# The French Connection (film)

The French Connection is a 1971 film about a pair of New York City cops in the Narcotics Bureau who stumble onto a drug smuggling job with a French connection.
    Directed by William Friedkin. Written by Ernest Tidyman, based on the non-fiction book by Robin Moore.

## Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle

* All right, Popeye's here! Get your hands on your heads, get off the bar, and get on the wall!
* All right! You put a shiv in my partner. You know what that means? Goddammit! All winter long I got to listen to him gripe about his bowling scores. Now I'm gonna bust your ass for those three bags and I'm gonna nail you for picking your feet in Poughkeepsie.

## Dialogue

    Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle: You dumbass.
    Detective Buddy "Cloudy" Russo: How the hell was I supposed to know he had a knife.
    Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle: Never trust a nigger.
    Detective Buddy "Cloudy" Russo: He could have been white.
    Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle: Never trust anyone.
    Walt Simonson: Buddy, here's the warrant. The court order's in there for the wiretap, the judge gave you 60 days on it. Tell Doyle that Mulderig and Klein will sit in for the Feds. They'll make all the buys. Be sure you keep them informed of everything that goes down. [to Mulderig] You know Doyle, don't you, Bill?
    Bill Mulderig: Yeah, I know Popeye. His brilliant hunches cost the life of a good cop.
    Detective Buddy "Cloudy" Russo: Hey look, if this is the way you're coming in on this, why don't you stay home and save us all a lot of grief?
    Bill Mulderig: Because that's my opinion!
    Detective Buddy "Cloudy" Russo: Shove it up your ass.
    [Detective Buddy "Cloudy" Russo leaves.]
    Walt Simonson: Hey Bill, look, do me a favor, give him a chance. He came in here with a little piece of information. I know you worked with him before and had a little trouble but don't get off on the wrong foot, if you have problems, come to me with them, I'll handle it.
    Bill Mulderig: I don't want to get off on the wrong foot, Simonson, just keep him off my back.
    Walt Simonson: Just cool it with him. If you have any problems, come to me, I'll handle it. Do me this favor.
    Bill Mulderig: I'll be happy to work with him.
    Walt Simonson: Okay, he's a good cop, he's basically a good cop, he's got good hunches every once in awhile.
    Bill Mulderig: Fine, fine, fine, just keep him off my back.
    Salvatore "Sal" Boca: Look, I'm telling you, they’ll take the deal somewhere else.
    Joel Weinstock: So let him take 60 kilos of heroin somewhere else and find out how easy it is to put together half a million in cash. You won't find there's any hurry to do this kind of business.
    Salvatore "Sal" Boca: The stuff is here! We can make the switch in an hour! Look Weinstock, I'm telling you, they'll split if we don't move! This guy's got 'em like that, he's everything they say he is!
    Joel Weinstock: What about you, Sal? Are you everything they say you are?
    Howard: [analyzing drug shipment] Blast off: one-eight-oh. [as thermometer keeps rising] 200: Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. Two ten: U.S. Government certified. Two twenty: lunar trajectory, junk of the month club, sirloin steak. Two thirty: Grade A poison. [when the thermometer tops at 240] Absolute dynamite. Eighty-nine percent pure junk. Best I've ever seen. If the rest is like this, you'll be dealing on this load for two years.
    Joel Weinstock: So you say it's worth half a million?
    Chemist: How many kilos?
    Sal Boca: Sixty.
    Chemist: Sixty kilos, eight big ones per kilo, right? This stuff will take a seven to one hit on the street.
    Sal Boca: And by the time it gets down to nickel bags, it will be worth at least thirty-two million.
    Joel Weinstock: Thank you, Howard. Take what's left there with you and good night.
    [on the flight from Washington back to New York, Charnier and Nicoli sit in the rear seating area, speaking to each other in their native French]
    Alain Charnier: Our American friends are becoming overcautious.
    Pierre Nicoli: What about our timetable?
    Alain Charnier: We must follow it.
    Pierre Nicoli: But will they?
    Alain Charnier: I don't know. Boca's scared. He sees policemen in his soup.
    Pierre Nicoli: He's not wrong.
    Alain Charnier: The one who followed me on the subway, he's our biggest problem.
    Pierre Nicoli: Let me handle him.
    Alain Charnier: There'll be others.
    Pierre Nicoli: So what? By Friday we'll be gone.
    Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle: Look, I say we keep sitting on Boca!
    Walt Simonson: Jimmy, give it up. Give it up, it's all over with. If there was a deal, it's gone down by now. We blew it, we blew our warrants, and we blew our cover.
    Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle: Listen, I know the deal hasn't gone down yet. I know it! I can feel it, I'm dead certain.
    Bill Mulderig: Last time you were dead certain we had a dead cop.
    [Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle flies into a rage and attacks Bill Mulderig.]
    Walt Simonson: [As Detective Buddy "Cloudy" Russo and a uniformed officer help him break up the fight.] Hey! Break it up! You two break it up! Hold onto yourself, what's the matter with you?
    Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle: [Detective Buddy "Cloudy" Russo restrains him.] Son of a...!
    Walt Simonson: Jimmy! You've wasted two months on this! No collars are coming in while you two guys are running around town jerking off! Now go back to work! You're off Special Assignment!
    Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle: This is Doyle. I'm sittin' on Frog One.
    Bill Mulderig: Yeah, I know that. We got the Westbury covered like a tent.
    Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle: The Westbury my ass! I got him on the shuttle at Grand Central, now what the hell's going on up there?
    Detective Buddy "Cloudy" Russo: What was the weight of the car when you got it, Irv?
    Mechanic Irving Abrahams: (reading the weight written down) Forty seven hundred ninty five pounds.
    Detective Buddy "Cloudy" Russo: (surprised when he reads the owners manual) You sure?
    Mechanic Irving Abrahams: That's what it was, 4,795 pounds when it came into the shop.
    Detective Buddy "Cloudy" Russo: Owners manual says four thousand six hundred seventy-five, that's a hundred twenty pounds overweight. (reading additional paperwork from the car's transit from Marseilles) And when it was booked in to Marseilles it was four seven nine five, that's still a hundred twenty pounds overweight, Jimmy's gotta be right!
    Mechanic Irving Abrahams: Listen, I ripped everything out of there except the rocker panels.
    Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle: (angry at this oversight) Come on, Irv, what the hell is that?

## Taglines

* There are no rules and no holds barred when Popeye cuts loose!
* The time is just right for an out and out thriller like this.
* A $32,000,000 chase turns into the American thriller of the year!
* Doyle is bad news - but a good cop.
* A record too good to be true....and Doyle knows it.

## Cast

* Gene Hackman - Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle
* Fernando Rey - Alain Charnier
* Roy Scheider - Detective Buddy "Cloudy" Russo
* Tony Lo Bianco - Salvatore "Sal" Boca
* Marcel Bozzuffi - Pierre Nicoli
* Frédéric de Pasquale - Henri Devereaux
* Harold Gary - Joel Weinstock
* Bill Hickman - Bill Mulderig
* Eddie Egan - Walt Simonson
* Sonny Grosso - Agent Klein

## External links

* The French Connection quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* The French Connection at Rotten Tomatoes