# Nobody's Fool (1994 film)

Nobody's Fool is a 1994 film about an aging man whose estranged son comes back into his life at the same time that he faces challenges in his home and in his employment.
    Directed by Robert Benton. Written by Robert Benton, based on the novel by Richard Russo.

## Sully

* Boy, a guy goes to jail for a couple of days and the whole town goes to hell!

## Others

* Toby: [to Sully] Go ahead, steal our snowblower. You're the slowest goddamn thief that I ever saw.
* Judge Flatt: Ollie, you know my feelings about arming morons: you arm one, you've got to arm them all, otherwise it wouldn't be good sport.
* Miss Beryl: Mr. Sullivan, you're wearing a necktie. Are you in trouble with the law again?
* Wirf: Damn, Sully, when your luck turns... it turns.

## Dialogue

    [running joke]
    Miss Beryl: Can I interest you in a cup of tea?
    Sully: No. Not now. Not ever.
    [Wirf and Sully bet on the People's Court]
    Sully: Okay, Shyster, who do you like?
    Wirf: The plaintiff. It's a lock.
    Sully: I'll take the defendant.
    Birdy: You weren't even here for the stories.
    Sully: Yeah, but I know my lawyer.
    Wirf: Sooner or later we'll wear the bastards down. The court is already starting to get pissed. You heard the judge.
    Sully: He's pissed at you, Wirf!
    Wirf: Only because he knows I won't go away.
    Sully: I know how he feels.
    Sully: [about Toby] Don't tell me she's pregnant.
    Carl: Knocked up like a cheerleader. Eh, I suppose now you're gonna to want to be godfather.
    Sully: Hey... I can't be the father and the godfather. You got to goddamn do something.
    Toby: Did you come to steal our new snowblower?
    Sully: I've already done it, just about.
    Toby: I could legally shoot you, you know.
    Sully: Not unless I'm breaking and entering.
    Toby: ARE you gonna break and enter?
    Sully: What's happening with Dummy?
    Toby: I don't know. He took my threat to shoot him a lot more seriously than you just did.
    Sully: Poor guy just had a bypass. Maybe he's trying to cram everything he can do into six months. When he realizes he's going to live until he's seventy, he'll slow down.
    Toby: If I had my way, he wouldn't live to Thanksgiving.
    Toby: Oh, you're a man among men, Sully.
    Sully: Well, thanks.
    Toby: That wasn't a compliment!
    Carl: Sixty years old and still getting crushes on other men's wives. I would hope by the time I'm your age, I'm a little smarter than that.
    Sully: Can't hurt to hope. You sure are off to a slow start.
    Peter: Mom's greatest fear is that your life was fun.
    Sully: Tell her not to worry.
    Peter: It's not gonna be easy being you, is it?
    Sully: Don't expect much from yourself at the beginning. I couldn't do everything at first, either.
    Miss Beryl: Do you still bet on that horse race of yours?
    Sully: What, the trifecta?
    Miss Beryl: Yes. Has it ever come in?
    Sully: Not yet.
    Miss Beryl: But you still bet on it.
    Sully: Well, sure. I mean, the odds have gotta kick in sooner or later.
    Miss Beryl: Fine. That's exactly the way I feel about you.
    Peter: [as Sully buys raw hamburger] You want some buns?
    Sully: Dogs don't eat buns.
    Peter: You're buying ground beef for your dog?
    Sully: I don't own a dog.
    Peter: Oh, God. I don't believe this. I'm a member of Greenpeace and I just helped poison a dog.
    Sully: Well for one thing, it ain't poison. For another, you didn't help much.
    Sully: You ain't naked or anything, are ya?
    Toby: No, but I can be in about 2 seconds.
    Sully: Well, take your time. I need a cup of coffee. [on phone] Ace Towing? Sullivan. I'm just around the corner. 313 Harvin. Pick me up. Charge it. Tip Top Construction Company. Thanks. [hangs up phone] Horace?...
    Horace Yaney: Hi, Sully. I ain't naked either.
    Sully: Thank God for that!
    Sully: Go home, you jerk. You're married to the best-looking woman in Bath.
    Carl: Who was it that said, "A man's reach should exceed his grasp?"
    Charlotte: How can you live in a town this size and not see your ex-wife all the time?
    Sully: That's easy, dolly. Peter's mom and I don't exactly travel in the same circles. As a matter of fact, Vera pretty much travels in a straight line.
    Peter: SOMEBODY in this family had to.
    Sully: I should have known better than to hire a one-legged lawyer.
    Wirf: You can't afford a two-legged lawyer.
    Sully: A condemned man has a right to a last request doesn't he? I got my truck out back whaddya say we get in the back get naked and see where it goes from there?
    Birdy: Ok
    Sully: Haven't you got any pride?
    Birdy: Go to jail, Sully, it's where you belong.
    Sully: I can't believe it's gonna take you that long to get me out of jail.
    Wirf: Don't blame me, I'm a Jew. They're not my holidays.
    Sully: A Jew? Really? I didn't know that. How come you ain't smart?
    Wirf: How can I start getting you out of jail when you won't go in?
    Peter: So if you're not a father to me, how come you're a grandfather to Will?
    Sully: 'Cause you gotta start someplace.
    Sully: What's the matter with you?
    Wirf: I'm trying to communicate with you telepathically.
    Carl: Forget about it. The only way to communicate with Sully's to whack him in the head with a shovel.
    Sully: I want to thank you for thinking of me.
    Toby: Yeah.
    Sully: I, uh... You know, until a while ago, I could've... I could've... but... I just found out I'm somebody's grandfather. I'm somebody's father, and... and maybe... I'm somebody's friend in the bargain. So...
    Toby: Yeah. You are a man among men.
    Sully: I know, it's not a compliment.
    Toby: No, this time it is.
    Wirf: You'd keep my leg, wouldn't you?
    Sully: You don't need a leg, you need a parrot.
    Sully: How about that? Intelligence, hard work and good looks finally pay off.
    Peter: And to think we were here to see it.
    Miss Beryl: Doesn't it bother you that you haven't done more with the life God gave you?
    Sully: Not often. Now and then.
    Sully: [about Miss Beryl's paying Sully's back taxes on his family house] There's a rumor going around that you did a good deed. You stuck your nose where it didn't belong.
    Miss Beryl: I know it. I'm an old woman, though. I'm entitled.
    Sully: Well, you're forgiven.

## Cast

* Paul Newman - Donald 'Sully' Sullivan
* Jessica Tandy - Beryl Peoples
* Bruce Willis - Carl Roebuck
* Melanie Griffith - Toby Roebuck
* Dylan Walsh - Peter Sullivan
* Pruitt Taylor Vince - Rub Squeers
* Gene Saks - Wirf Wirfley
* Josef Sommer - Clive Peoples Jr.
* Philip Seymour Hoffman - Officer Raymer
* Philip Bosco - Judge Flatt

## Taglines

* In a town where nothing ever happens... everything is about to happen to Sully.
* Worn to perfection

## External links

* Nobody's Fool quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* Nobody's Fool at Rotten Tomatoes