All you got to know is I told the man that he could depend on me because you told me I could depend on you.
Today on the Classic Movie Reviews Podcast, we are taking on The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973). Since Robert Mitchum was one of the top Film-Noir guys, I figured we would look at one of his films to begin the Neo-Noir group. Neo-Noir consists of films that have noir traditions but were made starting in the early 1970s or a bit earlier.
For today’s film, Vincent Canby of the New York Times said on June 27, 1973:
…is a good, tough, unsentimental movie about the last days of a small-time Boston hood…. ‘The Friends of Eddie Coyle’ is so beautifully acted and so well set (in and around Boston’s pool halls, parking lots, side-streets, house trailers and barrooms) that it reminds me a good deal of John Huston‘s “Fat City. “It also has that film’s ear for the way people talk—for sentences that begin one way and end another, or are stuffed with excess pronouns. “What you don’t know, it don’t bother you,” a friend might say to Eddie. Unlike “Fat City,” however, “The Friends of Eddie Coyle” is interested in plot and narrative suspense. The film splits its attention between Eddie, as he slowly evolves into a stool pigeon in an effort to stay free… Mitchum excellent support are Peter Boyle, as a bartender who deals in larceny and contract murder on the side, and Richard Jordan, as a young detective who looks deceptively soft, talks much like the hoods he is tracking, and is genuinely fascinated by the game he must play with them. The detective’s manner with Eddie is direct, absolutely straight, but he is always pushing him. “You help uncle, uncle will help you,” he tells Eddie. It’s fairly typical of everything that’s wrong in Eddie’s life, that when he decides to turn in several associates he is 12 hours too late. Someone else squealed before he could. “[1] [Portions removed]
The great film critic Roger Ebert said of the film:
“He gives us a man, invites our sympathy for him, and then watches almost sadly as his time runs out. And “The Friends of Eddie Coyle” works so well because Eddie is played by Robert Mitchum, and Mitchum has perhaps never been better.”[2]
This movie is rated 7.5 on iMDB.com[3] and is much better than that. On rottentomatoes.com, it has a better 100 percent on the Tomatometer and 88 percent audience approval[4].
So let’s move into the new form of Noirs, Neo-Noir.
Actors – The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)
Returning
The great Film-Noir actor Robert Mitchum played Eddie’ Fingers’ Coyle. Mitchum was initially covered in the great Film-Noir Out of the Past (1947).
Peter Boyle played the double-dealing bartender Dillon. Boyle was first discussed during the great comedy Young Frankenstein (1974).
Prolific character actor James Tolkan played The Man’s contact man. Tolkan was introduced in Back to the Future (1985).
The Beard, played by Jack Kehoe, was first covered during The Sting (1973).
New
Richard Jordan played federal agent Dave Foley. Jordan was born in 1937 in New York City. Born to a well-heeled family, Jordan was educated in private schools in Manhattan and Connecticut. He began acting while in prep school, and this led him to working in summer stock.
He attended the Sherbourne School in England. He then attended Harvard, where he was active in the Dramatic Club. After graduating from Harvard, he began acting on stage and debuted on Broadway in 1961. He was very successful in acting and directing off-Broadway. He spent eight years working with the New York Shakespeare Festival beginning in 1963.
Jordan began working on television in the 1960s but did not turn to movies until 1971. He had so many good roles beginning with western Lawman (1971). Other films include The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), The Yakuza (1974), as a dedicated sandman in Logan’s Run (1976), Dune (1984), Romero (1989), The Hunt for Red October (1990), and his final film Gettysburg (1993). Jordan had to stop acting because of a brain tumor, and he died in 1993 at the early age of 56.
Steven Keats played Jackie Brown, the gun seller that drove around in a bright yellow car. Keats was born in 1945 in New York City. He graduated from the High School for Performing Arts. Fame! He served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War from 1965-66. After the military, he attended Yale School of Drama. He debuted on Broadway in 1970.
Some of his better-known roles include Bronson’s son-in-law in Death Wish (1974) and Robert Shaw’s pal in Black Sunday (1977). He was prolific on television. In 1994, he was found dead from suicide. He was 49 years old.
