QWilliamson goes home before Roma closes the deal with Lingk. Yet the next day Williamson says he had the signed contract on his desk before he left for the night. Is this a continuity error?
ANo. Williamson tells Levene that "I'm trying to get home for two hours. I gotta go home, grab one hour with my kids, come back, see if any of you closed a contract, take the contract to the bank." Obviously, Williamson went home for an hour, and then returned to the office after Roma had closed the Lingk deal but before Levene had broken in. Presumably, Roma left the closed Lingk contract in a drop box or some other form of receptacle.
QIf Williamson knows the Nyborg lead is no good, why does he give it to Levene in the first place?
AMany fans have queried this. At the end of the film, Williamson takes great pleasure in telling Levene that the Nyborgs are crazy and that the cheque they wrote for Levene is no good. However, if Williamson knew this, why did he give Levene the lead in the first place? Here is the conversation between the two about the lead:
Williamson: "Bruce and Harriet Nyborg? You wanna see the memos? They're nuts. They used to call in every week when I was with Webb and we were selling Arizona. They're nuts. Did you see how they were living? How can you delude yourself?"Levene: "I got their cheque."W: "Yeah, well forget it, frame it, it's worthless."L: "The cheque is no good?"W: "Yeah, you wanna wait around, I'll pull the memo. I'm busy now."L: "Wait a minute. The cheque is no good? They're nuts?"W: "Wanna call the bank Shelley? I called them. I called them four months ago when we first got the lead. The people are insane. They just like talking to salesmen."L: "Don't..."W: "I'm sorry."L: "Why?"W: "Because I don't like you."L: "My daughter."W: "Fuck you."
Williamson knew the Nyborg lead was worthless; as he says, he confirmed it four months previously when Premier Properties first got the lead, but he repeatedly gave the lead to Levene anyway (Levene mentions at one stage that he has seen the Nyborg name several times before). We know Williamson is more than capable of lying as he lies to Lingk about the contract, and then lies to Levene about not turning him in if he confessed. He is also willing to accept a bribe from Levene earlier in the film and to hand out the Glengarry leads. As such, Williamson is portrayed as a man with dubious scruples. Taking this fact together with his comment to Levene "because I don't like you," may imply that Williamson purposefully gave Levene the bad lead simply because he disliked him, to waste his time, cause him to fail and therefore, to bring about his redundancy.Another, similar, theory, is that the parent company, Mitch and Murray, wanted to cut the number of workers they employed so they devised the sales contest and randomly distributed worthless leads to ensure someone would fail (the main difference between this theory and the above is that in the above theory, Levene is specifically chosen to receive the bad lead, but here, he is simply unlucky).Both these theories involve someone at some stage consciously making the decision to give the bad lead to someone, and as such, there can be little doubt that there is some degree of maliciousness at play somewhere along the chain of command; someone knows the lead is bad, but they never make any attempt to recall it.
QHow does Williamson know that Levene was the one who broke in?
ABecause Levene knew that Williamson was lying about the Lingk contract having gone to the bank. In reality, the Lingk contract was on Williamson's desk, but Williamson tells Roma that he had brought it to the bank. When telling Williamson what an idiot he is, Levene says "If you're gonna make something up, John, be sure that it helps." Levene should have had no way of knowing that Williamson was lying. Like Roma, Levene should have assumed that Williamson was telling the truth. Williamson usually dropped the contracts off every night, but on the night of the robbery he didn't. So Williamson's lie to Lingk about the contract being sent in should have gone by unrecognized by everyone. But Levene knew because he had seen the contract on the desk. Ergo, he had been in the office. Ergo he was the thief.
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