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The Friends of Eddie Coyle

"It's a grubby, violent, dangerous world. But it's the only world they know. And they're the only friends Eddie has."

1973's The Friends of Eddie Coyle starring Robert Mitchum and a young Peter Boyle is the lost gem of Boston movies. Based on Rockland native and Boston-based federal prosecutor George V. Higgins's novel, this contemporary of Scorsese's Mean Streets features solid performances and a calculated plot involving Irish criminals and betrayal, making Eddie Coyle a fine precursor to 2006's Best Picture, The Departed.

Filming locations:

North Quincy Red Line station, the old Boston Garden, the Kentucky Tavern on the corner of Newbury and Mass Ave (now the Virgin Mega Store/Best Buy), the Sharon MBTA commuter rails stop, banks in Quincy and South Weymouth, Barbo's Furniture in Dedham, and Dorchester's Boston Bowl. Another piece of trivia: also appearing in this movie is Somerville's own Alex Rocco, a fomer small time hood who went on to play Moe Green in The Godfather.

Sadly, this movie has not been released on DVD, and to the best of my knowledge, it is not available on VHS; I've only seen this movie as a bootleg. However, no Boston movie collection is complete with out it.

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Comments

There's a brief shot of Boyle and some dude walking in front of City Hall. The opening to Banacek features a similar shot (but with him walking in the opposite direction). Hmm: How many trailers has City Hall been in? :-).

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I missed a lay up with City Hall, especially considering there is more than one scene at city hall. I have no idea homany times city hall is featured in a trailer. I wonder if 1968's Charly has any City Hall shots (I know they go to Quincy Market, but no Charly youtube clips of Boston yet)?

A note on Banecek: the IMDb listing notes that Peppard's charachter (who obviously does not know how to row) is supposed to be a Polish Boston Brahmin - is there a secret enclave of Polish Brahmins or am I just that out of touch with the blue bloods?

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...for embedding the trailer, Adam.

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I'm a lifelong resident of South Boston and this movie was/is the BEST wiseguy movie ever made.

There's no glamour or slickness to it. It's pretty slimey and shows how things were (and still are)done.

I didn't know that this isn't available either on VHS or DVD. I'm outraged!

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It's available. I think it's the Criterion Collection.

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YouTube video of this movie made me recognize one scene in "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" that was quite similar to the car chase scene in the movie "The French Connection", which I have seen afew times.

The film "Friends of Eddie Coyle" seems like one of the old-time cop films that, while it was graphic in its time, is not nearly as graphic as many films coming out nowadays are.

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I just saw this at the Somerville Theatre last night. I'll never think of the Sharon train station quite the same way, but this film is not graphic at all. Only two murders happen on-screen.

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It has been on DVD for a while now.

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as his favorite Boston movie and I have to agree. It captures perfectly the Boston of my youth. Flawless in every way.

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