Story – The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)
This movie beings with a group scouting for an elaborate bank manager hostage and family kidnapping type robbery than most critics have correctly identified as having nothing to do with the plot and is just the director doing what he is good at filming. The robbery gang consists of Jimmy Scalise (Alex Rocco) and Artie Van (Joe Santos).
Eddie’ Fingers’ Coyle (Robert Mitchum) goes to meet Jackie Brown (Steven Keats) about buying guns. Coyle is very particular about the process. Coyle shows his left hand. He says he bought some guns from a guy that were traced and the guy he sold them to was arrested and sent to prison. Friends of the guy in prison smashed Coyle’s hand in a drawer as a message about how to do business. Coyle complains that $80 is too much for a handgun. Jackie says he can get machine guns.
Dillon (Peter Boyle) is a bartender at a small hole in the wall bar. He has connections with Artie Van and says Coyle wants to connect with Jimmy Scalise. Artie sets up a meet with Coyle.
Jackie, in his bright yellow car, drives to a gravel pit and tipple. He meets The Beard (Jack Kehoe) and picks up a load of pistols. Jackie tells too much information to a man that is obviously a junkie.
Coyle gets the bag of guns and hides them in his trunk before going into Dillion’s. He tells Dillion that he is looking at a 3-5 rap and he has lost the appeal. Coyle has done a job for Dillion and has gotten arrested. Coyle doesn’t want his wife and children to go on welfare. Dillion can’t or won’t help him. While they talk, Artie removes the guns from the trunk of the car.
Dillion goes to the plaza by the Government Center. He meets with Federal Agent Dave Foley (Richard Jordan). Dillion is working as a stool pigeon for $20 a week. He tells that Scalise has been contacting Coyle.
The kidnapping bank robbery takes place. While they hold the bank manager’s family hostage, they conduct a precision operation on the bank. The robbery goes off without a hitch, but in modern times they have left a ton of evidence such as putting duct tape on their coveralls and using it to cover the cameras. The tape would leave DNA, a fiber sample, and possible fingerprints.
The Coyle household runs like a typical lower economic household. They have trash to take out and chores to do. Coyle and his wife talk about him going to jail and what will happen to the family.
Coyle meets Foley at a park. Foley had a great Mustang. Coyle tells Foley that he may have information on some machine guns. He wants Foley to take to the US Attorney about his case. Coyle is still protecting Dillion. Coyle has done some ratting, but he is never given any really good info to the government. Foley says he will need the guns, the seller, and the buyer for a deal.
Foley tells all the info from his informants to his boss. They decide to put a wire in Dillion’s bar.
Jackie drives his bright yellow car to meet two revolutionaries, Andrea (Margaret Ladd) and Pete (Matthew Cowles), that want to buy guns. Yes, that is correct, there were revolutionaries in Boston in 1773 and 1973. They want machine guns to rob a bank. They make a deal for five M-16 and 500 rounds of ammo for $2,000. What a bargain.
Coyle makes some phone calls, so he sends his wife away so she can’t hear. He sets up a meet with Jackie and demands his other guns. Jackie says he can’t do it. Coyle gives a lecture about keeping your word. Coyle uses the threat of the mob to demand delivery the next afternoon.
Jackie is traveling in his yellow car with a clean-cut guy. Finally, he asks the guy for 25-30 more M-16s. When they get to the pickup point, Jackie is very suspicious. He forces the short hair guy out at gunpoint and demands they bring the M-16s to him. The three guys are soldiers and have the M-16s. The first guy brings the guns down the hill. “This is my weapon, and this is my gun. This one’s for killing and this one’s for fun.” Jackie pays the guys off.
Scalise, Artie, and company pull off another kidnapping style bank robbery. This time they kill a man that triggers an alarm.
Coyle meets Artie in a parking garage. They discuss why the robbery went wrong. Artie gives Coyle some money and wants more guns. Artie tells that Dillion is a good hitman but should not be trusted.
Dillion meets with Foley and is talking about the bank robberies and working on a deal with the government.
Jackie, in his bright yellow car, meets Coyle in a supermarket parking lot. Coyle picks up the new guns. Jackie drops that he has to be at the Sharon Station at 3:30. When they make the transfer, Coyle sees the M-16s in the trunk. Coyle calls Foley, and the feds stake out the train station.
