The Friends of Eddie Coyle
Encyclopedia
This is an article about the movie. For information about George V. Higgins' 1970 novel, go to The Friends of Eddie Coyle (novel)
.
The Friends of Eddie Coyle is a 1973 crime film
starring Robert Mitchum
and Peter Boyle
. Directed by Peter Yates
, the screenplay was adapted from the novel
by George V. Higgins
. It was released on DVD
for the first time from The Criterion Collection
on May 19, 2009. The book has also been adapted into a stage play by Bill Doncaster; Stickball Productions held a staged reading in Somerville, Massachusetts, on November 13, 2010, and will launch a full production in December 2011, at Oberon, Harvard Square, Cambridge.
for a crime organization in Boston, Massachusetts. He is facing several years in prison for a truck hijacking in New Hampshire
set up by Dillon, who owns a local bar. Coyle's last chance is a sentencing recommendation from an ATF
agent
, Dave Foley, who demands that Coyle become a confidential informant in return.
A gang led by Jimmy Scalise and Artie Van has been pulling a series of robberies in broad daylight at local banks, Coyle having supplied them with guns. Another gun runner, Jackie Brown, is in popular demand. Coyle wants to buy more pistols from him while a younger couple is shopping for machine guns.
Jackie goes to great lengths to get Coyle what he needs. Coyle delivers the guns to Scalise, but then he offers to set up Jackie for the cop Foley to avoid jail. In a train station's parking lot, waiting to sell his machine guns, Jackie is apprehended by Foley's men.
Coyle feels he has fulfilled his end of the deal. Foley, though, claims it still is not enough. He wants more or else it is prison for Coyle.
In desperation, Coyle agrees to inform on his friends Scalise and Van as they prepare to pull off their next bank job, but it turns out Foley already has inside information and has caught them in the act.
The mob thinks that Coyle was the snitch. They assign his friend, Dillon, to kill him. Before carrying out his orders, Dillon treats his friend to a night on the town, taking him to dinner and a Boston Bruins
hockey
game. He gets Coyle drunk and then shoots him inside a moving car.
In the final scene, Foley meets with his snitch, who is Dillon.
area, including Dedham
, Cambridge
, Milton
, Quincy
, Sharon
, Somerville
, Malden
, and Weymouth
, Massachusetts
. A gun purchase scene was filmed at the stone crusher of the former Rowe Quarry on the Malden/Revere town line near Route 1.
The fictional murderer of Coyle is an ex-con named Dillon, who set up the failed truck hijacking for which Coyle was to be sent back to prison. Dillon owned a bar and was a freelance contract killer. The fictional Dillon was also an informant, shown both protecting and promoting his own interests by funneling information about his underworld competition to the police. Columnist and reporter Howie Carr
stated, "In other words, Dillon appeared to be a prototype of the gangster that James J. Bulger would become," although the novelist whose book the movie is based on, just before his death, denied that he had based Dillon on Bulger.
Robert Mitchum was interested in meeting the local gangsters as part of his research into the part.
Journalist George Kimball, a sportswriter on the Boston Herald
at the time, claimed that Mitchum wanted to meet Whitey Bulger and was warned against it by Higgins. Kimball claims that the two did actually socialize, though there is doubt that a meeting between Mitchum and Bulger ever took place. What is known is that cast member Alex Rocco
, who had been part of organized crime in the Boston area before moving to Los Angeles in 1962, introduced Robert Mitchum to local Irish-American gangsters of his acquaintance, such as Howie Winter
of the Winter-Hill Gang that Bulger belonged to. (Bulger replaced Winter as head of the gang after the gang boss was arrested an imprisoned, soon after the meeting with Mitchum and Rocco.)
of the Chicago Sun-Times
gave it four stars, his highest rating, while Vincent Canby
of The New York Times
also reviewed it favorably, calling it "a good, tough, unsentimental movie". Both reviewers singled out Mitchum's lead performance as a key ingredient of the film's success. Ebert wrote: "Eddie Coyle is made for [Mitchum]: a weary middle-aged man, but tough and proud; a man who has been hurt too often in life not to respect pain; a man who will take chances to protect his own territory."
, as well.
The Friends of Eddie Coyle (novel)
The Friends of Eddie Coyle, published in 1970, was the debut novel of George V. Higgins, then an Assistant United States Attorney in Boston.The novel is a realistic depiction of the Irish-American underworld in Boston...
.
The Friends of Eddie Coyle is a 1973 crime film
Crime film
Crime films are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies.- Plays and films...
starring Robert Mitchum
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
and Peter Boyle
Peter Boyle
Peter Lawrence Boyle, Jr. was an American actor, best known for his role as Frank Barone on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, and as a comical monster in Mel Brooks' film spoof Young Frankenstein ....
. Directed by Peter Yates
Peter Yates
Peter James Yates was an English director and producer. He was born in Aldershot, Hampshire.The son of an army officer, he attended Charterhouse School as a boy, graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and worked for some years as an actor, director and stage manager...
