The Grifters (1990)

In British filmmaker Stephen Frears' seedy and tense film of gamesmanship, treachery and double-crosses - it was his first American production. (Note: His most recent film was Dangerous Liaisons (1988) - with similarly deceptive characters and amoral themes.) The modern neo-noir crime-thriller was an R-rated adaptation (with nudity, violence, and some harsh language) by crime-writer Donald E. Westlake based upon pulp novelist Jim Thompson's 1963 book of the same name. The piano and brass-dominant soundtrack by Elmer Bernstein was incessantly demanding.

Set mostly in Los Angeles (and partially in La Jolla) in the present day (and filmed with bright colors by cinematographer Oliver Stapleton), the intense and bleak drama told about a threesome of con artists and accomplished shysters-tricksters whose lives were inextricably intertwined, especially the two females who were engaged in a deadly power-struggle love-triangle for the male's allegiance. This Miramax film was only mildly successful, with gross revenues of $13.4 million. It received four Academy Awards (Oscars) nominations (with no wins): Best Director, Best Actress (Huston), Best Supporting Actress (Bening), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Westlake).

The film's tagline was: "SEDUCTION. BETRAYAL. MURDER. WHO WAS CONNING WHO?"

• the opening credits were prefaced by a quote from the Rodgers & Hart song "The Lady is a Tramp": “I’ve wined and dined on mulligan stew and never wished for turkey, As I hitched and hiked and grifted too from Maine to Albuquerque…"; the titles were presented above grayish-toned still photos of areas of the Los Angeles metropolis
• at the Paloma Downs Racetrack in New Mexico, an off-screen narrator (producer Martin Scorsese) spoke about the practice of placing large bets on long-shot horses at the last minute to manipulate the odds: "Around the country, the bookies pay off winners at track odds. It's dangerous when a long shot comes in, unless you have somebody at the tracks to lower those odds"
• the first hard-as-nails grifter was introduced: 39 year-old, experienced horse-gambler and professional grifter Lilly Dillon (Anjelica Huston); the swanky, platinum blonde, cheaply-elegant, race-track hustler's main occupation was to place large bets on long-shot horses at the last minute to manipulate the odds and create profits for her bookie-boss; in a tight, form-fitting white suit with high-heels and sunglasses, she drove into the NM racetrack in her 1981 black and gold Cadillac Seville, parked, and stepped onto an escalator
• the film then stretched into a triple split-screen (thanks to the film's editor Mick Audsley) to introduce the three main "grifter" characters - all wearing face-concealing sunglasses, as they went about their typical scams
• the second grifter was 25 year-old, small-time, two-bit, nickel-and-dime crook-hustler and con-artist Roy Dillon (John Cusack); he was only a "short con" artist with low-risk grifts; he entered a busy Bennigan's restaurant-bar in Los Angeles, CA with Keith Whitley's "Heartbreak Hotel" heard on the soundtrack; he proceeded to demonstrate a clever bar scam with another seated customer (Jan Munroe) and the bartender (Jimmy Noonan); he ordered a drink with a neatly-folded $20 and then paid with a concealed, neatly-folded $10 bill underneath, and received change for the $20; he also swindled the other astonished customer by swapping his quarters for dimes after winning their ambiguous bet: ("That was the deal - a dime for every quarter")

Roy Dillon's (John Cusack) Clever Switcheroo Bar Scam with Bartender (Jimmy Noonan)