Jackie is waiting in his bright yellow car. Foley gets out of a truck driven by some agents. Three agents take sniper positions. Andrea and Pete arrive in their van. Jackie wants to wait a couple of hours to see what cars leave the parking lot. He is guarding against Andrea and Pete, not the cops. The two revolutionaries leave until 5:30. Foley decides to bust Jackie. Jackie hauls ass in his bright yellow car. But after a couple of crashes, the feds get him. Jackie thinks he knows who set him up and says he will take care of that rat himself.
Coyle and Foley meet in a diner. Foley jerks Coyle around and then says he has already called. He said the bust is a good beginning, but he will have to give Foley more. The real problem is that he never ratted out the guy that stole the booze that was in the truck. Coyle doesn’t want to be a permanent fink.
Coyle goes to see Scalise. He lives in a trailer, but it is pretty nice compared to where Coyle lives. Coyle brings in the guns he picked up earlier in the day. Scalise wants more guns. Coyle reminds Scalise about his impending incarnation.
Dillion has told Scalise that he thinks Coyle is working for the Feds. The general opinion is that Coyle is a stand-up guy. They head out on another kidnapping robbery. They break into the house and are waiting for another bank manager and his wife to come to the kitchen. Suddenly, Foley and some FBI agents bust in and make the arrest.
Coyle goes to a bar where he meets with Foley. Coyle wants a new id. Finally, Coyle offers to give up the bank robbers. Foley lets him know that the robbers have already been arrested.
Dillon goes to a subway station and meets The Man’s contact man (James Tolkan), a mid-level mob guy. Dillion throws out the name Coyle as the rat. Dillion is told that The Man wants him hit that night.
Coyle, who looks gut-punched, heads to Dillon’s bar for a drink. Coyle wonders who setup the robbers. Dillion is more philosophical. He says it’s just business. Dillion gets a call from the contact man. Dillion says if he gets paid, he might be able to do the job that night. Dillion says he has tickets to the Bruins versus the Blackhawk hockey game.
Dillion and Coyle are at the hockey game, and Dillon says he is waiting for his nephew to show up. The Kid (Michael McCleery) finally arrives. After the game, Dillion says they are going to meet some girls. The Kid offers to drive them to Coyle’s car. I wonder how Coyle is going to get out of this. I mean, he is the star. Coyle passes out in the passenger side of the car.
Suddenly, Dillon pulls out a .22 pistol and shots Coyle in the back of the head. They drop the car off in a bowling alley parking lot next to a similar vehicle. A similar car is left, so the cops will think it is the same one that was there already.
Not shown, but the plan is Dillion throws the gun in the river, the Kid drops him off, takes his payment from the glove box, and abandons the car in a bad neighborhood.
Dillion meets with Foley. Dillon talks about pigeons and how it is impossible to get rid of them. He says he can’t speak about Coyle. They part, and the movie ends.
I’ll be right back with conclusions and the World-Famous Short Summary following a word from our sponsors.
Summary – The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)
Damn, so the Dillion character gets Coyle in trouble, rats the other guys out to the police, frames Coyle for being a rat, and gets paid to kill him, damn. If that ain’t Film-Noir (Neo-Noir), I don’t know what is.
Alex Rocco, who played Scalise and in an earlier film, played Moe Greene, was associated with The Winter Hill Gang and is sometimes reported to be a former member. The Winter Hill gang included Whitey Bolger, among others[5]. Rocco introduced Mitchum to Howie Winter, who was one of the top leaders of the gang, so Mitchum could better understand his role.
In the hockey game between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Boston Bruins, Bobby Orr, Eddie Johnston, and Tony Esposito, can be seen playing[6]. I thought I saw Derek Sanderson, but he was playing for Philly by then.
World-Famous Short Summary – with friends like these, who needs enemies
Beware
the moors and wash your hands.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/1973/06/27/archives/the-friends-of-eddie-coyle-is-a-good-tough-movie.html
[2] https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-friends-of-eddie-coyle-1973
[3] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070077/
[4] https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1211532_friends_of_eddie_coyle
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Hill_Gang
[6] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070077/trivia
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