Another French Connection

A movie that's been in the FXM Retro lately has been French Connection II. It's going to be on FXM again tomorrow at 9:45 AM, and again twice a week and change from now.

As you can guess from the title, this is a sequel to the Oscar-winning movie The French Connection. If you remember that movie, about New York cops trying to break a heroin smuggling ring originating in Marseilles, France, you'll recall that Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey), the French leader of that smuggling operation, got away at the end. Popeye Doyle (Gene Hackman) is the only person who can recognize Charnier, his partner Buddy apparently having left the force or something since Roy Schedier does not reprise his role. So the NYPD send Popeye over to France to help the French police on their end of the investigation.

All of this even though Popeye doesn't speak a word of French; as I stated the justification given is that he knows Charnier on sight and the people who speak French presumably don't. So Popeye is going to be a fish out of water, which is one of the themes here. Indeed, he shows up at a fish market, which is where he's supposed to meet his contact, Barthélémy (Bernard Fresson), because the French police claim there might be stuff smuggled in through the fish. Or maybe they're just playing an April Fools' joke on Popeye, since they're not happy having him here.

It's not just that Popeye doesn't speak French and is going to be dependent on them; it's that they've read his police files and he is, well, an American policeman, quick to use his gun. That, of course, is strictly forbidden in France, never mind that Popeye is a policeman. He's not French, so no gun. (Except, of course, that he's smuggled one in.) And, indeed, Popeye botches the very first part of the investigation he's allowed to shadow the French cops on.

Anyhow, after this, they do let Popeye do some legwork, at least using his eyes to look out for things. It seems that an obvious place to look is at the port in Marseilles, since that's one of the big functions of the city, and it's an obvious place for drugs to get in and out of the country if it's not going elsewhere on the continent.

Popeye is apparently getting too close to Charnier, as a couple of his goons kidnap him and hold him prisoner for several days, during which time they inject him with enough heroin to make him have serious withdrawal symptoms. Charnier helps him recover in secrecy since having it become public knowledge that a cop went through heroin withdrawal would be very bad PR. After that, Popeye remembers where he was held captive, and that sets in motion the action-packed finale.

French Connection II isn't a bad movie, but it isn't nearly as good as the original. I think for me one of the big reasons was the kidnapping of Doyle and making him a heroin addict. That second act of the movie goes on way too long, and really drags down the pacing of the movie. Popeye's lack of French also makes for a lot of difficult dialogue, and I felt made it harder to keep track of what was going on in the movie.

On the plus side, the location shooting was great, and the seamy underside of Marseilles is just as well depicted as the original depicts the same underside in New York. Veteran actress Cathleen Nesbitt, probably best remembered in to American movie buffs for being the grandmother in An Affair to Remember or her role in Separate Tables, steals her one scene as a heroin addict who visits Popeye during his captivity. Overall, French Connection II is a nice entry in the cycle of 1970s crime/police procedural movies, even if there are better examples.

As far as I can tell, the movie is not in print on DVD, so you're going to have to catch the FXM showings.