The Friends of Eddie Coyle Is Full of Easter Eggs For Bostonians

 

On Friday night, I went to the Brattle Theatre to see a 50th anniversary screening of The Friends of Eddie Coyle starring Robert Mitchum and Peter Boyle. 

This was my first time seeing The Friends of Eddie Coyle though I have been curious about since I knew I was going to move to Boston the first time more than 20 years ago. Now having watched it, although it is unsentimental film full of suspense with a great performance by Mitchum and supporting cast members Richard Jordan, Steven Keats, Alex Rocco and Joe Santos (whom one might remember for his portrayal of Lt. Dennis Becker on The Rockford Files, the main attraction of the film was how many places in and around Boston I could recognize. 

Among other places was the Hynes Convention Center stop on the Green Line on the corner of Mass Avenue and Newbury Street. In fact, I remember a lost long friend telling me he saw The Friends of Eddie Coyle at that exact location years later. I had a similar feeling when watching Ted in a theater right across the street from the Boston Common and lo and behold pops up a scene in Boston Common. I also recognized spots on both Massachusetts Avenue and the Midtown Hotel on Huntington Avenue. 

In The Friends of Eddie Coyle, there was a scene from the Common albeit closer to the Park Street T station which connects the Green and Red Lines. There were a couple of shots taken at Government Center where the two ugliest buildings in Boston still reside - City Hall and the JFK Federal Building. There was also a scene on Memorial Drive near Mass Avenue. It was freaky to see a skyline with the Hancock Tower (now known as 200 Clarendon Street) under construction (it would not be complete until 1976). 

There were some places outside of Boston I recognized such as South Weymouth and Sharon - the latter of which is about halfway between Boston and Providence, Rhode Island.  Then there were some places which no longer exist and some places which still stand but under different names. Towards the end of the movie, there is a scene at the old Boston Garden during a hockey game between the Boston Bruins and the Chicago Blackhawks when men didn't wear helmets on the ice. At the risk of giving away the spoiler, it would be the last place where Eddie Coyle would be seen alive. 

Poor Eddie Coyle would end up in the parking lot of a bowling alley which had a sign for both tenpin and candlepin lanes. There's only one place in this immediate area which offers both tenpin and candlepin and that is the Boston Bowl in Dorchester on Morrissey Boulevard. I have only bowled there once as it is very expensive and bit off the beaten path. But having seen how it used to be, it might be worth another trip so long as it isn't my final stop. 

For me The Friends of Eddie Coyle is full of Easter Eggs for Bostonians. I mean how many movies namedrop Quincy, Milton and Randolph? Never I have enjoyed a movie more for its urban scenery. It made me feel right at home.