Mulholland Falls

Mulholland Falls (1996) is a noir film, set in the 1940s, about a special team of ruthless Los Angeles police called the "Hat Squad", whose leader finds himself involved in a mysterious death linked to the head of the Atomic Energy Commission.

Max Hoover

 * This isn't America, Jack. This is L.A.


 * [Repeated line to Coolidge.] Is that what your psychiatrist told you?


 * [After beating FBI Special Agent McCafferty senseless…] See? That's federal property. This isn't. This is L.A. This is my town. Out here you're a trespasser. Out here I can pick you up, burn your house, fuck your wife, and kill your dog. And the only thing that'll protect you is if I can't find you. And I already found you.

General Timms

 * You're much more intelligent than you appear to be, Lieutenant. Must be a big advantage in your field. In my field, everyone was always so desperate to seem cleverer than they were.

Dialogue

 * Hoover: Jack Flynn?
 * Jack Flynn: [hands him money] Here ya go buddy, buy yourself a good time. [turning away] They'll let anybody in here.
 * Hoover: [throwing bills down] Mr. Flynn, I'm Maxwell Hoover. I'm with the Los Angeles Police Department.
 * Jack Flynn: Oh, that means I get change back.


 * Hoover: Let me tell ya how it goes, Ellery. Ya meet somebody. Maybe they're a little off-center, but they tell ya the truth, and ya like 'em — ya like 'em for that. And one thing leads to another, and ya end up in bed. Now that's weak, Ellery.
 * Coolidge: Max…
 * Hoover: Now listen to me! Nobody gets hurt. Now, you go home, and you see your wife, and you're feelin' bad. Ya wanna unload it, ya wanna get it off your chest. So you tell 'er. And now she's hurt. Now that's weak, too, Elleroy. But it's also cruel. It's just goddam cruel.
 * [Hoover turns from Coolidge, but turns back again.]
 * Hoover: Take a— here, here's something for ya. Here's something that doesn't cost ya twenty-five bucks an hour. You carry your own water, Ellery. Ya understand? Carry your own water.


 * General Timms: These tiny particles of matter, which are so small that no one's ever seen them - never - they contain enough energy to blow up this house, an entire city, every person on Earth. Now that is inconceivable.
 * Hoover: General, I really don't think much about those things. I'd probably see too much.
 * General Timms: What do you see?
 * Hoover: People dead before their time.
 * General Timms: That's the history of the world, Lieutenant. Some people die before their time so that others can live; it's the cornerstone of civilization, uh… war, religion, democracy… a hundred die so that a thousand may live.
 * Hoover: Well, General, I take 'em one at a time.


 * Hall: What'd Timms have to say?
 * Hoover: He said the cornerstone of civilization was human sacrifice.


 * Coolidge: [trying to thread a projector] Damn it! I can't get my finger in there. It won't fit.
 * Esther: Try your dick.


 * Hoover: How come you got a hot dog in your mouth while you're threading the projector? Why do you eat while you're working? Why do you eat all the time?
 * Coolidge: It's all psychological, Max. I eat so I don't think about food.
 * Hoover: Oh... so you eat so you don't think about food.
 * Coolidge: Yeah.
 * Hoover: I don't want to butt into your business, but this psychiatrist, the guy you're going to, I think he's in worse shape than you are.

Cast

 * Nick Nolte — Police Lieutenant Max Hoover
 * Melanie Griffith — Katherine Hoover
 * Chazz Palminteri — Ellery Coolidge
 * Michael Madsen — Eddie Hall
 * Chris Penn — Arthur Relyea
 * Treat Williams — Colonel Nathan Fitzgerald
 * Jennifer Connelly — Allison Pond
 * Daniel Baldwin — FBI Agent McCafferty
 * Andrew McCarthy — Jimmy Fields
 * John Malkovich — General Thomas Timms
 * Kyle Chandler — The Captain
 * William L. Petersen — Jack Flynn
 * Aaron Neville — Nite Spot Singer
 * Rob Lowe — Flynn's associate
 * Bruce Dern — LAPD Chief Bill Parker
 * Louise Fletcher — Esther