- [first lines]
- Captain Walter Anderson: [voice-over] New York City: an architectural jungle where fabulous wealth and the deepest squalor live side by side. New York: the busiest, the loneliest, the kindest, and the cruelest of cities. I live here and work here. My name is Walter Anderson. I'm one of an army of twenty thousand whose job is to protect the citizens in this city of eight million. So, twenty-four hours a day you'll find our men on Park Avenue... Times Square... Central Park... Fulton Market... the subway. Three hundred and eighty new citizens are being born today in the city of New York. One hundred and sixty-four couples are being married. One hundred and ninety-two persons will die. Twelve persons will die violent deaths. And at least one of them will be a victim of murder. A murder a day, every day of the year, and each murder will wind up on my desk.
- [last lines]
- Captain Walter Anderson: [voice-over] This is the story of Joe Norson. No hero. No criminal. Just human, like all of us. Weak, like some of us. A bit foolish, like most of us. Now that we know some of the facts, we can help him. He's gonna be all right.
- Captain Walter Anderson: [to another detective who is removing bundles of cash from a gunned-down criminal's body] That's evidence, you know - no souvenirs.
- Emil Lorrison: [making a blackmail payoff to his mistress] I couldn't raise the whole amount, only half. That's all I'll be able to raise.
- Lucille 'Lucky' Colner: Oh, come on now, sweetie. That isn't what Dun and Bradstreet says. They give you a double "A" rating.
- Emil Lorrison: Those ratings mean nothing. Fifteen thousand was all I could manage.
- [angrily]
- Emil Lorrison: The entire affair was a filthy frame-up!
- Lucille 'Lucky' Colner: [with contempt] Take a look at yourself, Grandpa. First you sell yourself I'm nuts about you, crazy for your manly charms. And now you think this is bargain day. Well, go on down to Gimbel's Bargain Basement! You're in the wrong department! Take that other fifteen grand out of your pants or get out! I got a dinner date.
- [pauses, continues with a smirk]
- Lucille 'Lucky' Colner: I could do business with your wife.
- Gus Heldon: [behind the bar] Hello, young fella.
- [notices the bruises on his face]
- Gus Heldon: Say... you been in an accident?
- Joe Norson: Yeah. I'll have a beer.
- Gus Heldon: What you need's a pick-me-up.
- [pours him a shot glass of liquor]
- Gus Heldon: Hundred proof, on the house. You can pay for the chaser.
- Harriet Sinton: [drunkenly putting his arm around herself] Hey, I fit, don't I?
- Joe Norson: Like a motorman's glove.