• at the race-track betting window, the veteran grifter Lilly calmly put a cash bet (from presorted stacks of $1,000's in her purse) on the # 3 long-shot horse (named "Just Be Kind"), in order to change the odds: ("$5,000 on the # 3 horse to win, please"); she watched as the overhead betting board for horse # 3 changed its odds from 70 to 36; not satisfied, she also placed a 2nd bet on the # 3 horse to win, now reducing the horse's odds to a more acceptable 22-1 odds
• the scene changed and transferred to the third high-stakes swindler-grifter - 35 year-old sexy and deceitful Myra Langtry (Annette Bening); the charming and vixenish feline was introduced as she entered Stromberg's Jewelers shop in Hollywood as a "valuable customer" to sell fake diamonds on a platinum bracelet to the Jeweler (Stephen Tobolowsky); he bluntly told her: "They're not diamonds," and in the back room proved how her diamonds were just cut glass; with her sex appeal, she was able to con the gullible dealer into changing his mind and admitting he was "mistaken" - she offered herself as something he might be "interested" in: "You are seeing it. You're looking right at it"; she was capable of easily resorting to tricking herself out if necessary
• at another crowded bar, Roy ordered a Miller beer but this time, he was caught by the savvy bartender (John Gillespie) switching his $20 for a $10 dollar bill; he was brutally punched in his upper torso with the end of a baseball bat, resulting in injuring his ribs and knocking the wind out of him; he crumpled to the floor in front of the jukebox; he staggered outside to his 1982 Dodge Aries K where a patrolling LAPD cop (Richard Holden) thought he was drunk and asked for his driver's license; profusely sweating, Roy claimed instead that he was sick from food poisoning "bad shrimp"

Roy Caught Short-Changing a Second Bartender and Punched in the Upper Torso with a Baseball Bat

• back at the track, Lilly scooped up discarded losing betting tickets and cash and placed them in a mailing envelope, addressed to her bookie boss in Baltimore, MD: Bobo Justus (Pat Hingle) (of the Justus Amusement Co.); she placed some of the skimmed-off cash winnings into a hidden compartment in the rear of her car holding a large amount of cash stolen over time from her boss; from a track parking lot pay-phone, she called her accountant-friend Irv (Michael Laskin) (who also worked for Bobo Justus), and was told that Bobo firmly instructed her to proceed to the track at La Jolla, CA ("to handle playback there"); she mentioned that she might detour to Los Angeles on the way
• Roy drove to his multi-storied "The Bryson" apartment building (on Wilshire Blvd. in downtown LA), and made his way to his unit from the underground garage; as he briefly entered the lobby from the elevator to check his mail, the front-desk owner/manager Simms (Henry Jones) was humorously jabbering on and on to a potential male renter about his rental restrictions and misogynistic biases: "Put it this way. Say I rented to a woman, well, she has to have a room with a bath, because otherwise, she's got the hall bath tied up all the time, washing her goddamn hair and her clothes and everything she can think of. I had my first hotel 37 years ago in Wichita Falls, Texas, and that's when I learned about women. They don't make the money, see, for a place like this. Not regular, they don't. There's only one way they can get it - by sellin' their self, tappin' them cute little piggy banks they all got..."
• Roy briefly interrupted Simms, alerting him that "Mrs. Langtry" (actually, his prostitute-girlfriend of only two months) might be dropping by soon; Simms' judgment was called into question when he referred 'grifter' Roy to the renter as "the fine type of person I have in mind for here, like yourself, I'm sure"
• in his dark and shabby apartment as Roy sat on his bed and played with a coin in his fingers and guessed at heads/tails results, he experienced more rib-pain
• he also had a flashbacked, ghostly vision of a gentleman dressed in white asking him: "What do you want, kid?"; he recalled how at 17 years of age, he was at a bus depot after leaving home permanently, where he was taught a card-trick; he stated to Mintz: "I want to learn everything," and was asked: "You want to be a grifter?" (meaning, a guy who swindles suckers); the wise Mintz advised him to always work alone and not partner with anyone: "Grifters huh? You're one, all right. Grifters got an irresistible urge to be the guy that's wise....So you want to learn a few tricks, I'll teach you a few tricks...All right. Forget the long con. If the fool tips and you're caught, you'll do time. Never do time. And don't go dressin' like that. It's showing off. Showing off! Any blind man could spot you"; Roy found himself swindled when Mintz asked for a $20 dollar bill and then left: "Come around tomorrow, I'll take you again!"

