- Elevator operator: [Dungeon Elevator song] First floor dungeon/Assorted simple tortures/Molten lead, chopping blocks and hot boiling oil/Second floor dungeon/Jewelry department/Leg chains, ankle chains, neck chains, wrist chains, thumbscrews and nooses of the very finest rope/Basement dungeon/EVERYBODY OUT!
- Bart Collins: How much are you being paid overtime?
- Mr. Zabladowski: Two thousand pastoolas.
- Bart Collins: Two thousand WHAT?
- Mr. Zabladowski: Two thousand pastoolas. Dr. Terwilliker doesn't pay me in American money - he keeps that for himself. He pays me in pastoolas.
- Bart Collins: What are pastoolas?
- Mr. Zabladowski: If you must know, the currency here is a little strange. First of all, in the small money comes the drakmids. At the regular, normal rate of exchange, there are 59 drakmids to one silver zlobeck.
- Bart Collins: Zlobeck?
- Mr. Zabladowski: Three silver zlobecks make one golden kratchmuk. A pastoola normally is, uh, 44,000 kratchmuks. But these, they tell me, are not normal times...
- Bart Collins: Pastoolas, kratchmuks... How much do you get American?
- Mr. Zabladowski: Precisely 20 bucks. Show me a better job, and I'll take it.
- Bart Collins: [singing "Because We're Kids"] Now just because we're kids, Because we're sort of small, Because we're closer to the ground, And you are bigger pound by pound, You have no right, you have no right, To push and shove us little kids around... Now just because your throat has got a deeper voice, And lots of wind to blow it out, At little kids who dare not shout, You have no right, you have no right, To boss and beat us little kids about... Just because you've whiskers on your face to shave, You treat us like a slave... So what? It's only hair. Just because you wear a wallet near your heart, You think you're twice as smart. You know that isn't fair... But we'll grow up someday, and when we do I pray, We won't just grow in size and sound, And just be bigger pound by pound... I'd hate to grow, like some I know, Who push and shove us little kids around.
- Dr. Terwilliker: This is my day! 5,000 little fingers, all playing together on my piano! Every finger obedient to the whim of me, the master! Every infinitesimal, microscopic piece of living tissue of those 5,000 little fingers, cringing and trembling and groveling before me! Before me, Dr. Terwilliker, as I raise my baton! We shall play... raise hands! We shall play the most beautiful piece ever written! I wrote it. "Ten Happy Fingers"! A one, and a two, and a three, and a play!
- Bart Collins: I don't think the piano is my instrument.
- Dr. Terwilliker: What other instruments are there, pray tell? Scratchy violins, screechy piccolos, nauseating trumpets, et cetera, et cetera?
- Bart Collins: So, you didn't believe me. Your life isn't worth a pastoola.
- Mr. Zabladowski: People should always believe in kids. They should even believe their lies.
- Dr. Terwilliker: [after hearing Bart practice] That's not bad. But not good! You're still not loud enough, still not fast enough! Rhythm still off, still misses the beats!
- Bart Collins: What?
- Dr. Terwilliker: Well, it takes time. It takes years!
- [smiles]
- Dr. Terwilliker: Sometimes it actually does take forever.
- Bart Collins: *Forever*?
- Dr. Terwilliker: Well, my little watch tells me that's all we can hope to do today. Tomorrow, however, oh tomorrow, what a day! At 6 AM sharp, all the others will arrive!
- Bart Collins: What others?
- Dr. Terwilliker: Well, I say, you don't think I built this great piano just for you! Have you no concept that I am on the eve of my greatest triumph? Tomorrow, I will fulfill the dream of my lifetime! Tomorrow, the Terwilliker Institute - my Happy Finger Institute! Tomorrow we will celebrate the official grand opening! Tomorrow, down below me, I will have 500 little boys - 5,000 little fingers! And they'll be mine, all mine! Practicing 24 hours a day, 365 days a year!
- Bart Collins: I - I don't believe it! This is crazy!
- Dr. Terwilliker: And are you to tell me what is crazy? Away! Go back your cell! And put on your official Terwilliker beanie!
- Bart Collins: Say, I've gotta get out of here.
- Mr. Zabladowski: Relax, don't take these little things so seriously. After all, seeing as how your mother's here...
- Bart Collins: My mother's here?
- Mr. Zabladowski: That's a silly question. You know perfectly well she's in the Number 2 spot.
- Bart Collins: The Number 2 spot?
- Mr. Zabladowski: Second in charge of the whole Happy Finger racket.
- Bart Collins: My mom couldn't be mixed up in any racket!
- Mr. Zabladowski: Look, partner: I hate to speak badly about mothers, after all, motherhood is the noblest institution in our land. But the fact remains that your ma is in the Number 2 spot. At headquarters right now.
- Bart Collins: She wouldn't keep me in a place like this! I gotta see her!
- Mr. Zabladowski: I wouldn't advise it. You'll never make it.
- Bart Collins: I can try!
- Mr. Zabladowski: I wouldn't try.
- Bart Collins: I know. All you'd ever try for is time and a half for overtime.
