The Friends of Eddie Coyle
| The Friends of Eddie Coyle | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Peter Yates |
| Produced by | Paul Monash |
| Screenplay by | Paul Monash |
| Based on |
The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins |
| Starring |
Robert Mitchum Peter Boyle |
| Music by | Dave Grusin |
| Cinematography | Victor J. Kemper |
| Edited by | Patricia Lewis Jaffe |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
103 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $1 million (US/ Canada rentals) |
The Friends of Eddie Coyle is a 1973 crime film directed by Peter Yates and starring Robert Mitchum and Peter Boyle. The screenplay by Paul Monash was adapted from the novel of the same name by George V. Higgins.
Eddie Coyle (a.k.a. "Eddie Fingers") is an aging delivery truck driver for a bakery. He is also a low-level gunrunner 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 securing a sentencing recommendation through the help of an ATF agent, Dave Foley, who demands that Coyle become an informer in return. Unbeknownst to Coyle, Dillon is an informer for Foley.
A gang led by Jimmy Scalise and Artie Van has been pulling a series of bank robberies in broad daylight using hostages, Coyle having supplied them with pistols. Another gun runner, Jackie Brown, is supplying Coyle, who demands more guns from him as the gang ditches their pistols after each job and needs a fresh supply for each heist. Jackie goes to great lengths to get Coyle what he needs while taking an order from a young hippie couple shopping for machine guns (actually M16 rifles). Coyle finds out about the machine guns when he picks up the pistols from Jackie and offers to set up Jackie for Foley to avoid jail. In a dramatic scene at a train station's parking lot, arriving to deliver the machine guns, Jackie is arrested by Foley and his team.
Coyle meets with Foley and argues that he has fulfilled his end of the deal, but Foley claims his superiors don't agree. More information is required from Eddie or else he'll still go to prison. A bank worker has been killed during a heist by the Scalise-Van crew and they are now wanted for murder. In desperation, Coyle decides to inform on his friends Scalise and Van, but by then Foley, acting on a tip supplied by Dillon, has already caught the gang in the act of executing a heist. Foley tells Eddie his information offer was too late and he therefore cannot make a deal for leniency.
...
Wikipedia