Chapter 7 of 28 · 2'27"
Morrie is terrified of Tommy and comes to Paulie for protection, offering him a share of the restaurant. On the surface it's a business pitch; underneath it's a man begging the only person who can keep Tommy away, and Paulie's answer is the film's best insult.
Morrie Is Afraid of Tommy
A Silk Hat on a Pig
Morrie tells Paulie he can't live this way, looking over his shoulder and afraid Tommy will kill him. He asks Paulie to come in as a partner and take a piece of the restaurant to keep Tommy from taking it. Paulie agrees to let Morrie run the joint, but not before calling Tommy a bad seed and the deal a silk hat on a pig.
Morrie comes in talking about fear — "I'm hearing all kinds of fucking bad things" — but what he is really doing is trying to buy protection he can't get anywhere else. He offers Paulie a share of the restaurant, hoping that if Paulie has a stake, Tommy can't simply take it. Paulie sees the whole thing clearly: he calls Tommy "an arch criminal," then delivers the verdict the chapter is named for, "Tommy taking over this joint is like putting a silk hat on a pig." He doesn't pretend the restaurant matters to him; he even admits he knows nothing about the business. What he manages is risk. In the end he agrees to help — "You run the joint" — and Morrie thanks him like a saved man. The scene shows the mob's economy of favors: nothing is given, and protection always costs a piece of something.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“I got to go on the lam in order to get away from this guy.”
It puts desperation in plain words: to escape one man, he has to live as a fugitive.
Informal
“Tommy taking over this joint is like putting a silk hat on a pig.”
A farmyard image delivers the verdict: fine things on the wrong head look absurd.
Informal
“Tommy's a bad kid, a bad seed. What am I supposed to do? Shoot him?”
He admits the boy is bad, then a rhetorical question kills every option, half resigned, half chilling.
Informal
“When I leave my house, before I get to the car I look over both shoulders.”
One small habit on the way to the car shows a life lived in constant fear.
Informal
Up next · 08a big scoreThe scene: Paulie's Restaurant RacketTo protect it from Tommy. If Paulie owns a stake, Tommy can't simply seize the place, so Morrie trades a share for safety.
It means wasting something good on someone who doesn't deserve it. Paulie uses it to say Tommy running a classy restaurant would be a joke.
He limits his risk. He won't take over the restaurant himself, but he lets Morrie run it and offers to try to help, while warning that Tommy is a bad seed.
Tommy DeVito. Morrie says he hears bad things, feels treated badly, and would have to go on the lam to escape him.
No. When Paulie asks if he should shoot Tommy, Morrie says 'That wouldn't be a bad idea,' then immediately apologizes and admits he only meant that Tommy scares him.
