Question: A "modified" racing stock car, white with the number 1 on it, appears in the scene when Frank Lucas is calling home to North Carolina for his brothers to join him up north. One brother answers the phone on the garage wall and when he heads toward the house the camera scans the yard following him and there is a white stock car parked in the yard, does anybody know the significance to the movie? Can you tell if it is a red, white and blue number 1 on the side? Charlie Jarzombek's car?
Question: What was the whole thing of not wanting to turn in the $987,000 they found in the car because it would make them appear untrustworthy? Why would all cops distrust them for handing it in? I get that dirty cops would be annoyed but when they were counting it in the precinct, every cop was drawing them daggers.
Question: When Denzil and his new wife are traveling home from their wedding, they are stopped by the crooked SIU cops. When they get home, Denzil goes straight upstairs, gets the fur coat his wife bought him and throws it on the fire. Why did he do this? The look on his face suggests he is angry at his wife, but I can't figure out why.
Answer: The expensive and flashy fur coat (150,000 dollars) makes him extremely noticeable to police. Before the fight, he has been under the radar, but believes the gaudy clothes have given him away as a person with too much money, which gets the police to investigate him.
Answer: The other person who answered is correct but I want to add a little bit more detail. Earlier in the film, Frank chides his cousin at the club for wearing a flashy suit because he said it brings him too much attention. Frank's lapse in judgment in wearing the very expensive mink fur coat out in public as well as shaking hands with Muhammad Ali in front of everybody is ironic because his behavior contradicts what he told his cousin earlier. He is upset because he is now being forced to pay even more bribes, and he's probably upset with himself for not heeding his own advice on staying low key.
Question: The pharmacist from Desperate Housewives called Russell Crowe a kike. What's that?
Answer: "Kike" is an ethnic slur that refers to Jews. To elaborate, when illiterate Jewish immigrants would be asked to sign their names on Ellis Island, they would simply put a circle on the signature line. The Yiddish word for "circle" is "kikel."
Question: Why are there two completely different endings to American Gangster?
Answer: Presumably you're referring to the additional 18 minutes added to the DVD ending. This is not unusual. Theatrical releases usually maintain a certain runtime to allow the movie to be shown so many times per day, maximizing number of tickets sold. Most movies are around 90-120 minutes, so a film's scenes are often trimmed or cut entirely, often against the director's preference. The DVD "extended cut" allows the director to re-add deleted footage and show a more complete and cohesive story.
Answer: The idea is if cops wouldn't take a million dollars for themselves, free and clear without risk, they are impeccably honest. Therefore, they wouldn't accept bribes and probably not hold still for shakedowns or payoffs. They wouldn't cover up drug or weapon planting and would testify against crooked cops.