Flashback: Traveling Grifter Mintz Being Asked by 17 Year-Old Roy: "I want to learn everything"

• after Roy drifted off, the seductively-sexy Myra arrived, and he began to unbuckle her pants and fondle her breasts through her clothes: ("The twins seems to be restless"); she coyly threatened: "I'm gonna smother you"; as he rolled over onto her and kissed her, he complimented her: "You smell good, Myra, like a bitch in a hothouse"
• the next morning, Lilly arrived from New Mexico on the way to another race-track job in La Jolla, CA, to visit her estranged son Roy, after an 8-year lapse; she greeted him with a kiss on the lips; during their icy-cold conversation over cups of instant coffee in the living room (decorated with two crying-clown pictures on black velvet and mounted in frames), Lilly told how she was still "handling playback money at the track" for the same bookmaker boss Bobo Justus in Baltimore; Roy was reluctant to describe what he was "up to" (how he was making a living), and harshly told Lilly to mind her own business
• Lilly noticed his sickly condition and his ice-cold forehead, due to the injury to his stomach days earlier; she immediately phoned for a doctor (Sandy Baron) associated with her boss, and arranged for an ambulance; the doctor diagnosed that Roy was hemorrhaging internally (bleeding to death) and might die; Lilly threatened him if he didn't save her boy's life ("I'll have you killed")
• Roy's mother and his "friend" Myra met each other for the first time at Roy's bedside, and instantly sized each other up and developed an immediate animosity, contempt and dislike; Lilly commented on Myra's obvious profession: ("I imagine you're lots of people's friend"), and Myra criticized Lilly's age; Roy awoke and weakly told the two rival females fighting over him to stop: "Play nice. Don't fight"; to his surprise, he learned from Myra that it was his mother who had saved his life by phoning for help; Lilly boasted: "Second time I gave it to you"
• it was a chance for the resentful Roy to explain how his mother had once abandoned him at a young age, causing obvious Oedipal issues: "I was kind of inconvenient for Lilly. You know, she was only 14 when I came along. In fact, I used to be her kid brother. Well, or so she'd say" - hinting at a possible incestuous relationship; now that Roy was recuperating, Lilly chose to leave and continue on to the track in La Jolla, CA; as they parted, Roy bid her goodbye: "I guess I owe you my life," to which she spitefully responded: "You always did"
• caught in a heavy traffic jam and late to the La Jolla track, Lilly smoked nervously as she listened on her radio to the track announcer calling the race that she was unable to bet on; she had hoped to lower the odds on a long-shot, outsider horse (# 7) named Troubadour; she was disturbed when Troubadour won by half a length with 70-1 odds; she never made it to the track and returned to LA
• during another visit in Roy's hospital room, Myra coyly suggested that she wanted more from her relationship with Roy than sex: "I'm a very practical little girl, and I don't believe in giving any more than I get. And that might be pretty awkward for a matchbook salesman or whatever you are"; Roy reminded her how he sold people "self-confidence" and Myra agreed he had lots to "spare"
• after Myra kissed Roy and said goodbye, attractive nurse Carol Flynn (Noelle Harling) entered to insist on Roy's rest; Roy flirted with her, prompting her to caution him: "You'd better behave, or I'll tell your mother" - behind Roy's back, Carol had been hired by Lilly to care for him, but her main motive was to distract Roy from Myra
• as Myra was walking to her car in the hospital lot, Lilly drove in, nearly hit her and honked loudly; it was Lilly's 2nd visit to Roy's hospital room - her first words to him were: "Myra's been here!"; she criticized her rival and then was upset that it appeared like Roy was grifting and didn't have a real job: ("It's all a front"), although he claimed he was a commission-salesman; Roy counter-questioned her about her own grifting ("running playback money for the mob"); she criticized him as not strong enough or qualified to be a big-time racketeer because he wasn't "tough enough" - she ordered him to stop: "Get off the grift, Roy...You haven't got the stomach for it"
