The French Connection

“Doyle is bad news—but a good cop.”

Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Gene Hackman) and his partner Buddy Russo (Roy Scheider) are New York narcotics detectives who start tailing a few small-time dealers and end up on the trail of Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey), a wealthy Frenchman moving heroin into the city. William Friedkin shoots the winter streets in rough, grainy handheld. Doyle works through the cold in the same wrinkled coat and porkpie hat, eating a slice of pizza on the sidewalk and watching.