The Friends of Eddie Coyle

A crime film set in Boston. Eddie Coyle supplies guns. His business is small; he buys and sells, takes a commission and belongs to no large organisation. He is in trouble. A case has been brought in New Hampshire and he is likely to be convicted. To avoid the sentence he considers giving information to the police. At the same time he is selling guns to a bank robbery crew. They work to a system: they go to the manager's house, hold the family and have the bank opened in the morning. The policeman talking to Eddie wants more. What he gives is not enough and each time he has to go a little further. What the film is interested in is not crime but the daily form of the work: conversations in car parks, payments, phone calls and who owes what to whom. There is little action; the narrative is largely talk. The dialogue was taken almost as it stands from the source novel, a book known for catching the rhythm of real speech. Robert Mitchum plays Eddie, Peter Boyle the barman and Richard Jordan the policeman. Peter Yates directed. It was shot on location in Boston. A production near the top of its kind for anyone who likes the crime films of the 1970s and narratives without display. For a viewer looking for a hero, the film offers sympathy to nobody and nobody wins.