The Friends of Eddie Coyle

1973, 102 minutes
USA

Director: Peter Yates

Cast: Robert Mitchum, Peter Boyle, Richard Jordan, Alex Rocco Steven Keats, Joe Santos, Mitchell Ryan, Peter MacLean Margaret Ladd and Kevin O’Morrisson

Happy 100th Birthday, Robert Mitchum!
 
The iconic actor was born August 6, 1917, and to celebrate that centennial, Paramount has teamed with revival theaters around the country to exhibit a new DCP of one of the gems in his filmography, 1973’s The Friends of Eddie Coyle. “In one of the best performances of his legendary career, Robert Mitchum plays small-time gunrunner Eddie “Fingers” Coyle in an adaptation by Peter Yates of George V. Higgins’s acclaimed novel. 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.”
 
—The Criterion Collection