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The Friends of Eddie Coyle

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The Friends of Eddie Coyle is a 1973 film about a low level Boston gangster who, after his last crime has him looking at a long prison sentence for repeat offenses, decides to snitch on his friends to avoid jail time.

Directed by Peter Yates. Written by Paul Monash, based on the novel by George V. Higgins.
It's a grubby, violent, dangerous world. But it's the only world they know. And they're the only friends Eddie has.

Eddie 'Fingers' Coyle

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  • No, I don't care to give my name. Stop farting around and give me Foley.
  • Can you imagine being a kid like that. What is he, 24 or something. Greatest hockey player in the world. Number four - Bobby Orr. Geez, what a future he's got, uh?

Jackie Brown

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  • This life's hard man, but it's harder if you're stupid!
  • And keep this mind. I've got more than five machine guns, and the rest are gonna be pointed at you.

Dave Foley

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  • The only one fuckin' Eddie Coyle is Eddie Coyle.

Dialogue

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Eddie 'Fingers' Coyle: I was thinkin' in terms of you maybe talkin' to the prosecutor up there, and havin' him drop a word to the judge how I been helpin' my Uncle like a bastard?
Dave Foley: Well, I would. But then again you haven't been.
Eddie 'Fingers' Coyle: What? I gave you a couple of calls.
Dave Foley: Yeah, you give me some real stuff, too. You tell me about a guy that's gonna get hit, 15 minutes later he gets hit. You tell me about some guys on a job, but you don't tell me till they're coming out the door with the money. That's not helping Uncle, Eddie. You gotta put your whole soul into it. Hell, the way I hear it, you may be mixed up in somethin' that's goin' on.
Eddie 'Fingers' Coyle: Like what?
Dave Foley: Oh, well, I wouldn't wanna confront a man with somethin' I heard. You know me better than that.
Eddie 'Fingers' Coyle: Well, uh...suppose we was to talk about machine guns.
Dave Foley: Just to change the subject?
Eddie 'Fingers' Coyle: Well, suppose someone should put you on to somebody who was sellin' machine guns. You wouldn't want 'em to go to jail, would ya? I mean, somebody who was helpin' ya like that, you wouldn't want 'em to go to jail and embarrass his kids and all, would ya?
Dave Foley: When's this supposed to come off?
Eddie 'Fingers' Coyle: How much ya interested?
Eddie 'Fingers' Coyle: I need a good leavin' alone, that's what I need. I don't want nobody followin' me around.
Dave Foley: Okay. We'll do it your way. You call me when you get something, if you do. And if I get something, I'll put it in front of the U.S. Attorney. If I don't...all bets are off. Understood?
[Coyle nods]
Dave Foley: Have a nice day. [Foley departs]
Eddie 'Fingers' Coyle: I shoulda known better than to trust a cop. My own goddamn mother coulda told me that.
Dave Foley: Everybody oughta listen to his mother.
Dillon: There's nothin' much goin' on.
Dave Foley: [chuckling] You guys must've taken up circle jerks or somethin'. They ought to run one of these grand juries every three weeks or so. It sure puts you guys in the closet.
Dillon: Fuck you.
Dave Foley: [laughing] By the end of the week, Artie Van's gonna be sellin' papers, or shinin' shoes, or somethin'. You ought to get unemployment.
Dillon: Cut it out.
Dave Foley: All right. That was a cheap shot, I apologize. But, if there isn't anything goin' on...
Dillon: There's somethin' goin' on.
Dave Foley: A bunch of the boys gettin' together to watch dirty movies?
Dillon: Mmm...To tell you the truth, I don't know what it is. People are tryin' to sort of avoid people, you know? Guys telephonin' for guys that aren't there.
Dave Foley: [hands Dillon some money] Here's twenty. Who's callin' up?
Dillon: Remember Eddie "Fingers"?
Dave Foley: Fella that got his hand busted up. Who's he lookin' for?
Dillon: Jimmy Scalise. Do you know him?
Dave Foley: Last time I heard, he was in Florida, gettin' some sun. Does he find him?
Dillon: I don't know. I'm just a messenger boy.
Dave Foley: They give you numbers?
Dillon: Telephone numbers. I'm a law-abiding citizen. I got a liquor license.
Dave Foley: No, you work for a guy that's got a liquor license. Ever see him? You're a convicted felon.
Dillon: Like I say, I work for a guy got a liquor license. I forget sometimes.
Dave Foley: Want to forget this?
Dillon: I'd just as soon.
Dave Foley: You ought to get yourself a car.
Dillon: I don't drive. I could afford a car, I wouldn't be takin' twenty a week from you. [begins walking away]
Dave Foley: Have a nice day.
Dave Foley: I got this call from Coyle, so I went out to see him.
Waters: What'd he want?
Dave Foley: He's comin' up for sentencin' in New Hampshire.
Waters: And he wants some references. What's he got to trade?
Dave Foley: He was offerin' to peddle me this guy with machine guns. [laughs] That bastard. He's about this high [holds thumb and forefinger close together] in the bunch, but he gets around more than any man I've ever seen. One day he's here, the next day he's there, you'd think he was some fuckin' stray dog. I just wish I had a line on half of what he was doin'.
Waters: Does he work anywhere?
Dave Foley: Yeah. He's a night expediter over at Arliss Trucking. But you just try to find him there. He works about as much as Santa Claus. My friend says Coyle's been tryin' to look for, uh, Scalise. My friend runs a saloon. And I know he's got an undisclosed interest. And he knows I know. Strange guy.
Waters: What do ya hear about, uh, Artie Van and Scalise?
Dave Foley: Nothin' together, no.
Waters: I wonder, uh, you don't think that Artie Van and, uh, Scalise, made that withdrawal from the bank, do ya?