, the screenplay was adapted from the novel
The Friends of Eddie Coyle (novel)
The Friends of Eddie Coyle, published in 1970, was the debut novel of George V. Higgins, then an Assistant United States Attorney in Boston.The novel is a realistic depiction of the Irish-American underworld in Boston...
by George V. Higgins
George V. Higgins
George V. Higgins was a United States author, lawyer, newspaper columnist, and college professor. He is best known for his bestselling crime novels. His full name was George Vincent Higgins, but his books were all published as by George V. Higgins. ACtually, his full name was George V...
. It was released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
for the first time from The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection is a video-distribution company selling "important classic and contemporary films" to film aficionados. The Criterion series is noted for helping to standardize the letterbox format for home video, bonus features, and special editions...
on May 19, 2009. The book has also been adapted into a stage play by Bill Doncaster; Stickball Productions held a staged reading in Somerville, Massachusetts, on November 13, 2010, and will launch a full production in December 2011, at Oberon, Harvard Square, Cambridge.
Plot
Eddie Coyle is an aging, low-level gunrunnerGunrunning
Arms trafficking, also known as gunrunning, is the illegal trafficking or smuggling of contraband weapons or ammunition.The 1997 Report of the UN Panel of Governmental Experts on Small Arms provides a more refined and precise definition, which has become internationally accepted...
for a crime organization in Boston, Massachusetts. He is facing several years in prison for a truck hijacking in New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
set up by Dillon, who owns a local bar. Coyle's last chance is a sentencing recommendation from an ATF
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is a federal law enforcement organization within the United States Department of Justice...
agent
Special agent
Special agent is usually the title for a detective or investigator for a state, county, municipal, federal or tribal government. An agent is a worker for any federal agency, and a secret agent is one who works for an intelligence agency....
, Dave Foley, who demands that Coyle become a confidential informant in return.
A gang led by Jimmy Scalise and Artie Van has been pulling a series of robberies in broad daylight at local banks, Coyle having supplied them with guns. Another gun runner, Jackie Brown, is in popular demand. Coyle wants to buy more pistols from him while a younger couple is shopping for machine guns.
Jackie goes to great lengths to get Coyle what he needs. Coyle delivers the guns to Scalise, but then he offers to set up Jackie for the cop Foley to avoid jail. In a train station's parking lot, waiting to sell his machine guns, Jackie is apprehended by Foley's men.
Coyle feels he has fulfilled his end of the deal. Foley, though, claims it still is not enough. He wants more or else it is prison for Coyle.
In desperation, Coyle agrees to inform on his friends Scalise and Van as they prepare to pull off their next bank job, but it turns out Foley already has inside information and has caught them in the act.
The mob thinks that Coyle was the snitch. They assign his friend, Dillon, to kill him. Before carrying out his orders, Dillon treats his friend to a night on the town, taking him to dinner and a Boston Bruins
Boston Bruins
The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The team has been in existence since 1924, and is the league's third-oldest team and its oldest in the...
hockey
Hockey
Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick.-Etymology:...
game. He gets Coyle drunk and then shoots him inside a moving car.
In the final scene, Foley meets with his snitch, who is Dillon.
Cast
- Robert MitchumRobert MitchumRobert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
as Eddie "Fingers" Coyle - Peter BoylePeter BoylePeter Lawrence Boyle, Jr. was an American actor, best known for his role as Frank Barone on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, and as a comical monster in Mel Brooks' film spoof Young Frankenstein ....
as Dillon - Richard JordanRichard JordanRichard Jordan was an American stage, screen and film actor. A long-time member of the New York Shakespeare Festival, he performed in many Off Broadway and Broadway plays...
as Dave Foley - Steven KeatsSteven KeatsSteven Keats was an American actor who appeared in such films as Silent Rage, Death Wish, Black Sunday, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, and the TV-movie version of the Norman Mailer book The Executioner's Song starring Tommy Lee Jones.-Biography:The son of Jewish emigrants from Denmark, Keats was a...
as Jackie Brown - Alex RoccoAlex RoccoAlex Rocco is an American actor. His roles have ranged from comedy to playing gangsters in Mafia movies.-Early life:...
as Jimmy Scalise - Joe SantosJoe SantosJoe Santos is an American film and television actor.-Biography:Santos was born Joseph Minieri in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Rose and Joseph Minieri. He began his film acting career in the mid-1960s, appearing in films directed by his cousin, Joseph W...
as Artie Van
Production
Filming took place throughout the BostonBoston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
area, including Dedham
Dedham, Massachusetts
Dedham is a town in and the county seat of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 24,729 at the 2010 census. It is located on Boston's southwest border. On the northwest it is bordered by Needham, on the southwest by Westwood and on the southeast by...
, Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, Milton
Milton, Massachusetts
Milton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States and part of the Greater Boston area. The population was 27,003 at the 2010 census. Milton is the birthplace of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush and architect Buckminster Fuller. Milton also has the highest percentage of...
