The Friends of Eddie Coyle

Peter Yates

United States

1973

102 minutes

Color

1.85:1

English

475

Synopsis

In one of the best performances of his legendary career, Robert Mitchum plays small-time gunrunner Eddie “Fingers” Coyle in Peter Yates’s adaptation of George V. Higgins’s acclaimed novel The Friends of Eddie Coyle. World-weary and living hand to mouth, Coyle works on the sidelines of the seedy Boston underworld just to make ends meet. But when he finds himself facing a second stretch of hard time, he’s forced to weigh loyalty to his criminal colleagues against snitching to stay free. Directed with a sharp eye for its gritty locales and an open heart for its less-than-heroic characters, this is one of the true treasures of 1970s Hollywood filmmaking—a suspenseful crime drama in stark, unforgiving daylight.

Cast

Eddie CoyleRobert Mitchum
DillonPeter Boyle
Dave Foley Richard Jordan
ScaliseAlex Rocco
Jackie BrownSteven Keats
Artie VanJoe Santos
WatersMitchell Ryan
Mr. PartridgePeter MacLean
AndreaMargaret Ladd
Manager, second bank Kevin O'Morrisson

Credits

DirectorPeter Yates
ProducerPaul Monash
ScreenplayPaul Monash
Based on the novel byGeorge V. Higgins
MusicDave Grusin
CinematographyVictor J. Kemper
Production DesignGene Callahan
EditingPatricia Lewis Jaffe
Associate producerCharles Maguire
Assistant directorPeter Scoppa
2nd assistant directorSal Scoppa

Disc Features

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, approved by director Peter Yates
  • Audio commentary featuring Yates
  • Stills gallery
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by film critic Kent Jones and a 1973 on-set profile of Robert Mitchum from Rolling Stone

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Jun 19, 2009

Just this week a man, armed with a handgun, attempted to rob what is almost certainly (based on local accounts and a little detective work on our part) the very same Dedham, Massachusetts, bank that was . . .

The Friends of Eddie Coyle:
Excerpt from “The Last Celluloid Desperado”

by Grover Lewis May 25, 2009

In the new Criterion special edition of Peter Yates’s The Friends of Eddie Coyle, we have reprinted a lengthy and extraordinary profile of Robert Mitchum . . .

The Venerable Peter Yates . . .

May 21, 2009

. . . in town for a special screening at the Film Society of Lincoln Center of his 1974 Boston crime caper The Friends of Eddie Coyle. https://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion_images/current/current_yates.png . . .

The Friends of Eddie Coyle:
They Were Expendable

by Kent Jones May 18, 2009

“I think that work like his is necessary for people to understand something about the humors of the criminal mentality,” said Robert Mitchum of the novel The . . .

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Has anyone seen The Friends of Eddie Coyle???????????

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Available Editions

The Friends of Eddie Coyle Criterion DVD Add to Cart

DVD

1 Disc

SRP: $29.95

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$23.96