Dave Foley: It's a thought. I wonder where Eddie fits in.
Waters: Ah, he's arming some wiseguys. He's done it before. This friend of yours that runs the saloon, was that the same saloon we talked about putting a wire in a few weeks back?
Dave Foley: Yeah, that's the one.
Waters: Okay, you write it up and I'll present it to the attorney.
Dave Foley: Maybe we oughta talk about it some more.
Waters: Now it's not gonna do you any good in your head. You wanted a wiretap.
Dave Foley: By the time I get it written up, it'll all be over with!
Waters: Well, that's what you get when you get to be an expert, kid. Or, uh, maybe you'd rather go back to the Pussy Posse? [Waters departs]
Eddie 'Fingers' Coyle: One of the first things I learned is never to ask a man why he's in a hurry. All you got to know is I told the man that he could depend on me because you told me I could depend on you. Now one of us is gonna have a big fat problem. Another thing I learned. If anybody's gonna have a problem, you're gonna be the one.
Jackie Brown: You finished?
Eddie 'Fingers' Coyle: No, I am not finished. Look, I'm gettin' old, you hear? I spent most of my life hanging around crummy joints with a buncha punks drinkin' the beer, eatin' the hash and the hot dogs and watchin' the other people go off to Florida while I'm sweatin' out how I'm gonna pay the plumber. I done time and I stood up but I can't take no more chances. Next time, it's gonna be me goin' to Florida. And listen: you're still a kid. And you come out, you go around, you say "look, I'm a man, you can take what I say and it happens, I go through". Well, you're learning something too, my friend, and I advise you to learn it right now: when you say that, when you get me out there all by myself on what you say, you better be right there in back of me. Because when you say "it happens", it's gonna fuckin' happen. If it don't, you've got your thing caught in the zipper.
Jackie Brown: Now just--
Eddie 'Fingers' Coyle: [interrupting] Now I don't want any talk from you and any shit from you. I want ten guns. I want 'em tomorrow night. I'll be right there with the money, same place where we were before. I'll be there with the money, you'll be there with those goddamn guns. Because if you ain't, I'll be lookin' for you, and I'll find you, too. Because I ain't the only one that's gonna be lookin' for you. And we know how to find people.
Jackie Brown: You can't trace these guns, I guarantee that.
Eddie 'Fingers' Coyle: You better, or neither of us will be able to shake hands.
Eddie 'Fingers' Coyle: All right, nothing. I wished I had a nickel for every name I got that was all right.
[Coyle shows Jackie Brown his left hand]
Eddie 'Fingers' Coyle: Look at that. You know what that is?
Jackie Brown: Your hand.
Eddie 'Fingers' Coyle: I hope you look closer at those guns than you did at that hand. Look at your own goddamn hand.
Jackie Brown: Yeah?
Eddie 'Fingers' Coyle: Count your fuckin' knuckles.
Jackie Brown: All of 'em?
Eddie 'Fingers' Coyle: Count as many as you want. As many as you got, I got four more. You know how I got those? I bought some stuff from a man. I knew his name. The stuff was traced. The guy I bought it for, he's at MCI Walpole for fifteen to twenty-five. Still in there. But he had some friends. I got an extra set of knuckles. They put your hand in a drawer then somebody kicks the drawer shut. Hurt like a bastard.
Jackie Brown: Jesus.
Eddie 'Fingers' Coyle: What makes it hurt worse, what makes it hurt more is knowing what's going to happen to you, you know? There you are, they just come up to you and say, "Look. You made somebody mad. You made a big mistake and now there's somebody doing time for it. There's nothing personal in it, you understand, but it just has to be done. Now get your hand out there." You think about not doing it, you know. When I was a kid in Sunday school, this nun, she used to say, "Stick your hand out." I stick my hand out. Whap! She'd knock me across the knuckles with a steel-edge ruler. So one day I says, when she told me, "Stick your hand out," I says, "No." She whapped me right across the face with the ruler. Same thing. They put your hand in a drawer, somebody kicks the drawer shut. Ever hear bones breaking? Just like a man snapping a shingle. Hurts like a bastard.
Dillon: I heard a guy on television the other night. He was talking about pigeons. He called them "flying rats". I thought that was pretty good. What he had in mind, he was going to give them a pill or something, to make them extinct. Now, uh, here was a guy, who got shit on, probably got shit on again, then he got mad. They ruined his suit or something, so he's going to spend the rest of his life getting even with pigeons, they ruined a four hundred dollar suit. Now, uh, there's no percentage in that, you know, because there's probably ten million pigeons in Boston alone. All of 'em layin' eggs every day, which generally produce more pigeons. All, uh, droppin' tons and tons of shit, every day, rain or shine. And this guy in New York, he's goin' "well, there just aren't gonna be any more of 'em in this world." A man gets desperate. He does a few things, he knows it won't work. Pretty soon he quits, packs it in, goes away someplace. That's the only way there is.
Dave Foley: Okay. You gave us Scalise, and we're grateful. You can't talk about Coyle, you can't talk about Coyle. It's all right.
Dillon: Thanks.
Dave Foley: Screw. We been friends a long time now. I never asked a friend yet to do somethin' he really couldn't do, I knew he couldn't do it.
[Dillon looks at Foley, then begins walking away]
Dave Foley: Have a nice day. [begins walking off in a different direction]

Taglines

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

Cast

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