, Quincy
Quincy, Massachusetts
Quincy is a city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Its nicknames are "City of Presidents", "City of Legends", and "Birthplace of the American Dream". As a major part of Metropolitan Boston, Quincy is a member of Boston's Inner Core Committee for the Metropolitan Area Planning Council...
, Sharon
Sharon, Massachusetts
Sharon is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 17,612 at the 2010 census. Sharon is part of Greater Boston, about 17 miles southwest of downtown Boston....
, Somerville
Somerville, Massachusetts
Somerville is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, located just north of Boston. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 75,754 and was the most densely populated municipality in New England. It is also the 17th most densely populated incorporated place in...
, Malden
Malden, Massachusetts
Malden is a suburban city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 59,450 at the 2010 census. In 2009 Malden was ranked as the "Best Place to Raise Your Kids" in Massachusetts by Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine.-History:...
, and Weymouth
Weymouth, Massachusetts
The Town of Weymouth is a city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2010 census, Weymouth had a total population of 53,743. Despite its city status, it is formally known as the Town of Weymouth...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. A gun purchase scene was filmed at the stone crusher of the former Rowe Quarry on the Malden/Revere town line near Route 1.
Whitey Bulger Connection
The character Eddie Coyle bore an uncanny resemblance to ex-convict William (Billy) O'Brien, one of James J. "Whitey" Bulger's old bank-robbing associates who had been murdered in 1967 before the film's release. O'Brien, like Coyle, had just been arrested and the newspapers reported that O'Brien's associates were concerned that he might become a turncoat. O'Brien's slaying was never solved, nor was Coyle's.The fictional murderer of Coyle is an ex-con named Dillon, who set up the failed truck hijacking for which Coyle was to be sent back to prison. Dillon owned a bar and was a freelance contract killer. The fictional Dillon was also an informant, shown both protecting and promoting his own interests by funneling information about his underworld competition to the police. Columnist and reporter Howie Carr
Howie Carr
Howard Louis "Howie" Carr, Jr. is an American journalist, author, and conservative radio talk-show host based in Boston with a listening audience rooted in New England.-Radio:...
stated, "In other words, Dillon appeared to be a prototype of the gangster that James J. Bulger would become," although the novelist whose book the movie is based on, just before his death, denied that he had based Dillon on Bulger.
Robert Mitchum was interested in meeting the local gangsters as part of his research into the part.
Journalist George Kimball, a sportswriter on the Boston Herald
Boston Herald
The Boston Herald is a daily newspaper that serves Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and its surrounding area. It was started in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States...
at the time, claimed that Mitchum wanted to meet Whitey Bulger and was warned against it by Higgins. Kimball claims that the two did actually socialize, though there is doubt that a meeting between Mitchum and Bulger ever took place. What is known is that cast member Alex Rocco
Alex Rocco
Alex Rocco is an American actor. His roles have ranged from comedy to playing gangsters in Mafia movies.-Early life:...
, who had been part of organized crime in the Boston area before moving to Los Angeles in 1962, introduced Robert Mitchum to local Irish-American gangsters of his acquaintance, such as Howie Winter
Howie Winter
Howard Thomas "Howie" Winter is an American mobster. He was the second leader of the infamous Winter Hill Gang.-Early life:...
of the Winter-Hill Gang that Bulger belonged to. (Bulger replaced Winter as head of the gang after the gang boss was arrested an imprisoned, soon after the meeting with Mitchum and Rocco.)
Reception
The Friends of Eddie Coyle was well-reviewed on its initial release and continues to be among the most highly regarded crime films of the 1970s. Roger EbertRoger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
gave it four stars, his highest rating, while Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby was an American film critic who became the chief film critic for The New York Times in 1969 and reviewed more than 1000 films during his tenure there.-Life and career:...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
also reviewed it favorably, calling it "a good, tough, unsentimental movie". Both reviewers singled out Mitchum's lead performance as a key ingredient of the film's success. Ebert wrote: "Eddie Coyle is made for [Mitchum]: a weary middle-aged man, but tough and proud; a man who has been hurt too often in life not to respect pain; a man who will take chances to protect his own territory."
Influence
In the season 7 episode of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, the movie serves as inspiration for the episode Southie. Many story elements from this film were reused in the film The TownThe Town
The Town is a novel written by Conrad Richter in 1950. It is the third installment of his Awakening Land trilogy. The Trees and The Fields were the earlier installments in the series. The Town was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1951.In September 1966, Alfred A. Knopf reissued the...
, as well.
Quotes
- "This life's hard, man, but it's harder if you're stupid!" — Jackie Brown (Steven Keats), at time index 0:49:00 in 2009 Criterion DVD release.
External links
- Review at Starpulse
- The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) at The Criterion CollectionThe Criterion CollectionThe Criterion Collection is a video-distribution company selling "important classic and contemporary films" to film aficionados. The Criterion series is noted for helping to standardize the letterbox format for home video, bonus features, and special editions...
- www.thefriendsofeddiecoyle.com
- www.stickballproductions.com