King Creole (1958)

Shark: Danny... We know you're in here. You come on out now, and you got a chance. You can't get away, Maxie's got the whole town covered!
[Shark flips out his switch-blade]
Shark: This is it, buddy! This is the big get-even day! We've got a lot to settle up, you and me. Danny I knew it was your old man that night. I knew it, and I slugged him anyway, so you come on out and get me! You come out and get me, or we're coming in!
[Shark and his cohort continue to try to trap and corner Danny. Danny climbs up and stands on the bottom sill of a hidden window on the wall in a dark part of the alley as he hides from Shark and his cohort]
Shark: I'm gonna let you in on a little secret, kid. We've been laughing at you. Me and Maxie, ever since it happened we've been splitting a gut. You told me once we'd tangle again. Well, now's your chance. Come on, Danny Boy!
[Shark's cohort inadvertently walks below Danny, then Danny jumps down from the window sill onto, and knocks the cohort out]
Shark: You got him?
Danny Fisher: [Using a muffled voice, pretending to be Shark's cohort answering,] YEAH!
Shark: [thinking his cohort knocked Danny out, but it's the other way around] Hold him. I wanna put my mark on him. Where is he?
[Danny surprises Shark as he charges at him and a fight ensues to a permanent finish]

---

Mr. Evans: Now, you've just been told that you're not graduating tomorrow. Doesn't that mean anything to you?
Danny Fisher: You said I'm not graduating. OK, that's it. Now what do you want?
Mr. Evans: I once had a son, Danny. He lived 13 years. Some hoodlums jumped him one night, and he died.
Danny Fisher: I'm sorry. But what's that got to do with me?
Mr. Evans: Because you have all the earmarks of being a hoodlum.
Danny Fisher: Aw!
Mr. Evans: A hoodlum or a hustler, whatever you want to call it.
Danny Fisher: This isn't principal talk.
Mr. Evans: Well, the more difficult the student, the more I try to lean over backwards.
Danny Fisher: Listen, Mr. Evans. We moved into this neighborhood 3 years ago. In that 3 years that I've been going to school here, I've shined shoes and dusted people off in a barbershop. I've done towel duty in 4 different men's rooms. I've stacked chairs and bottles and swept the floor up of every joint on Bourbon Street. It's gotten so I look longer at a dame with clothes on than one without. I'm not a hoodlum. But I am a hustler. I've had to be for a very simple reason - my old man. You see, sir, my mother was killed in an accident about 3 years ago. Well, after that, it might as well have gotten the old man too, because he took himself right out of the lineup. He quit cold. He lost the drugstore that he owned, he lost the house, and then finally what few little jobs he's had since. You know, maybe I could've liked school, Mr. Evans. But every time I wanted to play ball, I had to go to work. Somebody had to. Anyway, now I'm through. I'm through.
Mr. Evans: I wasn't aware that you worked after school, Danny.
Danny Fisher: It's not the working after school, Mr. Evans, it's the working before. It's been nice talking to you.
[shakes hands with Mr. Evans]
Mr. Evans: I'm sorry I said what I did, Danny.
Danny Fisher: That's all right. My life's a long way from over yet. And you never know. You may be right.

---

Ronnie: Maybe we'll meet some place by accident.
Danny Fisher: Will you tell me where you think the accident will take place and I'll make sure I'm there.

---

read more quotes from King Creole...

Originally titled A Stone for Danny Fisher. It is, loosely based on the best selling 1952 novel by Harold Robbins. Elvis Presley recorded a song called "Danny" ("Lonely Blue Boy"). It was later recorded by Conway Twitty in 1960 and charted #6 US Pop. Elvis' original version of the song was scrapped when the title of the film was changed. Elvis' recording wouldn't be released for 20 years.
Elvis Presley said to director Michael Curtiz after filming that "Now I know what a good director is". Curtiz had earlier directed "Casablanca" (1942) and became one of Elvis' favorite directors.
Curiously, in the current version of this film, "Hard Headed Woman" a #1 hit for Elvis Presley at the time of the film's release has been cut and added is the previously unseen stripper's sequence with the song "Banana".
read more facts about King Creole...