My Cousin Vinny (1992)

Marisa Tomei: Mona Lisa Vito

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Mona Lisa Vito : You're goin' hunting?

  Vinny Gambini : That's right.

  Mona Lisa Vito : Why are you going hunting? Shouldn't you be out preparing for court?

  Vinny Gambini : I was thinking last night. If only I knew what he knows, you know? If he'd let me look at his files; oh boy.

  Mona Lisa Vito : I don't get it. What does getting to Trotter's files have anything to do with hunting?

  Vinny Gambini : Well, you know, two guys, out in the woods, guns, on the hunt. It's a bonding thing, you know; show him I'm one of the boys. He's not gonna let me look at his files, but maybe he'll relax enough to drop his guard so I can finesse a little information out of him.

  [Vinny searches through his clothes] 

  Vinny Gambini : What am I gonna wear?

  Mona Lisa Vito : What are ya gonna hunt?

  Vinny Gambini : I don't know. He's got a lot of stuffed heads in his office.

  Mona Lisa Vito : Heads?

  [Vinny looks up at Lisa] 

  Mona Lisa Vito : What kinda heads?

  Vinny Gambini : I don't know, he's got a boar, a bear, a couple of deer.

  Mona Lisa Vito : Whoa. You're gonna shoot a deer?

  Vinny Gambini : I don't know. I suppose. I mean, I'm a man's man, I could go deer hunting.

  Mona Lisa Vito : A sweet, innocent, harmless, leaf-eating, doe-eyed little deer.

  Vinny Gambini : Hey Lisa, I'm not gonna go out there just to wimp out, you know. I mean, the guy will lose respect for me, would you rather have that?

  [Lisa gets up, walks over to the bathroom and shuts the door] 

  Vinny Gambini : What about these pants I got on, you think they're O.K.?

  [Vinny looks down] 

  Vinny Gambini : Oh!

  Mona Lisa Vito : [comes out of the bathroom]  Imagine you're a deer. You're prancing along, you get thirsty, you spot a little brook, you put your little deer lips down to the cool clear water... BAM! A fuckin bullet rips off part of your head! Your brains are laying on the ground in little bloody pieces! Now I ask ya. Would you give a fuck what kind of pants the son of a bitch who shot you was wearing?

• Jim Trotter III : Now, uh, Ms. Vito, being an expert on general automotive knowledge, can you tell me... what would the correct ignition timing be on a 1955 Bel Air Chevrolet, with a 327 cubic-inch engine and a four-barrel carburetor?

  Mona Lisa Vito : It's a bullshit question.

  Jim Trotter III : Does that mean that you can't answer it?

  Mona Lisa Vito : It's a bullshit question, it's impossible to answer.

  Jim Trotter III : Impossible because you don't know the answer!

  Mona Lisa Vito : Nobody could answer that question!

  Jim Trotter III : Your Honor, I move to disqualify Ms. Vito as a "expert witness"!

  Judge Chamberlain Haller : Can you answer the question?

  Mona Lisa Vito : No, it is a trick question!

  Judge Chamberlain Haller : Why is it a trick question?

  Vinny Gambini : [to Bill]  Watch this.

  Mona Lisa Vito : 'Cause Chevy didn't make a 327 in '55, the 327 didn't come out till '62. And it wasn't offered in the Bel Air with a four-barrel carb till '64. However, in 1964, the correct ignition timing would be four degrees before top-dead-center.

  Jim Trotter III : Well... um... she's acceptable, Your Honor.

• Vinny Gambini : What's the matter with you?

  Mona Lisa Vito : I don't know.

  Vinny Gambini : You're acting like you're nervous or something.

  Mona Lisa Vito : Well, yeah. I am.

  Vinny Gambini : What are you nervous about? I'm the one that's under the gun here. Trial starts tomorrow.

  Mona Lisa Vito : You wanna know what I'm nervous about? I'll tell you what I'm nervous about! I am in the dark here with all this legal crap. I have no idea what's going on. All I know is that you're screwing up and I can't help.

  Vinny Gambini : You left me a little camera, didn't you?

