The movie version of The Friends of Eddie Coyle which appeared in 1973 won some praise from its reviewers, but it was suggested that the movie gave hints that it could have been something a bit more than a well-done criminal thriller. Perhaps it is unfair to suggest that whatever originality the film possessed was borrowed from the novel and that the more commonplace elements were a product of the film treatment. It is certain, however, that, in the translation to film, characteristic features of the novel which were tied to its literary means of presentation had to be sacrificed. Robert Mitchum as Coyle and Peter Boyle as Dillon were both superb, but their very images on screen offered physical cues of characterization and for emotional response which the novel had succeeded in doing without. Indeed, the very necessity of finding physical actions and images to represent the plot...