Tucker: The Man and His Dream

"When I was a boy, I used to, uh, used to read all about Edison and the Wright Brothers, Mr. Ford. They were my heroes. 'Rags to Riches' - that's not just the name of a book. That's what this country was all about. We invented the 'free enterprise' system, where anybody, no matter who he was, where he came from, what class he belonged to - if he came up with a better idea about anything, there's no limit to how far he could go. I grew up a generation too late, I guess, because now the way the system works, the loner, the dreamer, the crackpot who comes up with some crazy idea that everybody laughs at, that later turns out to revolutionize the world - he's squashed from above before he even gets his head out of the water because the bureaucrats, they'd rather kill a new idea than let it rock the boat! If Benjamin Franklin were alive today, he'd be thrown in jail for sailing a kite without a license! [jury laughs] It's true! We're all puffed up with ourselves now 'cause we invented the bomb - dropped the - beat the daylights out of the Japanese, the Nazis. But if big business closes the door on the little guy with a new idea, we're not only closing the door on progress, but we're sabotaging everything that we fought for! Everything that the country stands for!! And one day we're gonna find ourselves at the bottom of the heap instead of king of the hill, having no idea how we got there, buying our radios and our cars from our former enemies. [A juror laughs] I don't believe that's gonna happen. I can't believe it because - if I ever stop believing in the plain 'ol common horse sense of the American people, be no way I could get out of bed in the morning. Thank you."

"When I was a little kid, maybe five years old, in the old country, my mother used to say to me; she'd warn me, she'd say, 'Don't get too close to people. You'll catch their dreams...Years later, I realized I misunderstood her. 'Germs', she said, not 'dreams', 'You'll catch their germs... [they both laugh] I want you to know something, Tucker. I went into business with you for one reason - to make money. That's all... How was I to know... [chokes up, head down] if I got too close, I'd catch your dreams."

"Although only fifty Tuckers were ever produced, forty six of them are still road worthy and in use today. Tucker's innovations of aerodynamic styling, padded dash, pop out windows, seat belts, fuel injection and disc brakes were slowly adopted by Detroit and are found in the cars you are driving now. Preston Tucker died of an illness six years after the trial, but his ideas will live forever."

"Jeff Bridges - Preston Tucker"

"Joan Allen - Vera Tucker"

"Martin Landau - Abe Karatz"

"Elias Koteas - Alex Tremulis"

"Frederic Forrest - Eddie Dean"

"Christian Slater - Preston Tucker, Jr."

"Don Novello - Stan"

"Nina Siemaszko - Marilyn Lee Tucker"

"Mako - Jimmy Sakuyama"

"Dean Stockwell - Howard Hughes"

"Lloyd Bridges - Senator Homer Ferguson"