over when he retired.
LeBow covers the receiver with his hand.