- Mrs. Collins: [answering the phone] Collins speaking. No madam, most definitely not, your son will not be allowed to bring his baseball. Dr. Terwilliker does not believe in baseballs, golf balls, basketballs or tennis balls, ping-pong balls, snowballs, croquet balls or hockey pucks. Dr. Terwilliker believes only in the piano!
- Dr. Terwilliker: I'm sure you'll find this a most fascinating dungeon. That lovely rumbling sound you hear is one of my favorite prisoners! He was a bass drummer in an orchestra I once conducted, had a very bad habit. You know that part in Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, where the drummer is supposed to go 'A-boom-boom-boom-boom?' Well, this stupid lout always went 'A-boom-boom-boom-boom... A-boom!' One extra boom, you know. He'll be here forever.
- [they see a man beating on an enormous drum repeatedly]
- Mr. Zabladowski: You mean he has to keep beating that drum forever?
- Dr. Terwilliker: Oh, that isn't the man I'm punishing! My man is inside the drum!
- Dr. Terwilliker: Whether you know it or not, you are a cog in this great operation.
- Mr. Zabladowski: I'm no cog. I don't even like the sound of it.
- Dr. Terwilliker's Voice: Bartholomew Collins! The years you spend with Dr. Terwilliker, will be the happiest years of your life. But if you get homesick, don't try to escape. The barbed wire around the Terwilliker Institute... is ELECTRIFIED!
- [echoes]
- Mr. Zabladowski: Children seldom have a choice of parents and that, perhaps, is a good thing too. If kids had their way, practically no parents would be born at all!
- Mr. Zabladowski: I've heard rumors about your operation.
- Dr. Terwilliker: Rumors? Scuttlebutt! I can tell you all about the rumors! I'm a villain! I'm a loathsome racketeer! This money you see before you? I've stolen it from the pocketbooks of unsuspecting mothers. Filthy, lying rumors! Why, this is a problem that every great man faces! The rumors of corruption that breeds in high places, rumors seeking to discredit my noble aims. And now these have crept into me own house, vilifying and besmirching my honesty, my fair name, my integrity!
- Mr. Zabladowski: You talk a lot, but I don't know how much you say.
- Mr. Zabladowski: The twins, huh? I'm getting sick and tired of being pushed around. Get me a snort of that pickle juice.
- Bart Collins: You shouldn't drink that stuff. It's dynamite.
- Mr. Zabladowski: Go on. Get it. I'll show those Siamese hooligans. If they want to fight on skates, I'll fight 'em on skates.
- Bart Collins: Well, that's my problem. Dr. Terwilliker's the only enemy I've got. I can't think of one nice thing to say about him, because there isn't any!
- Mrs. Collins: [calling from the kitchen] Bart, darling!
- Bart Collins: That's my mother. I like her. I try to be everything she wants me to be, particularly since my father died. But boy, she's as hipped on the piano as Dr. Terwilliker - watch!
- Dr. Terwilliker: Mrs. Collins! Why are you standing there with that null and void expression on your face? No, don't tell me - I know the workings of your mind, Mrs. Collins! You've been thinking of your son again! How many times must I tell you to burn that picture? You've room in your life but for one picture, my picture, Mrs. Collins! Your future husband! Have I not graciously condescended to take your hand in marriage tomorrow immediately following the official grand opening?
- [an alarm rings. Sergeant Lunk appears on a screen]
- Sgt. Lunk: Sergeant Lunk reporting to headquarters. Cell number one - the boy's not in it!
- Dr. Terwilliker: The boy's not in it? Well search for him, find him!
- Sgt. Lunk: Yes sir, Dr. Terwilliker, sir!
- Dr. Terwilliker: Your son! And you said he could be trusted! Tonight of all nights, Mrs. Collins, the very night before my institute opens, and your son dares to flaunt my authority! So, he doesn't like the neat, clean, comfortable cell which I've given him, eh? Very well! From now on, he doesn't have to sleep there! From now on, Mrs. Collins, your boy sleeps in the DUNGEONS!
- Bart Collins: [crawling out of an air vent] Jeepers, am I glad to see you!
- Mr. Zabladowski: Will you get out of there, you scared the daylights out of me, Bart! What are you doing? Simmer down, will you, what's up?
- Bart Collins: They're after me!
- Mr. Zabladowski: Who?
- Bart Collins: Practically everybody!
- Mr. Zabladowski: [chuckles] I'm not.
- Bart Collins: I'm in terrible trouble!
- Mr. Zabladowski: So, everyone gets into trouble. Everyone in the world, the king of Persia sometimes even gets into trouble. But the king of Persia, does he come crawling out of my air vent? Not at all! The king of Persia - he stays in Persia.
- Stroogo: Now I don't recollect your features, do I?
- Bart Collins: No...
- Stroogo: [looks in his book] You a piccolo player?
- Bart Collins: No.
- Stroogo: Trombone player?
- Bart Collins: No.
- Stroogo: Violin player?
- Bart Collins: No, a... piano player.
- Stroogo: [closes his book] Then you have no right in this particular dungeon! This is reserved exclusive for non-piano players!