• when pretty nurse Carol entered the room, and Lilly officially announced that she had hired Carol to help with Roy's recuperation after leaving the hospital, Roy bluntly pointed out his mother's real intentions: "She hired you for me to f--k.... to keep me away from bad influences. Isn't that right, Lilly?"; Carol was embarrassed and left, and Lilly was miffed with him: "So you won't take a thing from me, is that it?"; Roy refused to have his over-controlling and jealous mother dictate who he partnered with, even if she considered Myra a "dog" ("I'll pick the dog")
• after Roy's "Mom" stormed out, Roy left a message on Myra's answering machine about his immediate hospital release, and his invitation to join him for a weekend beach trip to La Jolla
• meanwhile, the uninhibited, fast-talking Myra arrived at her Mira-Flores Apartments building, where the landlord-manager Joe (Gailard Sartain) confronted her and demanded her overdue rent payment; she cozied up to him: "Don't I always pay my bills, huh, one way or another?" - inferring that she hadn't always paid with cash; when he knocked on her door with her printed bill-statement, she appeared in a skimpy black negligee, and riled him up when she suggested: "Maybe I could get the dough from your wife" or from his kids' piggy banks; she demonstrated her wily and manipulative ways by luring him into her bedroom where she was lounging naked on her bed; he was asked to forgive her in exchange for sex (instead of cash) when she proposed a choice: "Only one choice to a customer, the lady or the loot. What's it gonna be?"; she opened her arms to him; then, as the heavy-set Joe laid on top of her, she giggled and exclaimed: "I was remembering at lunch, on the menu, it said, 'Today's special - broiled hothouse tomato under generous slice of ripe cheese!'"
• Lilly was again working another job in La Jolla, CA at the Turf Paradise race-track [Note: The race-track was actually located in Phoenix, AZ, but fictionally situated in the film in SoCal.]; she was walking to her parked car when her Baltimore-based bookie boss Bobo Justus angrily reproached her and startled her in person - mentioning how she may have been disloyal and had swindled him; he told her that he might flush her "down the toilet"; he ominously ordered her to drive them to his hotel
• on the way, he accused her of covering up the fact that she had earlier missed a sure-shot horse-race bet to significantly lower the odds on Troubadour, by lying to him and then claiming "a 10 grand win"; she came clean and informed him that she had been delayed arriving in La Jolla at the track due to her estranged son's sickness and hospitalization in LA; Bobo was shocked and scornful: "What the f--k are you doing with a son?...Motherhood!"; once inside his hotel suite, he brought her to her knees with a punch to the gut; for punishment, he threatened to torture her with an 'oranges-in-a-towel' beating (often used in insurance scams): Bobo: "And if you do it wrong?" Lilly: "It can louse up your insides. You can get p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p, -p-permanent damage" Bobo: "You never s--t right again"; but then, instead, he decided to grind the end of his burning cigar into the top of her right hand; afterwards, the two reconciled and ended on good terms with each other after chatting casually; she admitted she was skimming small amounts for herself, but he allowed it, urging: "That's right take a little, leave a little"; she asserted: "A person who don't look out for himself is too dumb to look out for anybody else. He's a liability, right, Bobo?"
• in his LA apartment, Roy removed cash hidden behind one of his clown pictures for his Amtrak train trip with Myra from Los Angeles to the San Diego area; on the trip, Roy found time to swindle a group of drunken sailors in the club car with a game of dice; he had rigged the betting and the game by placing a magnetic block in a sleeve on his arm (concealed by his raincoat) so that his magnetized dice always rolled in his favor
• later while they ate dinner in a fancy restaurant, the amused Myra divulged that she had watched Roy's clever grift on the sailors: ("You're on the grift, same as me...You're a short-con operator"); she admitted that she was also a former "big-con" grifter for 10 years with ex-partner Cole Langley (J. T. Walsh); Roy remembered Mintz' advice - never partner up with another grifter; Myra suggested that they become partners-in crime ("right now, it's the perfect time"), but he was reluctant to join her in any "long-con" schemes