  Mona Lisa Vito : Oh, Vinny! I'm watching you go down in flames, and you're bringing me with you and I can't do anything about it!

  Vinny Gambini : And?

  Mona Lisa Vito : Well, I hate to bring it up, because I know you've got enough pressure on you already. But we agreed to get married as soon as you won your first case. Meanwhile, *ten years later*, my niece, the daughter of my sister is getting married. My biological clock is...

  [taps her foot] 

  Mona Lisa Vito : ...*ticking like this* and the way this case is going, I ain't never getting married.

  Vinny Gambini : Lisa, I don't need this. I swear to God, I do not need this right now, okay? I've got a judge that's just aching to throw me in jail. An idiot who wants to fight me for two hundred dollars. Slaughtered pigs. Giant loud whistles. I ain't slept in five days. I got no money, a dress code problem, *and* a little murder case which, in the balance, holds the lives of two innocent kids. Not to mention your...

  [Vinny taps his foot] 

  Vinny Gambini : ...*biological clock* - my career, your life, our marriage, and let me see, what else can we pile on? Is there any more *shit* we can pile on to the top of the outcome of this case? Is it possible?

  Mona Lisa Vito : [pause]  Maybe it was a bad time to bring it up.

• Mona Lisa Vito : The car that made these two, equal-length tire marks had positraction. You can't make those marks without positraction, which was not available on the '64 Buick Skylark!

  Vinny Gambini : And why not? What is positraction?

  Mona Lisa Vito : It's a limited slip differential which distributes power equally to both the right and left tires. The '64 Skylark had a regular differential, which, anyone who's been stuck in the mud in Alabama knows, you step on the gas, one tire spins, the other tire does nothing.

  Juror #1 : That's right.

  Vinny Gambini : Is that it?

  Mona Lisa Vito : No, there's more! You see? When the left tire mark goes up on the curb and the right tire mark stays flat and even? Well, the '64 Skylark had a solid rear axle, so when the left tire would go up on the curb, the right tire would tilt out and ride along its edge. But that didn't happen here. The tire mark stayed flat and even. This car had an independent rear suspension. Now, in the '60s, there were only two other cars made in America that had positraction, and independent rear suspension, and enough power to make these marks. One was the Corvette, which could never be confused with the Buick Skylark. The other had the same body length, height, width, weight, wheel base, and wheel track as the '64 Skylark, and that was the 1963 Pontiac Tempest.

  Vinny Gambini : And because both cars were made by GM, were both cars available in metallic mint green paint?

  Mona Lisa Vito : They were!

  Vinny Gambini : Thank you, Ms. Vito. No more questions. Thank you very, very much.

  [kissing her hands] 

  Vinny Gambini : You've been a lovely, lovely witness.

• Vinny Gambini : Ms. Vito, you're supposed to be some kinda expert in automobiles, is that correct?... Is that correct?

  [she folds her arms and turns her back on him] 

  Judge Chamberlain Haller : Would you please answer the counselor's question?

  Mona Lisa Vito : No, I hate him.

  Vinny Gambini : Your Honor, may I have permission to treat Ms. Vito as a hostile witness?

  Mona Lisa Vito : You think I'm hostile now, wait 'til you see me tonight.

  Judge Chamberlain Haller : Do you two know each other?

  Vinny Gambini : Yeah, she's my fiancée.

  Judge Chamberlain Haller : Well, that would certainly explain the hostility.

• Mona Lisa Vito : [Vinny looks at her funny]  What?

  Vinny Gambini : Nothing. You stick out like a sore thumb around here.

  Mona Lisa Vito : Me? What about you?

  Vinny Gambini : I fit in better than you. At least I'm wearing cowboy boots.

  Mona Lisa Vito : Oh yeah, you blend.

• Vinny Gambini : Ms. Vito, it has been argued by me, the defence, that two sets of guys met up at the Sac-O-Suds, at the same time, driving identical metallic mint green 1964 Buick Skylark convertibles. Now, can you tell us by what you see in this picture, if the defence's case holds water?

  [Lisa examines the picture] 

  Vinny Gambini : Ms. Vito, please answer the question: does the defence's case hold water?

