The friends of Peter Yates

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• Tom Russell says:

  January 10, 2011 at 11:30 am

  Yates was one of my favor­ite dir­ect­ors, and he had a num­ber of great films to his name. COYLE and BULLITT, yes, but also MURPHY’S WAR, MOTHER JUGS AND SPEED, and BREAKING AWAY. I remem­ber being sur­prised when I found out that those films were all helmed by the same dir­ect­or, and fur­ther sur­prised when I dis­covered he was not an American, because they do, as you say, dis­play that uncanny knack. (Well, except for MURPHY’S WAR, as it’s not set in the U.S.)

• Casey Tourangeau says:

  January 10, 2011 at 11:44 am

  The Criterion release of “Eddie Coyle” is one of the best gifts I’ve ever been giv­en. Whenever people ask me why it’s so great, I just make them watch it — and they’re always glad I did.
  As you point out, it’s Yates’s atten­tion to time and place that always grabs me. I could watch end­less hours of those char­ac­ters just inhab­it­ing those spaces.
  (On a related note to those char­ac­ters, I was watch­ing the film with a friend once who remarked, “Remember when the main require­ment for being hired as an act­or was being able to fuck­ing act?”)

• Lord Henry says:

  January 10, 2011 at 12:00 pm

  @ Casey – I love that quote!
  COYLE is a mas­ter­piece, BULLITT and BREAKING AWAY are both great. MURPHY’S WAR I loved as a kid and haven’t checked it out since. Note to self.

• lipranzer says:

  January 10, 2011 at 12:34 pm

  Along with BULLITT, FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE, and BREAKING AWAY, I’d also like to add some love to THE DRESSER. It gets dis­missed nowadays as “Oscar bait”, but I thought it was a well-made cham­ber piece, and Finney and Courtenay were both topnotch (as to Finney being over-the-top, I accept it in the con­text). And while THE HOT ROCK isn’t as good as Westlake’s nov­el, I still thought it was a lot of fun.
  I wish ROBBERY was avail­able in this coun­try; I’ve nev­er seen it, but have heard great things about it.

• haice says:

  January 10, 2011 at 1:08 pm

  I can hear that 60s jazz flute now while McQueen and Bisset dine out with friends at some hip San Francisco res­taur­ant as McQueen does a won­der­ful bit with a waiter and an errant menu. lovely.

• Lord Henry says:

  January 10, 2011 at 2:28 pm

  @ lipran­zer – Oh THE HOT ROCK is really enjoy­able. I for­got about that one. “Afghanistan bananistan!” Never seen JOHN AND MARY. Another note to self.

• bill says:

  January 10, 2011 at 3:11 pm

  I hope I’m able to write some­thing up. I’m not very good at this sort of thing in gen­er­al, and don’t know much about Yates out­side of the fact that he made at least three films I think very highly of, and one of those three, EDDIE COYLE, is pos­sibly my favor­ite crime film of all time. It’s exquisite.

• Oliver_C says:

  January 10, 2011 at 4:37 pm

  The Criterion Collection DVD of EDDIE COYLE includes Yates’ eld­erly but avun­cu­lar com­ment­ary – maybe the last film-related thing he did.

• Jimmy says:

  January 10, 2011 at 9:05 pm

  Sad to hear the news of Peter Yates passing. May he rest in peace.
  As has been men­tioned, “The Friends of Eddie Coyle” is one of the best. A favor­ite of mine for many years.
  Robert Mitchum at the very top of his game sur­roun­ded by a fine sup­port­ing cast including…Peter Boyle, Steven Keats, Alex Rocco, and the late, great Richard Jordan, who damn near steals the film as Foley.
  A wicked piss­ah movie.

• otherbill says:

  January 10, 2011 at 9:20 pm

  I don’t think I’ve fallen as hard for any film I’ve seen in the last 2 or 3 years as I did for COYLE. That shot of Mitchum at the end of the bar before he goes to the Bruins game with Boyle just kills me. I also would have gladly watched a series of films with Richard Jordan’s char­ac­ter as protagonist.

• Kent Jones says:

  January 10, 2011 at 10:28 pm

  “Numbah 4, Bobby Orr…”
  Richard Jordan was a very spe­cial act­or. He really made an impact in EDDIE COYLE and THE YAKUZA. He did­n’t get that many more inter­est­ing roles – INTERIORS, DUNE and A FLASH OF GREEN excep­ted. I’ve nev­er seen ALIBIS by Pierre Rissient, but that’s got to be pretty good.

• Glenn Kenny says:

  January 11, 2011 at 10:03 am

  Hear, hear on Richard Jordan, Kent. One of those act­ors that the “industry” seemed to not know what to do with—Joan Hackett also springs to mind in that respect. He had an incred­ible knack for reveal­ing the deep dam­age of his char­ac­ters; its was always there, just below his mis­chiev­ous good looks. If I recall cor­rectly, he was about the only mem­ber of the ensemble of “Interiors” who was able to infuse some idio­syn­crat­ic vital­ity into its always at least slightly stil­ted dia­logue. And like Hackett, he was gone far, far too soon.

• Kent Jones says:

  January 11, 2011 at 11:58 am

  I remem­ber Mary Beth Hurt as anoth­er bright spot in INTERIORS.
  As a young adoles­cent, I was thrilled when Jordan and his men stepped out of the cel­lar with guns drawn to sur­prise Alex Rocco and his team: “April fool, motherfuckers.”

