The French Connection (1971)

Philip D'Antoni Productions

A pair of NYC cops in the Narcotics Bureau stumble onto a drug smuggling job with a French connection.

"The French Connection" is a 1971 American crime thriller film directed by William Friedkin. The screenplay, written by Ernest Tidyman, is based on Robin Moore's 1969 non-fiction book The French Connection: A True Account of Cops, Narcotics, and International Conspiracy. It tells the story of New York Police Department detectives Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle and Buddy "Cloudy" Russo, whose real-life counterparts were Narcotics Detectives Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso, in pursuit of wealthy French heroin smuggler Alain Charnier. The film stars Gene Hackman as Popeye, Roy Scheider as Cloudy, and Fernando Rey as Charnier. Tony Lo Bianco and Marcel Bozzuffi also star.

The American Film Institute included the film in its list of the best American films in 1998 and again in 2007. In 2005 the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Genre': Action, Crime, Drama
Release date: October 9, 1971 (US)

Director: William Friedkin

Cast: Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey, Roy Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco, Marcel Bozzuffi

Distributed by: Twentieth Century Fox

Want More?

"The French Connection" at IMDb

"The French Connection" films, books, & soundtracks