Chapter 16 of 19 · 5'00"
Under the cover of a "Friends of Italian Opera" rally, the mob has gathered — and Detective Mulligan has crashed it. He needles Spats about the St. Valentine's Day Massacre until Spats, cornered, insists, "I sleep with my spats on." Meanwhile Joe and Jerry, dressed as women, can only hope nobody recognizes them.
Mulligan Grills Spats About the Bloody Spats
The Omelet Is About to Hit the Fan
At the "Friends of Italian Opera" convention in Florida, Spats Colombo registers as a Chicago delegate and is checked for weapons. Detective Mulligan shows up and questions him about the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. Spats claims he was at an opera, Rigoletto; Mulligan points to the blood-stained spats, and Spats answers that he sleeps in them.
The scene is a mob comedy built on the gap between menace and manners. The killers have a club, a registration desk, and a sergeant-at-arms; their violence hides behind euphemism, so "Friends of Italian Opera" means the people who order hits. Mulligan, the one honest man there, turns the same polite language into a needle: he asks where Spats was on Saint Valentine's Day and calls him "maestro." Spats's defense — "I sleep with my spats on" — is both absurd and revealing, because he cannot admit that the blood came from a murder. Joe and Jerry, pretending to be women upstairs, are the only people in the film who correctly read the danger; their line "they're onto us" is the real turn of the scene, and it drives them toward panic and packing.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“That's life. You can't make an omelet without breakin' an egg.”
A homely proverb excuses a con, making the scheme sound like common sense.
Informal
“You never know who's gonna be next.”
One offhand line captures the constant fear inside a mob that anyone could be next.
Informal
“Us? We wouldn't be caught dead in Chicago.”
An over-the-top denial hides real fear; the louder it is, the guiltier it sounds.
Informal
“- You shave with spats on? - I sleep with my spats on.”
One-upping the absurd detail is the whole gag, and the rhythm sells it.
Informal
“Something tells me the omelet is about to hit the fan.”
Mashing two idioms into one makes doom sound like slapstick.
Informal
Up next · 17high financeThe scene: The Millionaire Breaks Up With SugarIt is a cover name. The convention is a mob gathering dressed up as a cultural society, complete with registration and a sergeant-at-arms, so the real business — settling scores and taking orders — runs under a respectable label.
He is fishing for an alibi. Spats says he was at the opera during the massacre, so Mulligan mocks the answer by asking for the opera's address, since he knows it is a lie.
They run into Spats's men, who think they recognize the two 'broads' from somewhere. For Joe and Jerry, being recognized means being exposed and killed, so they start packing to run.
It is old slang for a police officer. Spats greets Mulligan with "Hello, copper," a line that works as both a casual hello and a sneer aimed at the law.
