A major heist goes off as planned, until bad luck and double crosses cause everything to unravel.

Doc Riedenschneider: One way or another, we all work for our vice.
Dix Handley: Don't bone me!
Doc Riedenschneider: That copper, he recognized me.
Cobby: How'd you know he was a copper?
Doc Riedenschneider: I can smell one a block off.
Cobby: Oh, don't worry about Ditrich. He's on my payroll. Practically a partner. Me and him, we're like that.
[Cobby holds up his index and middle finger]
Doc Riedenschneider: Experience has taught me never to trust a policeman. Just when you think one's all right, he turns legit.
Angela Phinlay: Haven't you bothered me enough, you big banana-head?
Doc Riedenschneider: Let's not stop. Wait till we get out of town, when we can do everything at once. Have a little meal, beer, a cigar. Go in comfort.
Frank Schurz, taxi driver: I can see you're a man who likes his pleasures.
Doc Riedenschneider: Well, Franz, what else is there in life, I ask you?
Police Commissioner Hardy: People are being cheated, robbed, murdered, raped. And that goes on 24 hours a day, every day in the year. And that's not exceptional, that's usual. It's the same in every city in the modern world. But suppose we had no police force, good or bad. Suppose we had... just silence. Nobody to listen, nobody to answer. The battle's finished. The jungle wins. The predatory beasts take over.
Dix Handley: Why don't you quit cryin' and get me some bourbon?
Frank Schurz, taxi driver: For $50, I'd drive you to the North Pole.
Cobby: Here's to the drink habit. It's the only one I got that don't get me into trouble.
Angela Phinlay: I had the market send over some salt mackerel for you. I know how you love it for breakfast.
Alonzo D. Emmerich: [Looks at her approvingly] Some sweet kid.
Angela Phinlay: What's the big idea standing there staring at me, Uncle Lon?
Alonzo D. Emmerich: Don't call me "Uncle Lon."
Angela Phinlay: I thought you liked it.
Alonzo D. Emmerich: Maybe I did... I don't any more.
Dr. Swanson: Well he won't get very far, that's for sure. He hasn't got enough blood left in him to keep a chicken alive.
Police Commissioner Hardy: I am here to arrest you Emmerich.
Alonzo D. Emmerich: May I ask what for?
Police Commissioner Hardy: Complicty... in robbery and in murder
Alonzo D. Emmerich: If I were you Hardy, I'd think up a few more charges. You might be able to make one of them stand up if you get an imbecile jury... and the right judge.
May Emmerich: Oh Lon, when I think of all those awful people you come in contact with - downright criminals - I get scared.
Alonzo D. Emmerich: Oh, there's nothing so different about them. After all, crime is only... a left-handed form of human endeavor.
Police Commissioner Hardy: In some ways, he's the most dangerous of them all. A hardened killer. A hooligan. A man without human feeling or human mercy.
Cobby: [Telephone rings twice; Cobby answers] Yeah, hello, hello. Yeah, this is Cobby. What?
Cobby: [Cobby gets off the telephone in to talk to Dix and Doc] It's Gus. Dragnet's out and they're combing the district.
Cobby: [Cobby holds out telephone] He wants to talk to you. You, Dix.
Dix Handley: [Dix takes telephone from Cobby; Cobby leaves] Gus, Dix.
Gus Minissi: [the scene switches from Cobby's hideout to a telephone booth where Gus is; Gus talks to Dix] Yeah, now, listen careful, pal. The cops are knocking over all the joints along the boulevard. There's mobs of them, meat wagons and all. Now, look, I already called the guy, Eddie Donato. Donato's got a grocery down by the river. 116 Front Street, you got that?
Dix Handley: [Dix's voice is heard through the telephone] Yeah.
Gus Minissi: Okay.
Dix Handley: [a police car rolls into the scene outside of the telephone booth] Thanks, Gus. Say, how's Louie?
Gus Minissi: Louie's not so good. He got a slug in his belly, all right. Doc's doing all he can. Uh, here they are now, the happiness boys.
Gus Minissi: [a policeman bangs on the telephone booth and motions Gus to get out of the booth so that he can use it. Gus chuckles, turns and waves to him] Hello. How are you, yeah?
Gus Minissi: [Gus turns back to talk to Dix] Looks like I'm in...
Gus Minissi: [Policeman bangs on the booth again] ... for a working over. Look, go down to Eddie's by way of the...
Gus Minissi: [Policeman bangs on booth for the third time] ... old car barn.
Gus Minissi: [Gus turns and waves to the policeman; turns back to talk to Dix] Yeah, it's deserted at night. Once you get beyond that...
Gus Minissi: [Policeman bangs on booth for the fourth time] ... you're okay. The cops never bother Eddie's neighborhood. So long, Dix. Blow now...
Gus Minissi: [Policeman bangs booth for the fifth and final time] ... eh?
Gus Minissi: [Gus turns and waves to the policeman; He hangs up and makes his way out of the telephone booth] All right, all right, all right.
Alonzo D. Emmerich: Shut up.
Bob Brannom: How's that? No one tells me to shut up.