Discovering Eddie Coyle

It all started a few years ago when I took a trip into NYC to see a Friday night big screen viewing of Robert Altman's country music epic "Nashville". It was playing in a place called Cinema Classics in the East Village. This place on the outside looked like a small marquee theater, but inside told a different story.

The front was a small cafe with food and drink and seats and tables and the like. Inside its curtains was the movie theater with a pull down screen, couches, recliners and fold-up chairs for seating, and past the pull down screen was a door and inside was a video store.

While waiting in the small cafe with catching up with what I've caught on the big screen in my Leonard Maltin book, there lied different framed posters of obscure little known films. One in particular was colored in red and yellow and there was something about it that was most intriguing. Two of its stars were easy to make out but not all the others and then the title recalled when I had first heard about this film. It was a 15 second clip on Siskel and Ebert years back. The subject was Robert Mitchum, and the film discussed briefly was The Friends of Eddie Coyle.

Immediately after staring at this poster like it was an art piece in a museum for some time, I went to the video store in the back to see if there was a copy for rental or sale. In both cases, they were not.

With no place else to turn days after that, I utilized my membership to Kim's Video on Bleecker Street to see if they had a copy for rental. As luck would have it they did but it seemed that the film, being made by a Hollywood studio--Paramount, was released under an independent company but not the studio's home video department. It had everything intact (or so I thought, we'll come back to that) and by the end, I was hooked with this little gem that was rarely seen for years.

I had rented it out a few more times after that and was taken by each viewing as it's set in Boston and in a world of the lowest order of organized crime, a man is counting down the days to his demise in a prison cell and trying every attempt to get himself out by means of ratting, cheating, double dealing and volunteering. It wasn't just the title character that has complexities, his "friends" had many of their own too.

The film is carried by a solid Oscar-worthy performance by Robert Mitchum and his Eddie doesn't want to see the inside of a cell, doesn't want his family to be looked down in the neighborhood and doesn't want to give anyone up. As the clock winds down, he makes some sacrifices but not after other eyes and ears get wind of some of his dealings that provides other realistic complications despite assistance from the law.

The rest of the ensemble cast remains a solid one even if the actor in second billing has a name that rhymes with the title, in Peter Boyle. Many character actors seen through much film and television through the years make an appearance for a few minutes or a few seconds. One in particular in the opening minutes of the film during the opening credits, recalls in one shot, a role he played a few years earlier in a big film put out by the same studio.

For years, I wondered why the film was not released by its own studio in any form in the past whether it was Laserdisc, VHS, Beta, CED or any of the like. To this day it remains a big mystery as to why until now in 2009 there was a holdup of sorts. I couldn't pinpoint rights (as Paul Monash's produced movies successfully made the transition in those formats) or music in Dave Grusin's score (which has never been a problem before). One never knows, but as of last week, Criterion finally released this film in a beautiful new DVD release.

The previous independent release of the film on second rate VHS had a copy that look like it was right from the projector. This DVD corrects that looking better than the VHS with one little wrinkle.

It seems that the VHS copy was an edited version used for television with most of the profanity being looped with another word or a little moment got a little trim. For example in one key scene, the VHS has a quote "April Fools' sucker!", the DVD had the quote in that same scene "April Fools motherfucker!" This is also apparent during the end credits that show matte line scrolling on the top and bottom without letterboxing. In other words, the DVD is the very first time this film has finally been properly released in its theatrical entirety without any alterations whatsoever.

Everything on the DVD is solid from the transfer to the inclusion of Dave Grusin's score on the main menu of the film. And director Peter Yates' commentary is a rather pleasant one covering territory from shooting in Boston to the casting of the main players. There's even a stills gallery. Through it all, three things came to mind that could've added to this DVD were the following:

One, a replication of that poster that drew me to this film in the first place on its cover or in its liner notes to possibly give filmgoers a curiosity into what drew me to this film in the first place.

Two, an isolated track with Dave Grusin's score which is one of the things that drives this film quite well.

And the last is something that is available for viewing on YouTube yet not included on this Criterion DVD and an ongoing issue with releases from Paramount, the film's theatrical trailer. Even though it is a bit spoiler filled, and recreates the use of the poster along with making great use of the music, it remains missing on the DVD much like the film did on video shelves through the years.

Despite its omissions, it's a thrill to see that now in the year 2009, filmgoers will get to finally revisit a lost seventies treasure giving one of the best performances of one of Hollywood's renegade leading men as well as one of the best character studies put to film. In a way, The Friends of Eddie Coyle is to the seventies as Donnie Brasco is to the nineties as both depicts the lowest order of organized crime and informants set in the seventies based on a best seller covered by an British director and are solid films. With this new introduction to this new classic, The Friends of Eddie Coyle certainly has made a friend out of me for all time!