		Myra Encouraging Roy to Partner Up with Her: "It's the perfect time"
Roy Grifting Drunken Sailors on the Train with a Dice Game, While An Amused Myra Watched From Afar

• to proposition and convince Roy, Myra described (with a lengthy flashback) how she had been a high-stakes sexual swindler-decoy and high-end, corporate-business scam artist with Cole: ("He was so crooked, he could eat soup with a corkscrew"); their targets in two or three scams a year were Texas oil millionaires, such as stocky businessman Gloucester Hebbing (Charles Napier); after setting up a plush stock brokerage office, they enticed and swindled clients into fake investment schemes (i.e., the hacking of the transfer of communications between stock exchanges in Tokyo and NY); their tricky scam lured in their marks (rich oil-men tycoons), and always ended with cash to be collected in Cole's office, the arrival of fake federal FBI agents (hired actors flashing badges) shouting stock fraud, with blame directed toward Myra for blabbing, a shootout resulting in Myra's "death" from blank shells in Cole's gun, and the retreat of their duped victims without their cash; their tactics guaranteed that their fooled victims never went to the police

Flashback: Myra Scheming with Partner Cole Langley to Swindle a Rich Sucker - Texas Oilman
Fake Blood Under Myra's Blouse To Enact a Fatal Shooting with Fake FBI Agents

• at the end of a flashback when Roy asked Myra what happened to her former partner Cole, she claimed he "retired" upstate in Atascadero; Roy was aware that a hospital in the city treated the criminally insane, in reality, he knew that Cole had gone crazy and was bed-ridden and institutionalized; the skeptical Roy knew that Myra was trying to "rope" him into joining with her, and he was very reluctant
• meanwhile in a diner, a drunken, staggering customer named Kenny harrassed Lilly as she ate a bowl of chili and drank coffee alone, and when he wouldn't stop pestering her, she elbowed him with a quick jab in the throat and sent him to the floor; he and his friend stumbled away
• in La Jolla on their weekend getaway, Roy and Myra had ordered separate bedrooms, due to her need for her own bathroom; as Myra entered her own room, she told Roy that she was too tired to have sex; slightly dejected, Roy entered his own room, muttering to himself: "Forget the long con 'cause I'm the one who's being conned"; his phone rang - and it was Myra asking him to open his door
• the vixenish and foxy, stark naked Myra seduced Roy by standing down the hallway in her hotel room's open doorway; her intention was to entice and seduce him with sex to become his affectionate floozy girlfriend; she ran by him in the dark corridor giggling and shouting: "Gangway," and then hid behind a curtain in his room as she apologized: "I hope you don't mind, sir. I just washed my clothes and I couldn't do a thing with them"; he chased after her, caught her, slung her over his shoulder, and tossed her onto his bed