• Jimmy says:

  January 11, 2011 at 3:31 pm

  @ Kent:
  As a young act­or start­ing out in 1975, I had the good for­tune to land at a little theatre, in a seedy part of Hollywood, foun­ded by Ralph Waite.
  It was there, that I met Richard Jordan. The man was the real deal. Such a cool cat, loaded with tal­ent. He, along with Dana Elcar and Donald Moffat, had free classes, which I took full advant­age of.
  Some fond memor­ies, as I now look back. I’m grate­ful to have had those oppor­tun­it­ies and happy to see the love out there for Richard Jordan today.
  One of my favor­ite scenes in Eddie Coyle is the bust at the train sta­tion park­ing lot. Jordan and team come fly­in’ out of the bushes, his adren­al­in just flow­ing, as he pro­ceeds to read Steven Keats his rights. Watching him was pure joy.
  Goes without say­ing, the scenes between him and Mitchum is film act­ing at it’s best.
  “Have a nice day.”

• christian says:

  January 11, 2011 at 7:56 pm

  And Jordan made a great sens­it­ive body­guard to Mitchum in THE YAKUZA – he nails every scene, espe­cially his last in the film.

• otherbill says:

  January 11, 2011 at 10:52 pm

  As someone who lived with a fath­er and a col­lege roomate who both would’ve gladly played THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER on a loop if left to their own devices, I’d be remiss if I did­n’t men­tion how much I came to look for­ward to every single line read­ing Jordan has in that film.
  “Your air­craft have dropped enough son­ar bouys that a man could WALK from Greenland to Iceland to Scotland without get­tin his feet wet! Now shall we dis­pense with the bull?”

• Kent Jones says:

  January 11, 2011 at 11:34 pm

  Jimmy, thanks for let­ting me know about your exper­i­ences with Jordan, Moffat and Elcar, three fine act­ors. I noticed that Moffat appeared in the Ralph Waite movie ON THE NICKEL, along with Jack Kehoe. Were you around for that?
  The scenes between Jordan and Peter Boyle are also great – in fact, they almost frame the movie.

• Jimmy says:

  January 12, 2011 at 1:23 am

  Kent, yeah, I was there. Such a good place to be, espe­cially for a young punk start­ing out. Just a twenty-two year kid, fresh outta Boston, with noth­in’ but a dream of becom­ing an act­or. Ralph was a very gen­er­ous man to so many people who found a home at his theatre. I was very lucky.
  True story, Oct/75, I’d left Cape Cod, drove cross-country to LA to seek my fame and for­tune. Shortly after arriv­ing one day, up on Beechwood Canyon Drive, I ran into Richard Romanus, who was in my all-time favor­ite movie “Mean Streets”. Long story-short, I had these “Mean Streets” T‑shirts I’d made in the trunk of my car. I gave Richard one and he was thrilled. We talked. I asked him if he knew of a good place where I might go to study, meet oth­er act­ors and he dir­ec­ted me to Ralph’s theatre.
  I soon went over and imme­di­ately found myself onstage one night. Afterwards, Ralph came up to me and asked if I wanted to be in a play he had going on. ABSOLUTELY! I told him I did­n’t have much exper­i­ence. He did­n’t seem to care. He sent me down­stairs, where I met Jack Kehoe (who was dir­ect­ing) George Loros (who wrote the piece) and Wilford Brimley (who was play­ing one of the DI’s)among some oth­er actors.
  The play was called “Welcome to Parris Island” and it was about a group of young men going through USMC basic train­ing. Even though the play nev­er made it to the stage (cre­at­ive dif­fer­ences) I loved every minute of the experience.
  What was most amaz­ing about my adven­ture was the fact that two weeks before I left the Cape, my young­er broth­er had joined the Marines and was at Parris Island while I was out in LA work­ing on this play.
  Wild.
  Man, that was a fine time. These guys were all such won­der­ful act­ors. Great char­ac­ters. Ralph put a few of them, (Donald Moffat, Jack Kehoe), into his movie. “On the Nickel” was a labor of love. I’d like to see it again some­time. A little gem of a film.
  Anyway, I’m ram­bling. Thanks for let­ting me bend your ear for a bit.
  And yes, I agree, the scenes between Richard Jordan and Peter Boyle are excel­lent. Frame the movie. Indeed.
  Take care.

• Cadavra says:

  January 14, 2011 at 2:25 am

  Henry: Actually, the line is “Afghanistan Banana Stand.” Yes, HOT ROCK is a sadly under­rated film, and what a cast! But I think most people would agree that the real auteur there was Westlake.

• Lord Henry says:

  January 14, 2011 at 6:49 am

  @ Cadavra
  “Actually, the line is “Afghanistan Banana Stand.””
  Oh that’s great, thanks! I’ve been get­ting that wrong all these years!
  The University of Chicago Press is repub­lish­ing all the early Parker nov­els. I read THE HUNTER years ago (purely because of POINT BLANK) and thought it was just okay. Are the oth­ers worth pursuing?

• Jon Hastings says:

  January 14, 2011 at 10:18 am

  Lord Henry – I think THE HUNTER is actu­ally one of the less­er Parker nov­els: it’s fine as a stripped-down, hard-boiled action­er, but it lacks a lot of the wit and razor-sharp plot­ting of the later books. The early cycle really hits its stride with THE MOURNER, but the second cycle – start­ing with COMEBACK and going all the way to DIRTY MONEY – is Westlake’s mas­ter­piece: a look at American greed in all of its shapes, sizes, and colors.

• Lord Henry says:

  January 14, 2011 at 12:26 pm

  Thanks, Jon! I’m going to get on to those.