The Coolidge Corner Theatre

With Big Screen Boston author Paul Sherman

Regular price or FREE for members!

When it comes to Boston movies, it literally doesn’t get any better than Peter Yates’ adaptation of local prosecutor turned crime novelist George V. Higgins’ raw first novel. Blending his world-weary, hang-dog persona with a mighty fine Boston accent, Robert Mitchum brings a classic film noir sense of doom to this tale of a small-time hood who’s being squeezed by the law (whom Coyle is trying to feed info to, to help with his upcoming sentencing for petty thievery) and by his criminal buddies (some of whom he’s supplying with guns for bank robberies). Eddie Coyle is the first Boston movie with the nerve to never be scenic, and much of its authenticity is in its grimy locations, from the long-gone Kentucky Tavern and Boston Garden to dingy bars, fluorescent-lit cafeterias and grey City Hall Plaza. Still not on home video.

(1973) dir. Peter Yates, w/ Robert Mitchum and Peter Boyle, 1h42m