- Stuart Bailey: You ever have the feeling you've been watched or followed?
- Hazel Bixby: Not nearly enough.
- Butler: Good morning.
- Stuart Bailey: Good morning.
- Butler: [noticing he was beat up] Say, what happened to you? Are you the drunk they told me was sleeping it off upstairs?
- Stuart Bailey: Yeah, that's me.
- Butler: I must have been hearing things. I thought they said it was a gal.
- Stuart Bailey: When I drink, my voice gets high.
- Buster Buffin: Well, what'll it be? Clam chowder or clam chowder?
- Stuart Bailey: Got any clam chowder?
- Buster Buffin: Oh, that's special. Cost you extra.
- [first lines]
- Jane Johnson: [after trying to elude him, deciding to approach the man on the street she has noticed has been clandestinely watching her] I'd like to know the reason why you're following me.
- Stuart Bailey: Would I need a reason?
- Jane Johnson: You know, I'm beginning to think I might *possibly* have been mistaken about you. Perhaps it's your leer. It looks so genuine.
- Stuart Bailey: [with a mock lascivious tone in leering back at her] It is.
- Jane Johnson: [sternly] Yes, I can see it is. Well, you'll have to excuse me. I'm going in here and try and lose you.
- [she walks away into a building as Bailey walks in the opposite direction to his car]
- John Vega Caprillo: I have a passion for obscurity. It really amounts to fear. I happen to believe rather deeply, that only the obscure are ever really free.
- Stuart Bailey: [Norma entering Bailey's office after the invitation] Well, come in. Is this love or were you looking for a detective?
- Norma Shannon: Isn't there any other alternative?
- Stuart Bailey: Yes, but I haven't got time for it.
- Stuart Bailey: You're just the man I wanted to see, Mr. Johnson. You got to get your wife up here.
- Ralph Johnson: My wife? Why?
- Stuart Bailey: Because I'm dancing on a hot griddle and she's going to get me off.
- [last lines]
- [Boots walks into the room expecting to have a romantic interlude with Bailey, instead seeing three women in the room, one, Norma, who is in his arms]
- Boots Nestor: [as she walks by each of the women] Well, well. I didn't think there'd be a line.
- Norma Shannon: [as she and Bailey kiss] I've got news for you, dear. This is the end of the line.
- Norma Shannon: Well, I wouldn't have missed meeting you for all the world. The first time I've gone slumming in years.
- Stuart Bailey: You win. You see in this racket, you learn to suspect the worst of everyone. The few times you are wrong, you have to apologize. I'm apologizing.
- Norma Shannon: Well, thank you. I appreciate it.
- Stuart Bailey: You should. Humble pie gives me hives.
- Martin: You ask for trouble, you'll get it. I hired out for that job.
- Stuart Bailey: Who hired you?
- Martin: You know what would happen to me if I told you?
- Stuart Bailey: The guy's tough, huh?
- Martin: You can say that again.
- Stuart Bailey: Who's ever behind you is about as dangerous as a badminton's bird. Giving me that 200 bucks... that's right out of Aunt Sadie's hope chest.
- Stuart Bailey: [jumping into Sharpy's car] Let's talk.
- Sharpy: Who are you?
- Stuart Bailey: I'm a guy who wants to talk. I'm lonely.
- Sharpy: I gotta get outta here.
- Stuart Bailey: I wouldn't do that. Your friend upstairs might see you. Let's go up and join him. Maybe he's lonely too.
- Buster Buffin: So you're trying to find Janie.
- Stuart Bailey: Yeah.
- Buster Buffin: That was all of six years ago, chum. What's your angle on her?
- Stuart Bailey: Oh, just leg work and the expense account is lean and hungry.
- Buster Buffin: What's the information worth?
- Stuart Bailey: What's the information?
- Stuart Bailey: [Buster doesn't respond; Bailey pulls out some money] What'll that buy?
- Lt. Quint: [to Bailey] Were you ever mixed up in a murder before? I'll let you in on something. To the bunco squad or the vice squad that license of yours may mean something. To the homicide bureau, it's just a scrap of paper.
- Stuart Bailey: Can't you smell a frame-up when it's hanging under your nose?
- Lt. Quint: Not when you're the man who's hanging it there.
- Boots Nestor: [covering up her bathing suit] Please excuse my appearance. I... I was sunbathing.
- Stuart Bailey: [smiling] Don't let me interrupt.
- Betty: Hello, Mr. B.
- Stuart Bailey: You're a sight for sore eyes.
- Betty: [noticing Bailey has been beaten up] You're a sight, period!
- Stuart Bailey: [noticing the name tag, Millie, on her waitress uniform] Just coffee, Millie.