Myra Langtry's Seduction of Roy in His La Jolla Hotel Bedroom

• the next morning in La Jolla, Lilly unexpectedly heard knocking on her hotel room's side glass-door; she prepared herself by screwing a silencer onto her gun and cocking it, and then hid it under a newspaper on a table; she was surprised by Roy's visit, and his insistent offer to pay his debts and reimburse her for his hospital expenses ($4,000 dollars, the cash taken from his clown picture compartment) - but she refused; he noticed the ugly, semi-infected cigar burn on her right hand that she claimed was an accident; they both seemed to agree that they weren't going to "play it straight with one another," and Roy also rejected the idea of giving up grifting and getting a "straight job" ("It's up to me. I'm strictly short-con...small-time stuff"), but Lilly was highly dubious and resentful, and spurned his desire to follow in her footsteps and waste his life: ("The grift's like anything else, Roy. You don't stand still. You either go up or down. Usually down sooner or later"); he refused to be controlled by her; he sensed that she was heading back east to Baltimore, MD after her last job at the track; after he departed, with disdain, she muttered under her breath: "Prick"
• after Roy left in a taxi, Myra was revealed to be following him in a second taxi; instead of pursuing Roy, however, she followed Lilly to La Jolla's Turf Paradise race-track; later in the day, with borrowed binoculars, she observed Lilly in the parking area counting out skimmed cash to place in her hidden large stash of money in her trunk compartment; on their train ride back to Los Angeles, Myra was forced to admit to Roy that she spied on his mother at the track; Myra continued to try to sway Roy into joining her on long-cons: ("What a team we'll make. You won't regret this, Roy"), but he again rejected her proposition: ("I didn't say I was coming aboard...Nothing was ever settled") and rejected her accusation that his controlling mother had influenced him to break it off with her; Roy asserted that he had always been independent of his mother's decisions and wishes since he was 17 years old
• once the two had returned to Los Angeles, Myra rushed over to Roy's apartment to inform him of a sure-thing, long-con brokerage scheme-opportunity in Tulsa, OK to swindle a "sucker...made for us"; she would be able to contribute $10,000 dollars to fund the con, and needed Roy to fork over $15-20,000 dollars; he felt like a "sucker" and was wary and distrustful of her proposal - he resolutely rejected the idea of being her double-talking "Prince" to save her, and denounced the thought that they could work together: ("Maybe I like it where I am...What I say is no. We don't do partners!...You scare the hell out of me"); his negative reaction caused Myra to retaliate and imply that he had an unnatural (incestuous love?) relationship with his mother: ("My God. It's your mother. It's Lilly...That's why you act so funny around each other...You and your own mother? Ugh!"); when she kept up the accusations and called him a "rotten son of a bitch," he became infuriated, struck her twice across the face and ordered her to leave his apartment: "You're disgusting. Your mind is so filthy, it's hard to look at you. Goodbye"

Roy Rejecting a Con-Partnership with Myra: "You scare the hell out of me..."

Myra: "My God. It's your mother. It's Lilly..." - Implying an Unnatural Relationship

• afterwards, Roy phoned his mother at her La Jolla motel, and requested that they meet that evening to have a conversation together as "grown ups"; he offered to drive to her motel from Los Angeles to meet up
• at the same time - off-screen - Myra vengefully called Lilly's boss Bobo in Baltimore, MD, and tipped him off to the large amount of stolen cash stashed in Lilly's car's trunk compartment
• as Lilly was awaiting Roy's arrival that evening, she was phoned by her daring, risk-taking associate Irv back east and secretively warned about being ratted upon: "Somebody blew you out with Bobo - the car full of money"; she abruptly hung up and drove off from the motel - not knowing that she was being observed and followed by Myra
• shortly later, two of Bobo's henchmen arrived and discovered Lilly's hurriedly-abandoned motel room (the TV was left on playing Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes (1938) - a clever joke); as they drove off, Roy pulled up and also realized that his mother had fled town
• Lilly drove all through the night to Phoenix, AZ, and rented a motel room; she didn't know that Myra was in pursuit and had pulled in behind her; the elderly motel desk clerk (Frances Bay) was confused by the two similar-looking women registering one after the other, and the strange coincidence that both asked for a quiet and private room around back (#19 and #15); Myra stole the clerk's key ring - and stealthily entered Lilly's room to strangle her as she slept in bed - the outcome of the murder attempt was left dangling
• the next afternoon, Roy arrived at Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport and was greeted by Lt. Pierson (Xander Berkeley) from the Phoenix PD; it was reported that his mother's car was found with lots of money hidden in the trunk; he was disbelieving that his mother had reportedly committed suicide with her own gun; as next-of-kin, Roy was asked to to help identify the face-blasted female (resembling his mother) who had been shot in the face in her motel room - apparently from a self-inflicted gun shot; in the Phoenix City Hall morgue, Roy concealed the fact his mother's right hand did not have its tell-tale cigar burn mark; he identified the corpse as belonging to his mother, but smirked to himself as he left the room

Disbelieving Roy Summoned to Phoenix by Lt. Pierson After His Mother's Alleged Suicide

In the Phoenix City Hall Morgue to Identify a Corpse

Roy Realized the Corpse Did Not Have His Mother's Tell-Tale Cigar Burn Scar (It was Myra's Right Hand!)

