The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)

One of the many appealing aspects about The Friends of Eddie Coyle is its title; Who is Eddie Coyle? And who are his friends? By the end, you realize if these are supposed to be friends, who needs enemies? Robert Mitchum plays Eddie Fingers, a lifelong working-class criminal who at the moment is facing three to five years. In his very first scene, we witness Eddie’s cool, but urgent demeanor as he negotiates with a talkative, cautious gun runner, Jackie Brown (played by Steven Keats with fervor). Mitchum delivers his mini monologue with a subtle menace and the scene and Mitchum’s performance is a masterclass in screen acting.

Eddie is 50 years old and can’t do any more time. He needs a lifeline; he’s running out of time and he knows it. So he meets with a cop, Foley (played by the always reliably authentic Richard Jordan) who wants to help Eddie and vouch for him to a Judge but of course he needs information. When Eddie does provide him with some, it is too late (and not enough) and the scene is heartbreaking to watch, but so effective. It’s simply shot with Eddie and Foley sitting across from each other in a diner with over the shoulder shot coverage. Eddie is broken, desperate and defeated when he hears Foley can’t do much to help him. “The only one fucking Eddie Coyle is Coyle,” Foley tells him.

Jackie Brown is professional and patient and not desperate like Eddie. You can’t help but feel for him. Sure he sells guns and is the scum of society, but he is a cautious dude when it comes to his business. He’s not trying to get killed or cheated. “This life’s hard man, but it’s harder if you’re stupid,” he says in one scene to a customer giving him a hard time. The train station parking lot sequence where Foley and his cop posse wait on Jackie to make a move is particularly entertaining. You find yourself rooting for this snaggletooth criminal to get away.

Peter Boyle as Dillon is another subtle spectacle. He is a bartender, but also provides Foley with daily information for a few bucks. As the plot slowly unravels, you realize what you’re seeing is not what you’re seeing. It’s a subtle twist that traps Eddie and tragically, he doesn’t even see it coming. He’s been a criminal so long he can’t see the forest for the trees. He’s past his criminal prime and Dillon uses this and Eddie’s own desperation against him.

Veteran character actor Alex Rocco (as Scalise) plays a bank robber, who is also a bulldozer driver. It’s seasonal work, he tells Eddie. Apart from the authentic dialogue, the depiction of these street guys is what’s so appealing about this film. They’re not lavish or glamorous gangsters. These are blue collar guys. Life has beaten them up and they got the lumps to show for it.

Another noticeable, intriguing aspect about the film is how it only has two night scenes. The rest takes place during the day, which belies its subject matter. These conversations between criminals and between criminal and cop happen out in the open, in public spaces (like the exchange of guns and money in a supermarket parking lot!). It is antithetical to being a criminal in a way and we as the audience, I feel, subconsciously understand this and we are absolutely absorbed by it.

Superbly directed by the very underrated and under-recognized Peter Yates, The Friends of Eddie Coyle is a masterful and authentic film about street guys. The camera is always exactly where it needs to be to listen in on these conversations between career criminals. Whether it’s out in a public park or in the backseat of a bank robber’s car, these conversations feel intimate and dangerous and secretive; we’re not supposed to be listening in to these operators of the underworld who blend in with traditional society but also function outside of it.

Sidenote: Yates also directed a film called Robbery, which I highly recommend.