- Fannie Phipps: My name ain't Millie. Millie got fired. My name's Fannie.
- Stuart Bailey: Fannie, would you remember...
- Fannie Phipps: I hate people that call me that.
- Stuart Bailey: But you just said your name was...
- Fannie Phipps: My friends call me Jackie.
- Stuart Bailey: Well, Jackie, would you remember...
- Fannie Phipps: I said my friends call me Jackie. To you, I'm Miss Phipps.
- Stuart Bailey: Your name is Phipps.
- Fannie Phipps: Certainly. You know you oughta learn to get along with people. I see somebody shot 'cha.
- Stuart Bailey: Miss Phipps, you are what I call an observant woman.
- Stuart Bailey: You know, I'm the kind of a guy who can admit he's been a dope.
- Norma Shannon: And I'm the kind of a gal that can go for a dope like you.
- Lt. Quint: [barging through Bailey's door] Someone downtown was having a joke, said you have some information for me.
- Stuart Bailey: Let's try this entrance again. You knock and I'll open the door.
- Norma Shannon: Let me go!
- Stuart Bailey: [grabbing her shoulders] Listen, I've been burned before. I've been given a high-class hotfoot with a gold-plated lighter. Either you're phony or most of my facts are. I'm still trying to find out which.
- Ralph Johnson: Your instructions were clear. Go to Portland where she's lived all her life. She's frightened enough now without having private dicks trailing her around.
- Stuart Bailey: People don't spot me when I'm following 'em. Unless, they're looking for it. Your wife was looking for it.
- Ralph Johnson: Some of my friends would be capable of getting plastered and pulling a stunt just like that.
- Stuart Bailey: That's a pretty rugged crowd you run with.
- Ralph Johnson: Rugged is a good enough name for some of my friends. I came up the hard way. In fact, that's the trouble. I've lead a rough and tumbled life.
- Keller: She was quite something. I tried to brush some dust off her shoulder once and she accused me of mauling her. If you find her, give her my regards,
- Keller: I thought you might be looking for something - the hard way.
- Stuart Bailey: If I wanted anything from you, I'd get it. And I like the hard way.
- Buster Buffin: We came down in '41, together. Strictly plutonic. She was one of those "don't maul me" type. She got up a routine with bubble bath or something and hit the nightclub circuit. I caught her act in Long Beach. Pretty corny. That was about five years ago. Haven't given her a dime's worth of thought since.
- Stuart Bailey: [serving a bowl of clam chowder] You wouldn't be a food inspector, would you?
- Buster Buffin: Put it down. I might be hungry.
- Stuart Bailey: You'll find it warmer than an old maid's feet, but, not half as clammy
- Norma Shannon: Acute cynicism. I suppose it's an occupational disease, isn't it.
- Stuart Bailey: Yeah, it's the people I meet.
- Hazel Bixby: [on the phone] Yeah, Martha, he thinks he's just too-too social since he joined the club. The automobile club.
- Hazel Bixby: Gosh, you'd think with her, though, she'd hire someone to watch you. Well, it's people like her that keep people like us out of work.
- Buster Buffin: Club Zoro, Long Beach Boulevard. She was calling herself: Janie Joy.
- Stuart Bailey: Club Zoro. Janie Joy. Thank you.
- Stuart Bailey: Why haven't I been thrown out?
- Ligia Caprillo: I do not know. It is apparent my husband wishes to talk with you. Latin American women respect their husband's wishes.
- Stuart Bailey: I've known - one or two that didn't.
- Ligia Caprillo: Really? That is an interesting observation, Mr. Bailey. Perhaps we should explore it further - some other time.
- Norma Shannon: You know, it just hit me, why you took me to your apartment last night. Just to see the photograph. That was all.
- Stuart Bailey: Something like that.
- Norma Shannon: And I thought you wanted to see what kind of a girl I was.
- Stuart Bailey: I know what kind of a girl you are.
- Norma Shannon: No you don't.
- Stuart Bailey: As I said once before: you're good.
- Norma Shannon: I suppose you meant that to be nasty. I found it rather nice.
- Norma Shannon: Last night, you took me to your apartment. We had our drinks. You took me home. No tired line. No phony preliminaries. I like that kind of guy.
- Reno: Better just drop the canister on the floor. You shoot Herbie, I shoot you. Where'll that get us? Better just drop it.
- Reno: We'll settle for the name of your client. Don't be a hero Bailey. You're gonna tell us now or later. Why don't you tell us now and save yourself some teeth.
- Stuart Bailey: I'll talk to my client tomorrow. Maybe he'll see it your way.
- Reno: Quit stallin', sweetheart. Let's have it!