Comments on: ‘The Friends of Eddie Coyle’ at 52: Peter Yates’ Crime Masterpiece that Chose to Rely on a Completely Different Kind of Spectacle https://cinephiliabeyond.org/friends-of-eddie-coyle/ Films and Filmmaking Thu, 26 Jun 2025 14:09:36 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 By: joshua hardy carroll https://cinephiliabeyond.org/friends-of-eddie-coyle/#comment-522 Wed, 24 Jan 2018 14:14:00 +0000 https://cinephiliabeyond.org/?p=32161#comment-522 Elmore Leonard said that The Friends of Eddie Coyle was by far his favorite crime novel, and I have to agree. But the film takes it further, using Mitchum’s understated performance to depict a life wasted. Eddie Coyle bears the scars of a life of petty crime and bad luck. Bob Mitchum was one of the coolest men in Hollywood (along with Sterling Hayden and James Coburn), and you can see it even in Hoppy Serves a Writ. What he does here is way beyond cool. It’s masterful. I like to watch this one alongside The Yakuza, another great, if more conventional, performance.

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