The Krays (1990)
Actors:
Michael Kamen (composer),
Billie Whitelaw (actress),
Victor Spinetti (actor),
Martin Kemp (actor),
Murray Melvin (actor),
Sadie Frost (actress),
Norman Rossington (actor),
Michael Balfour (actor),
Tom Bell (actor),
Steven Berkoff (actor),
Vernon Dobtcheff (actor),
Michael Elphick (actor),
Angus MacInnes (actor),
Renée Glynne (miscellaneous crew),
Lindy Hemming (costume designer),
Plot: The life of a pair of twins (Ronald and Reginald Kray) who were born in London in 1934 and when they grew up became gangsters selling protection.
Keywords: 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, amorality, aunt-nephew-relationship, boxing, boyfriend-girlfriend-relationship, brother-brother-relationship, brutality, chelsea-smile
Genres:
Biography,
Crime,
Drama,
Thriller,
Taglines: When People are afraid of you, You can do anything. Remember that. Bonded by Blood
Quotes:
Violet Kray: Shall I tell you my dream? I dreamed that I was a beautiful white swan. And I could fly anywhere, do anything. I ate fish and pecked at things with my beak. And I had this egg, a beautiful egg it was. And there were noises coming from inside the shell. And do you know what the noises were? They were - now listen carefully - they were children's voices. And I looked after this egg and kept it safe, until one day there was a hatching sound. And out came two boys and they were mine. And they were wonderful and they were perfect.
[to Ronnie and Reggie, aged three]::Violet Kray: Who loves you, eh? That's right, Mummy loves you, you little monsters. Mummy loves you more than anything - more than all the cakes, more than all the jewellery, more than all the chocolate in the world.
[Ronnie and Reggie hold down the Italian gangster on the snooker table after he has demanded protection money]::Ronald Kray: You go back and you tell Rutherman no-one fucks with us. This is nothing. Give me your hand. Do it!::[Ronnie sticks a sword through the gangster's hand and twists it. Blood drips from the snooker table]::Italian Gangster: [screams]::Reggie Kray: Just show him this and tell him we let you off lightly. Hear me? Say "thank you".::Ronald Kray: Say "thank you".::Reggie Kray: Say "thank you".::Italian Gangster: [screams] Thank you.
[the Kray twins have been called up for National Service in the Army]::Drill Sergeant: You are not people any more. You are not human beings. You are part of a machine. You do not wear what you want to, think what you want to - you wear what we tell you, think what we tell you, eat when we tell you, sleep, shit and fuck when we tell you!::[a soldier giggles]::Drill Sergeant: Someone stick a feather up your arse, lad?::Soldier: Sarge?::Drill Sergeant: You're grinning like a bloody Cheshire cat!::[Ronnie and Reggie start walking away]::Drill Sergeant: And where do you little darlings think you're off to?::Reggie Kray: Home, for a cup of tea with our mum.::Drill Sergeant: Get your nasty little arses back in here!::Reggie Kray: Look, you've got nothing to say and you're saying it too loudly. So...::Ronald Kray: ...Bollocks!::[the other soldiers laugh]::Drill Sergeant: QUIET!::[the Sergeant tries to restrain Ronnie and Reggie, so, in perfect synchrony, they both floor him with a punch]
Rose: I was on the bus the other day. And some old toerag was boasting about all he'd suffered during the war. Stupid old... I tell you, they don't know. It was the women who had the war - the real war. The women were left at home in the shit, not sitting in some sparkling plane or gleaming tank. There's no glamour for us. They should have been with me when old Pauline Woolley went in to labour. D'you remember that, Violet?::Violet Kray: Yes, yes I do, darling.::Rose: Seven hours of screaming down Bethnal Green bloody tube station. Then I had to cut the baby's head off - to save the mother's life. She died anyway, poor old cow. God, there was so much blood! Jesus! And the abortions. Those poor girls. One day they'll drain Victoria Park lake. And you know what they'll find? What glorious remnants of the Second World War? Babies, that's what. Bullets and dead babies. Men! Mum's right. They stay kids all their fucking lives. And they end up heroes - or monsters. Either way they win. Women have to grow up. If *they* stay children, they become victims.
Palendri: I love London - it's so wonderfully dirty. And The Beatles - I adore The Beatles. You know The Beatles?::Reggie Kray: No::Ronald Kray: I believe they know us.
George Cornell: Well, well, well, all the pretty boys together, eh?::Steve: Piss off, Cornell.::George Cornell: How's your boyfriend, lately? Still in tears over his auntie?::Steve: You wanna watch your mouth.::George Cornell: You what?::Steve: I said, you wanna your mouth.::George Cornell: [grabbing him] Poofs don't warn anyone! You listening? You tell your fat poof friend he doesn't scare me! Oh, he's bringing over his Yankee friends from America, getting ideas a bit above his station, inn'he? Well, tell him he can own all he likes, but he's still tied to his mother's apron strings. OK? Goodnight, girls.::[he leaves]::Steve's Friend: You gonna tell Ron?::Steve: I don't think I'm gonna have to. Half the fucking pub heard him.
Eddie Pellam: It's Cornell.::Charlie Pellam: Oh, what does he want? I thought he wasn't supposed to leave his coffin when the sun was up.::[Cornell storms into the scrapyard office, clutching a newspaper]::George Cornell: Those Kray brothers are getting on my tits.::[Charlie sends the secretary out]::Charlie Pellam: You know, Cornell, it's amazing you can walk at all with your foot in your mouth so much.::[Cornell throws his newspaper onto the desk. A photo of the Krays is on it with the titles "Krays join crime fight" and "Businessmen aid charity boxing night"]::George Cornell: You seen this?::Eddie Pellam: Well, surprise us, what is it?::George Cornell: Kray brothers, splattered all over the papers. Bloody heroes, they are! This to charity, that to charity, the other to charity.::Eddie Pellam: What does it matter?::George Cornell: What does it matter! You sit here in your little office crushing cars into little snotballs, what does it matter? I'm out there earwigging it on the street and what I'm hearing is Kray Kray Kray Kray Kray! The pavement stinks with Kray!::Charlie Pellam: What are you saying, Cornell?::George Cornell: You know damn well what I'm saying!::Charlie Pellam: Cornell, we've been through this a million times. The Krays are not interested in us. Course, they will be if you don't shut that megaphone of a voice box.::George Cornell: No, no, no. You don't know what they're saying about you, they're saying things.::Charlie Pellam: Things? What things?::George Cornell: Things. I say shoot the bastards. Shoot them. What are they, a pair of bumboys, let's put them out of their misery! A couple of movie gangsters! All they're interested in is what they look like! They make me sick! They're a pair of locusts! You won't have a thing, you won't have the pants you're sitting in unless we do something now. They walk down the street like Kings! King ponces, and you know why? They own the fucking street! So what I say is, bang-bang, all over, nice one. Nice and sweet, easy, end of aggro, OK?
[the policeman enters Violet Kray's house, looking for her husband Charlie. He trips over a broom in the hallway]::Policeman: That is a lethal weapon, that is.::Violet Kray: Housework is a lethal business, Constable.
Violet Kray: I don't think it's possible to love someome too much but I think you can love them in the wrong way.