MovieChat Forums > The French Connection (1971) Discussion > Charnier wanted to get busted

Charnier wanted to get busted

posted 8 years ago by flicky-3
1 reply | jump to latest

1. His henchman gets killed and that doesn't seem to make him reconsider going through with the deal.

2. The car carrying the drugs was impounded. Eventually returned intact but still wouldn't that be another red flag that the heat is getting pretty hot?

3. What was behind the idea of having Sal Boca drop off the car in the middle of nowhere? Why leave it exposed on the street like that? Did I miss something there?

You add all these little things up and he seems very reckless and/or stupid.

Sal Boca I can understand being sloppy but not Charnier given how he was presented.

[–] wrfarley 8 years ago

Once again, the film leaves out essential details that were explained in the book. The car was left on an abandoned street to be picked up by local garage mechanics who were supposed to remove the heroin from the undercarriage. The police jumped the gun and arrested the wrong guys blowing their cover, as is portrayed in the film. In the real case, there were two cars, both 1960 Buick Invictas. The first time in early December, 1961, the police sat on the car on the Lower East Side. It was taken away right under their noses. While they were shocked, they also realized they were onto something especially when the heroin turned up on NY streets a few days later. The second Invicta came six weeks later, and this time the detectives were ready, except like in the film, some boosters came along to strip the tires and the police arrested them assuming they were the part of the smuggling operation. What didn't happen was the police impounding the car, they simply went back to surveilling it. The car was stripped after the arrests were made and booked into evidence.

All the stuff about Nicoli trying to kill Doyle was added to the film and was not part of the real case. So, you are right about its inconsistencies.