The Friends of Eddie Coyle ***** (1973, Robert Mitchum, Peter Boyle, Richard Jordan, Steven Keats, Alex Rocco, Joe Santos, Mitchell Ryan) – Classic Movie Review 2715

Director Peter (Bullitt) Yates’s 1973 neo-noir crime thriller The Friends of Eddie Coyle is a highly impressive and often exhilarating gem.

Robert Mitchum enjoys one of his best parts in the Seventies as Eddie ‘Fingers’ Coyle, the title’s ageing low-level Boston gangster, a gun-runner for a crime organisation. He finds himself facing a long prison sentence for repeat offences after his last crime, a truck hijacking. So he decides to turn stool-pigeon to snitch on his bank robbing friends to avoid jail time and retire.

He deals information on stolen guns to the Feds but he is supplying arms to his bank robbing and kidnapping hoodlum friends. However, then he comes up against another informer called Dillon (Peter Boyle), the local bar owner who is also dealing with the Feds, and an ambiguous cop, an ATF agent named Dave Foley (Richard Jordan). Dillon set up the truck hijacking and is also an informer for Foley, unbeknownst to Coyle.

It is a very good set-up, intricately and satisfyingly plotted, following an extremely dark narrative in a neo-noir world that suggests that murderous bad guys are standing right next to us. Mitchum’s quintessential performance as the world-weary anti-hero is in its own way as great as Burt Lancaster’s old hood in Atlantic City. Mitchum smoulders intelligence and intensity in long dialogue scenes, suggesting a character worn down by a lifetime of care but with a last gasp of hope at the end of the tunnel, if, and that’s a big if, he can successfully play both ends against the middle. It’s a dangerous game, but steely, resourceful Eddie Coyle looks like he can win it.

Great though he is, Mitchum by no means has the film to himself. Boyle is very nearly as good as the barman informer Dillon (Peter Boyle), dangerous, menacing and pitiful at the same time. He has some satisfying long dialogue scenes too. Richard Jordan also impresses as the slimy ATF agent Dave Foley. And there is a extra-fine lineup of co-stars in Steven Keats as the spaced-out punk hood Jackie Brown, Alex Rocco as bank robber Jimmy Scalise and Joe Santos as Artie Van, all of them outstanding, all of them fitting perfectly into this hellish noir world like they have lived there all their lives.

Producer Paul Monash’s screenplay with its desperate, low-life characters, gloomy mood, dark atmosphere and tightly wound plot is based on a novel by George V Higgins. The mesmerisingly seedy Boston locations, Victor J Kemper’s grungy cinematography, Dave Grusin’s jazzy score, and Yates’s downbeat, tenacious direction come together like a disturbing nightmare on a bad night in the city. English director Yates makes America look like a hell hole.

But, in the end, it is Mitchum’s essential performance that you remember. It is so special that there was talk of an Oscar for him, at least a nomination. But nothing. He never won an Oscar, and had only a single nomination at the very start of his career as Best Supporting Actor for Story of G.I. Joe (1945).

The Friends of Eddie Coyle co-stars Steven Keats as Jackie Brown, Mitchell Ryan as Waters, Alex Rocco as Jimmy Scalise and Joe Santos as Artie Van. Also in the cast are Helena Carroll, Peter MacLean, Kevin O’Morrison, Carolyn Pickman, Margaret Ladd, James Tolkan, Matthew Cowles and Marvin Lichterman.

Filming took place throughout the Boston area, including Dedham, Cambridge, Milton, Quincy, Sharon, Somerville, Malden and Weymouth, Massachusetts.

There are 29 F words and other strong language throughout. There is some violence but mostly an atmosphere of threat, menace and impending doom.

The Criterion Collection released a special edition DVD of the film on May 19 2009, which includes a director’s commentary by Peter Yates.

Peter Yates recalled: ‘We shot all of The Friends of Eddie Coyle on location, which makes it much harder to control lighting and shooting conditions. Cinematographer Victor J Kemper did an absolutely amazing job adapting to those factors, and his skill shows in the final film.’ He added: ‘We were lucky to get Steven Keats. We desperately needed someone to play Jackie Brown and hadn’t found anyone to fit the role. At the last minute, we discovered Keats doing theatre work and cast him.’

Peter Yates died on 9 January 2011 at the age of 81. His first feature film is the musical Summer Holiday (1963), followed by Robbery and Bullitt. His three favourites of his own films were The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), The Dresser (1983) and Breaking Away (1979).

Joe Santos, known as Lt. Dennis Becker on The Rockford Files, died on 18 March 2016 at the age of 84.

Alex Rocco, Moe Greene in The Godfather, died on 18 July 2015 at the age of 79.

Steven Keats was found dead in his Manhattan apartment on 8 May 1994, an apparent suicide, aged 49.

An ATF Agent works for the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Part of the US Department of Justice, it monitors the illegal trafficking or manufacture of those items.

The Friends of Eddie Coyle is the perfect companion piece to the same year’s Charley Varrick.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2715

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com