• in fact, Myra was the one who had been shot to death in the face in her motel room by the vengeful Lilly, and her corpse was made to look like Lilly's; Lilly had faked her own death and remained alive (to go on the run), while Myra was the victim; Lilly (wearing Myra's red dress and driving Myra's car) pulled up in front of Roy's Bryson Apartments building in Los Angeles
• in the shocking ending, upon Roy's return to LA, he was confronted by his desperate mother (who had broken into his apartment) as she appeared to be stealing his money - found concealed behind the two clown picture frames - and transferring the cash to an attache case; during their last deadly confrontation together, she asked: "Is the frame holding?" and he confirmed that she had fooled everyone: ("It looks very solid...You're dead Lilly, it worked"); she confessed to murdering Myra in self-defense (by reaching for her silencer-gun under her pillow) and then afterwards, she arranged the murder scene in order to fool Bobo and hide from him - and the law
• in a series of contentious rounds in their fight over his money, she argued that she was on the run from Bobo and needed Roy's money, and suggested that this might be her best chance to make a break and get out of the con games and grifting: ("I've wanted out of the rackets for years. And now I'm out, I can make a clean break"); she begged and begged for Roy's money, to tide her over: "Roy! I need this money! I can't run without money! And if I can't run, I'm dead!"; although Roy encouraged her to "start over" in a new place and find a job, she worried: "I've never had a legit job in my life"
• Roy even mentioned how he was going to follow his own advice and end grifting for himself too: "I'm following it myself...I think I'm gonna get out," but she was only concerned about getting out of his apartment as fast as possible: "I'm a survivor, Roy, I survive. And to survive my way, I need money," but he refused to have her take all his money
• the two took a break, and she brought in two glasses of ice-water on a tray; he thought it was beyond her to poison his drink: ("You wouldn't do that"), but she schooled him: "You don't know what I'd do. You have no idea - to live"; she sat back on the sofa and theorized that he was opposing her because she was a lousy mother, but then moments later, she went back to demanding: "I gave you your life twice. I'm asking you to give me mine once. I need the money, Roy!"; he again refused; she then told Roy that he could never make it as a grifter anyway, and suggested that if he was serious about ending his grifting, he didn't need his money and should give it to her: "You're getting out? You're on the level? You don't need the money! So why the hell can't I take it?!"; he kept warning her that his money would soon run out, and now was her chance to change her life, go "the square route," and get settled when she was still "relatively young"
• she oddly asked how he would feel if she told him that she wasn't his mother, and slowly approached him: ("What if I told you that I wasn't really your mother? That we weren't related?...You'd like that, wouldn't you? Sure, you would. You don't have to tell me. Now, why would you like that, Roy?"); and then, she repeated her intense needs: "...I want that money, Roy, I need it. Now, what do I have to do to get it? You mean you won't give it to me, Roy? Will you or won't you? What can I do to get it? Is there nothing I can do?"
• as she came close to him and seductively and fatefully was about to kiss him, he became disgusted with her and rejected her: "Lilly, Jesus, what are you doing?"; she replied: "Nothing at all, nothing at all," but went ahead and kissed him; afterwards, as he turned away to drink water from his glass, in the film's most bizarre twist, she swung the attache case full of cash at her son's head; his drinking glass smashed and cut an artery in his neck - and he profusely bled to death on the floor in front of her!

Lilly's Accidental Murder of Her Own Son

• sobbing profusely, Lilly gathered up some of the strewn cash on the floor and stuffed it in the attache case, briefly washed the blood off herself in the kitchen, ran out the door with the case, descended in the caged elevator (shot for shot similar to the ending of The Maltese Falcon (1941)) to the parking garage below, and then calmly drove away in Roy's car down Wilshire Blvd.