- Bart Collins: Non-piano players?
- Stroogo: For them what play all other instruments! One by one, Dr. Terwilliker catches them, brings them down here and locks them up! Pretty soon there'll be no musicians left in this world, except for them what play the piano! I'm taking you back to Dr. Terwilliker!
- Bart Collins: [shows Zabladowsky his death warrant] So, you didn't believe me. Your life isn't worth a pastoola!
- Mr. Zabladowski: People should always believe in kids. People should even believe their lies!
- Dr. Terwilliker: When the plumber Zabladowski has installed the last sink, I want him disintegrated! I want you to disintegrate him slowly. I want him to suffer - atom by atom - at dawn!
- Guard Soloist: [singing, college hymn style] Oh, the walls are green with ivy down at Harvard / and down at Princeton / and old Perdue... '
- Guard Quartet: [harmonizing] In old Perdue...
- Guard Soloist: So what, they think they're smart with all their ivy / Us at Terwilliker got ivy too!
- Guard Quartet: Got ivy too... Yeah! Hail to thee our hallowed halls / We got poison ivy walls / Pooh on Harvard, Yale and such / We got ivy they can't touch! Poison ivy-covered walls / Hail to thee our hallowed halls! Hallowed halls.
- Bart Collins: Boy, I'd hate to have you for a father.
- Mr. Zabladowski: What makes you think I'd want to be your father?
- Bart Collins: My mother's going to marry Dr. Terwilliker.
- Mr. Zabladowski: Oh, congratulations.
- Bart Collins: He's even worse than you are!
- Mrs. Collins: [singing] Ten little dancing maidens, Dancing, oh, so fine, Ten happy, little fingers, And they're mine, all mine, They're mine, they're mine, Now isn't that just fine...
- Mrs. Collins: I hate to hound you. I know you think I'm a mean ol' slave driver, but you really are missing the beats.
- Mrs. Collins: Is that as loud as you can play? Now, now, sweetheart, not that loud. And not that soft.
- Mr. Zabladowski: Maybe you're right. Maybe even if he never learns to play the piano, maybe the discipline's good for him anyway. Maybe.
- Mrs. Collins: There are no maybes about it. I assure you I know what's good for him.
- Dr. Terwilliker: Idiots! The piano would be the last place he'd hide! Search the alleys! Beat the bushes! Comb the turrets! Shake the trees!
- Bart Collins: You're not going to help me? You would get involved if you only knew the truth.
- Mr. Zabladowski: If I only knew what truth?
- Bart Collins: The truth about my mother. She's in a terrible fix. Dr. Terwilliker, he's got her buffaloed!
- Mr. Zabladowski: I am entirely too busy to sit around and talk about buffaloes.
- Mr. Zabladowski: [singing] Dream stuff, Dream stuff, Funny thing about this dream stuff, First it's there, Then nowhere...
- Mr. Zabladowski: Say, Dr. Terwilliker...
- Dr. Terwilliker: [casting a spell] Abba-ka-dibbrinka-dabbrinka-dilliker, T-e-r-w-i-l-l-illiker.
- Dr. Terwilliker: Make yourself comfortable. Relax. Have a smoke. Have a cigar.
- Mr. Zabladowski: Don't mind if I do.
- Dr. Terwilliker: Something to eat? Hotcakes, layer cakes, fish cakes, peanut brittle, the blue plate special or chicken pot pie?
- Mr. Zabladowski: I don't mind if I do.
- Dr. Terwilliker: Something to drink? Schnapps, sake, slivovitz, Schwepps, tequila, turtle tears or just plain cocoa?
- Mr. Zabladowski: I have no objection.
- Dr. Terwilliker: Oh, but wait! For such a distinguished guest, the pride of our cellars! Vintage pickle juice. From our very own pickle vineyards. Just whiff that bouquet.
- Mr. Zabladowski: Cheers.
- Dr. Terwilliker: You're a key man and a valuable ally, a big wheel within all my wheels. You, if I may say so, alone, of all my people, are the indispensable man.
- Mr. Zabladowski: Get a load of that. Isn't that a beautiful bass? It weighs seven pounds if it weighs an ounce.
- Mrs. Collins: [singing] What marvelous weather for cooing and billing
- Dr. Terwilliker: For yodeling, warbling, gargling, trilling
- Mr. Zabladowski: What marvelous weather for dally-down-dilling
- Mrs. Collins, Dr. Terwilliker, Mr. Zabladowski: What marvelous weather Hey, hey, what a day...
- Mr. Zabladowski: Do you, Mr. Zabladowski, promise to be: trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly?
- Mr. Zabladowski: I do.
- Bart Collins: Courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful?
- Mr. Zabladowski: I do.
- Bart Collins: Thrifty, brave, clean and reverent?
- Mr. Zabladowski: I do.
- Bart Collins: Well, that's it.
- Dr. Terwilliker: [singing] Come on, it's time we got together, 'Cause it's get-together weather, And in get-together weather, Together is just what we got to get
- Dr. Terwilliker, Mrs. Collins: Come on...