  Mona Lisa Vito : No! The defence is wrong!

  Vinny Gambini : Are you sure?

  Mona Lisa Vito : I'm positive.

  Vinny Gambini : How could you be so sure?

  Mona Lisa Vito : Because there is no way that these tire marks were made by a 1964 Buick Skylark convertible. These marks were made by a 1963 Pontiac Tempest.

  Jim Trotter III : Objection, Your Honor! Can we clarify to the court whether the witness is stating opinion or fact?

  Judge Chamberlain Haller : [to Lisa]  This is your opinion?

  Mona Lisa Vito : It's a fact!

  Vinny Gambini : I find it hard to believe that this kind of information could be ascertained simply by looking at a picture!

  Mona Lisa Vito : Would you like me to explain?

  Vinny Gambini : I would *love* to hear this!

  Judge Chamberlain Haller : So would I!

• Vinny Gambini : [hearing a drip in the motel bathroom]  Weren't you the last one to use the bathroom?

  Mona Lisa Vito : So?

  Vinny Gambini : Well, did you use the faucet?

  Mona Lisa Vito : Yeah.

  Vinny Gambini : Then why didn'tcha turn it off?

  Mona Lisa Vito : I *did* turn it off!

  Vinny Gambini : Well, if you turned it off, why am I listening to it?

  Mona Lisa Vito : Did it ever occur to you it could be turned off *and* drip at the same time?

  Vinny Gambini : No. Because if you'd turned it off, it wouldn't drip!

  Mona Lisa Vito : Maybe it's broken.

  Vinny Gambini : Is that what you're saying? It's broken?

  Mona Lisa Vito : Yeah. That's it, it's broken.

  Vinny Gambini : You sure?

  Mona Lisa Vito : I'm positive.

  Vinny Gambini : Maybe you didn't twist it hard enough.

  Mona Lisa Vito : I twisted it just right.

  Vinny Gambini : How could you be so sure?

  Mona Lisa Vito : [sighs]  If you will look in the manual, you will see that this particular model faucet requires a range of ten to sixteen foot-pounds of torque. I routinely twist the maximum allowable torquage.

  Vinny Gambini : Well, how could you be sure you used 16 foot-pounds of torque?

  Mona Lisa Vito : Because I used a Craftsman model 1019 Laboratory Edition Signature Series torque wrench. The kind used by Caltech high energy physicists. And NASA engineers.

  Vinny Gambini : Well, in that case, how can you be sure *that's* accurate?

  Mona Lisa Vito : Because a split second before the torque wrench was applied to the faucet handle, it had been calibrated by top members of the state *and* federal Department of Weights and Measures... to be dead on balls accurate!

  Mona Lisa Vito : [ripping a page out of a magazine and hands it to him]  Here's the certificate of validation.

  Vinny Gambini : Dead on balls accurate?

  Mona Lisa Vito : It's an industry term.

  Vinny Gambini : [tosses the paper away]  I guess the fucking thing is broken.

• Mona Lisa Vito : What name did you tell him?

  Vinny Gambini : Jerry Gallo.

  Mona Lisa Vito : Jerry Gallo! The big attorney.

  Vinny Gambini : Yeah.

  Mona Lisa Vito : Think that was a smart move?

  Vinny Gambini : Yeah, well, the man's a seriously accomplished lawyer. If he checks up on this guy, his name will come up all over the place.

  Mona Lisa Vito : His name was in the papers all last week.

  Vinny Gambini : Yeah, I saw that.

  Mona Lisa Vito : But you didn't actually read the articles.

  Vinny Gambini : No.

  Mona Lisa Vito : Too bad.

  Vinny Gambini : Why's that?

  Mona Lisa Vito : 'Cause he's dead.

• Mona Lisa Vito : So what's your problem?

  Vinny Gambini : My problem is, I wanted to win my first case without any help from anybody.

  Mona Lisa Vito : Well, I guess that plan's moot.

  Vinny Gambini : Yeah.

  Mona Lisa Vito : You know, this could be a sign of things to come. You win all your cases, but with somebody else's help, right? You win case after case, and then afterwards you have to go up to somebody and you have to say, "Thank you."

