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  • 5/8/2025
Mona Lisa (Marisa Tomei) proves her automotive knowledge to the dismissive D.A. (Lane Smith).

FILM DESCRIPTION:
When sweet Northern college kid Bill (Ralph Macchio) and his buddy Stan (Mitchell Whitfield) are picked up and thrown into the slammer in a hick Southern town, at first it looks like no big deal. Then they are informed that they are accused of murder. Penniless and without a single friend in the area, Bill decides to call his goofy cousin Vinny (Joe Pesci), who has somehow recently become a lawyer. Full of family feeling and bravado, Vinny, who has never tried a criminal case in his short life as a lawyer, rides south to defend his trusting relative. He's an expert motormouth and street-level logician from the wilder reaches of metropolitan New York, complete with a thick accent and the attitude to go with it. Otherwise, he's much less well qualified than your average public defender. When he arrives on the scene with his equally brassy girlfriend Lisa (Marisa Tomei), Bill is fairly sure he's going to be sentenced to death. His buddy Stan is even less confident of his legal representative, if that's possible, and the first thing Vinny has to do is to regain the consent of his clients to represent them. The local judge doesn't seem any too sympathetic to Vinny's verbal shenanigans either, and even the most optimistic supporter of the boys would begin to have doubts at this point -- and Vinny's no exception. With the insistent moral encouragement of his girlfriend, Vinny somehow accomplishes the impossible and wins grudging (if very irritated) respect from all concerned, for once studying as if his life depended on it.

CREDITS:
TM & © Fox (1992)
Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Cast: Fred Gwynne, Ralph Macchio, Joe Pesci, Lane Smith, Mitchell Whitfield, Marisa Tomei
Director: Jonathan Lynn
Producers: Paul Schiff, Dale Launer
Screenwriter: Dale Launer

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Transcript
00:00What'd you do in your father's garage?
00:03Tune-ups, oil changes, brake relining, engine rebuilds, rebuild some trannies, rear ends.
00:10Okay, okay.
00:11But does being an ex-mechanic necessarily qualify you as being an expert on tire marks?
00:16No.
00:18Goodbye.
00:19Sit down and stay there until you're told to leave.
00:21Your Honor, Ms. Vito's expertise is in general automotive knowledge.
00:30It is in this area that her testimony will be applicable.
00:34Now, if Mr. Trotter wishes to voir dire the witness as to the extent of her expertise in this area,
00:41I'm sure he's gonna be more than satisfied.
00:46Okay.
00:49All right.
00:50All right.
00:51Now, uh, Ms. Vito, being an expert on general automotive knowledge,
00:59can you tell me what would the correct ignition timing be on a 1955 Bel Air Chevrolet
01:09with a 327 cubic inch engine and a four-barrel carburetor?
01:14It's a bullshit question.
01:16Does that mean that you can't answer it?
01:18It's a bullshit question.
01:19It's impossible to answer.
01:21It's impossible because you don't know the answer.
01:23Nobody could answer that question.
01:25Your Honor, I move to disqualify Ms. Vito as an expert witness.
01:29Can you answer the question?
01:31Can you answer the question?
01:31No, it is a trick question.
01:34Why is it a trick question?
01:37Watch this.
01:37Because Chevy didn't make a 327 in 55.
01:40The 327 didn't come out till 62, and it wasn't offered in the Bel Air with a four-barrel carb till 64.
01:46However, in 1964, however, in 1964, the correct ignition timing would be four degrees before top dead center.
01:55Well, oh, she's acceptable, Your Honor.
02:02What?
02:02Oh, she's 내 head.
02:03I'm, I'm sorry.
02:04I'm, I'm sorry.
02:05I'm sorry.
02:06I'm sorry.
02:07I'm sorry.
02:08I'm sorry.
02:08I'm sorry.
02:09Transcription by CastingWords

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