Trivia
Release date: October 7, 1971
The movie was shot in: New York, Washington (USA) and Marseille (France)
Oscars:
Best Actor in a Leading Role -> Gene Hackman
Best Director ->William Friedkin
Best Film Editing
Best Picture
Best Writing
Oscar Nominations:
Best Actor in a Supporting Role -> Roy Scheider
Best Cinematography
Best Sound
Differences between the movie and the real bust:
The scene in which Popeye kills FBI agent Mulderig did not happen.
Frog One (Jean Jehan) didn’t escape. He was arrested in France.
Grosso and Egan were reassigned but much later in their careers. Source / More (Book)
The French Connection was the first R-rated movie to win the Best Picture Academy award.
Robin Moore wrote the bestselling book named The French Connection. Source / More (Book)
Fernando Rey was cast by mistake. William Friedkin wanted Francisco Rabal he remembered seeing in Belle de jour (1967). The casting director however thought it was Fernando Rey. Friedkin considered firing Rey, but changed his mind once he learned that Rabal wasn’t available. Source / More (Book)
The scene where Popeye tailed Frog one into the subway, happened also in real life. On January 13, 1962 detective Frankie Waters followed drug dealer Jehan who jumped on and off the train and then waved goodbye to his pursuer. Source / More (Book)
In 1961, Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso busted what was then the largest drug deal in the history of the United States.
Director Friedkin was inspired by the French classic Breathless
A lot of the street scenes, including the car chase, were shot without permission. The people in the shots are actual New Yorkers not knowing they were used as extra’s in a classic movie.
The drug dealers in the first bar scene were real life police officers. Source / More (Book)
The real-life detectives Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso, on whom the characters of Doyle and Russo are based, appear in the movie as the detectives’ supervisors.
In 1975 John Frankenheimer directed a sequel: The French connection II.
The encyclopedia on Heroin:
Diacetylmorphine is a white crystalline derived from morphine by acetylation. It was first synthesized in 1874. In 1924, the United States’ Heroin Act made it illegal to manufacture or possess heroin.
Bibliography
Bio
Gene Hackman
If I start to become a star, I'll lose contact with the normal guys I play best
Movie news
This week 43 years ago Bonnie and Clyde premiered (August 4, 1967)
Born:
January 30, 1930
Born as:
Eugene Alden Hackman
Gene dropped out of school at 16 to join the marines. Discharged, he moved to New York and from job to job. Gene studied commercial drawing and radio technique, journalism and TV production. In his late 20s, he decided that he wanted to become an actor. He began getting small roles off Broadway and on TV. His break came with
Bonnie and Clyde (1967). But in 1971, Hackman finally scored a leading role as New York policeman Popeye Doyle in
The French Connection. Gene followed this triumph with several other true-to-life performances,
most memorably in
The conversation (1974). He took a surprising turn by playing the comic villain Lex Luthor in the smash hit
Superman (1978) after which he took several years off. In the early 1980s, Gene made less successful film choices but in the latter half of the decade he kept hammering out one strong performance after another. In the early 1990s, Hackman underwent surgery for heart problems, but he continued to work steadily.
Academy awards:
- 1993 Won Supporting Role for: Unforgiven
- 1989 Nominated Leading Role for: Mississippi Burning
- 1972 Won Leading Role for: The French Connection
- 1971 Nominated Supporting Role for: I Never Sang for My Father
- 1968 Nominated Supporting Role for: Bonnie and Clyde
Selected Movies:
- Unforgiven (1992)
- The conversation (1974)
- Young Frankenstein (1974)
- Bonnie and Clyde 1967)
- The French connection 1971)
- The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
- Mississippi Burning (1988)
- Get Shorty (1995)
Popeye Doyle (Gene Hackman) and Buddy Russo (Roy Scheider) are New York policemen. The narcotics detectives are ever on the look for the big bust and when they get wind of the pending arrival of a huge heroine shipment, the scent is strong and the chase is on. One suspect leads to another and finally to a visitor from France, Charnier (Fernando Rey), and his bodyguard Nicoli (Marcel
Bozuffi).
A cat and mouse game begins between Doyle and Charnier. The Frenchman agrees to an attempt on Popeye's life that results in a brutal train hijacking and automobile pursuit. The action grows intense as the detectives come progressively closer to bringing down the drug dealers.
Picking your feet 
