The Friends Of Eddie Coyle - Who Needs Enemies? 

I'd forgotten that Yates diected 'The Hot Rock', which is a fun variation on the heist movie.

A terrific motion picture...Mitchum is a towering force to be reckoned with playing the loser. Great review Tony, thank you

I've had this film on my calorific list since 2021 and I still haven't seen it, looks promising though, coincidentally I was actually browsing your channel just a few hours ago to see if you uploaded anything :)

Doyle = "spiritual cannibal whose only concern is where his next meal is coming from". 3 point shot, man. thx

Love this slow burn classic. All of the acting is top class but special mention for Stephen Keats in one of his first films.

As lacking in artistic bent as it may make me appear, i simply can't watch Peter Boyle without thinking of Young Frankenstein.

I read all of George V. Higgins' books and saw this one when it first hit the cinema. I watched it again a few years ago and really had a much greater appreciation for it. All the performances were on the money, but Robert Mitchum as the desperate, worl-weary Coyle is simply great. And his 'Max Cady' is why I prefer the first "Cape Fear" over the remake. FWIW, I believe that the movie "Killing Them Softly" is also based on a Higgins book.

Thank you for reviewing this movie. It was filmed in my neck of the woods, but about a decade before I was born. I love the footage of Boston itself. The other Boston-based film from the 70s that I can think of is Fuzz (1972). I recall you reviewing that film. “The Friends of Eddie Coyle” does indeed appear to refer to all those characters in the story who let him down or betrayed him. Although a compromised character, he does have, I think, a moral compass. I think the script, the focalization on Eddie, and Robert Mitchum’s performance make the receptive audience “The Friends of Eddie Coyle”.

Great stuff. I remember picking the book for a book review at middle school! My teacher was simultaneously impressed and a bit worried (my brother read a lot of crime fiction- Higgins, Jim Thompson, Elmore Leonard etc and recommended them to me). The film really does the book justice in this case - though in the book I vaguely recall not being aware Dillon was going to shoot Eddie until he actually does it(?), everyone is at the top of their game, dirty and sleazy, even (or especially) the hippies in the van. Great review as ever mate.

TFOEC is a hard boiled tale. It’s a great tour of Boston, MA…Love Story is a close second.

Great movie great actors and Mitchum as his best

I think it's a very good movie that got lost in the shuffle. Like "The Seven Ups", another crime movie from that era.

I can give this great film no higher praise than to say it is one of the 50 best of the 1970s. When Jackie Brown tells an associate that he (Jackie) is a nice guy, I partially believe him. A nice guy who also happens to be a scumbag. I mention this because it is that niceness or friendliness that causes Jackie to slip and prove the truth of his best line in the movie, "This life is hard, man, but it is harder if you're stupid!" Someone smarter and more careful would never tell a fellow criminal like Eddie so much of his business and where he will be doing it later that day. Not mentioned in your excellent summary was Jack Kehoe as one of Jackie's seedy associates. From this and The Sting to The Pope of Greenwich Village, Midnight Run and The Untouchables to his last role in The Game, Kehoe was always someone I was very happy to see in any movie. If the "nephew" looked familiar, he had a small part in another classic crime film (though a little overrated, imo) as a trigger-happy cop in L.A. Confidential. Thanks, and have a nice day.

Another cracking review T. Saw this again last year and was very impressed. Always thought Yates far better as a drama /character director than science fantasy (krull ) and his strongest movies often appear like that. Thought Richard Jordan , Peter Boyle and Rober mitchum all top notch in this and Jordan particularly good as a highly duplicitous government agent uninterested in how many die to appease his career Boyle and mitchum both made good heavys either playing sympathetic or unsympathetic. EDDIE COYLE certainly one of best of its type. Great review

Great movie! Your review was spot on!

Scorsese before Scorsese

I have seen this several times. My cousin is from Quincy and never saw it. So I had him watch it with me. He loved it. Alex Rocco was a member of the winter hill gang and took Robert Mitchum around to meet them. Loved the film.

Cheers mate i`ve always wanted to see this one

Thanks

The movie was released in Summer 1973, not in 1974.

higgens was a district attorney in boston and based his great crime trilogy the diggers game cogans trade and the friends of eddie coyle on wiretaps and statements from real boston lowlifes.his early novels are very dialogue heavy.he was mitchum recalled as cynical as jordan in the picture.having lunch discussing it he told mitch about a case theyd just busted using a guy they turned as in the movie.what happened to him ? oh we fished him out of the bay eels swimming out of his eye sockets! dillon is the character that ties the three novels together.regarded by all as the most trusted crook in boston...a legend.in hindsight its not hard to think he was based on whitey bulger then unknown to most of us who indeed ran the underworld in the city while being a long term federal informant.

completely off topic but I just finished a film called The Caretaker (1963) have you ever seen it? very enigmatic and eerie

Yates directed THE DEEP - Jacqueline Bisset in a wet and clingy tee shirt. Hard to beat that.

On this preceeding Tarantino's criminals with quirky tendencies to ramble anecdotes, Tarantino is undeniably, as some have already called him, "God's own plagiarist". If he is half the kynophilo I repute him to be, he chose the Jackie Brown name on purpose as a private joke on this film (which I doubt very much he hasn't seen loads of times before he made "Jackie Brown", given his 1970s hard-on).