  [pause] 

  Mona Lisa Vito : Oh, my God, what a fucking nightmare!

• Vinny Gambini : I got thirty fucking minutes to take a shower, get a new suit, get dressed and get to the fucking courthouse!

  Mona Lisa Vito : You fucking shower, I'll get your fucking suit!

• Mona Lisa Vito : [angrily]  What the fuck is going on here, Vinny? You fucking up this case or what?

  Vinny Gambini : I explained it to you already, didn't I? It's a procedure. I'm learning all this as I go along. I'm bound to fuck up a little.

  Mona Lisa Vito : A little? You've been thrown in jail twice!

• Vinny Gambini : [answering the phone]  Hello?

  Jim Trotter III : [into the phone]  You did good out there today, Yankee. I like the competition. You like competition, too? Makes things kinds fun, doesn't it?

  Vinny Gambini : I'm enjoying myself so far.

  Jim Trotter III : Well, I got a little surprise for you tomorrow.

  Vinny Gambini : What is it? You know you have to disclose all of your evidence to me before presenting it at trial.

  Jim Trotter III : I just got it myself tonight. I'll disclose it first thing in the morning. The Judge is gonna have to admit it.

  Vinny Gambini : Should I be worried?

  Jim Trotter III : I sure would be if I were you.

  Vinny Gambini : [hanging up the phone then addressing Lisa]  Hey, Honey. Where'd you read about all that disclosure shit?

  Mona Lisa Vito : Here, let me show ya. Why?

• Mona Lisa Vito : Don't you wanna know why Trotter gave you his files?

  Vinny Gambini : I told you why already.

  Mona Lisa Vito : He has to, by law, you're entitled. It's called disclosure, you dickhead! He has to show you everything, otherwise it could be a mistrial. He has to give you a list of all his witnesses, you can talk to all his witnesses, he's not allowed any surprises.

  Mona Lisa Vito : [as Vinny has a blank look on his face]  They didn't teach you that in law school either?

• Vinny Gambini : I won my first case, you know what this means...

  Mona Lisa Vito : Yeah, you think I'm gonna marry you.

  Vinny Gambini : What, now you're not gonna marry me?

  Mona Lisa Vito : No way. You can't even win a case by yourself, you're fuckin' useless.

• Jim Trotter III : Ms. Vito, what is your current profession?

  Mona Lisa Vito : I'm an out-of-work hairdresser.

  Jim Trotter III : An out-of-work hairdresser. In what way does that qualify you as an expert in automobiles?

  Mona Lisa Vito : It doesn't.

• Mona Lisa Vito : Support? Is that what you want? I'm sorry, you were wonderful in there! The way you handled that judge... ooh you are a smooth talker. You are... you are!

• Mona Lisa Vito : [talking to townsman]  Famous for your mud? How's your Chinese food?

  Vinny Gambini : You just keep asking about Chinese food. You gotta let everybody know you're a tourist?

  Mona Lisa Vito : Yeah, well, what are you, a fucking world traveler?

• Mona Lisa Vito : [In the diner after being woken at 5 AM and staring at the menu where the options are simply 'breakfast', 'lunch', and 'dinner']  Breakfast?

  Vinny Gambini : You think? Uh, good choice. Two.

• Mona Lisa Vito : Don't worry, I'll find a way to bail you out.

  Vinny Gambini : No don't. I'm gonna stay in prison tonight. Maybe I'll finally get some sleep. I'm doing good, huh?

• Mona Lisa Vito : I want a wedding in church with bridesmaids and flowers.

  Vinny Gambini : Whoa. How many times did you say that spontaneous is romantic?

  Mona Lisa Vito : Hey, a burp is spontaneous. A burp is not romantic.

• Man in Town Square : We're famous for our mud.

  Mona Lisa Vito : Famous for your mud? How's your Chinese food?

  Vinny Gambini : [as man walks away shaking his head]  You just keep askin' about Chinese food. Can't you tell they don't have Chinese restaurants around here? You gotta let everybody know you're a tourist. Come on.

  Mona Lisa Vito : What are you, a fuckin' world traveller?