MovieChat Forums > The French Connection (1971) Discussion > 1971: Roy Scheider Breaks Out in "The Fr...

1971: Roy Scheider Breaks Out in "The French Connection" and "Klute"

posted a year ago by roger1 (3703)
15 replies | jump to latest

"Jaws" (1975) made leading men out of all three of its male leads -- Robert Shaw(who got some action movies and died young at 51), Richard Dreyfuss(who perhaps went the farthest -- winning a Best Actor Oscar for The Goodbye Girl and appearing in Close Encounters the same year), and Roy Scheider.

Scheider outlived Shaw, but couldn't quite keep his leading man career going. He hit big in All the Jazz(replacing, unbelievably, DREYFUSS as an athletic Broadway dance man based on Bob Fosse, who made the film) and held on a bit into the 80s with Blue Thunder and 52 Pick Up.

But before Jaws and everything that followed could happen, Scheider needed to "make his name" in movies, and in 1971, he did it:

He was in The French Connection, which won the Best Actor award for Gene Hackman.
He was in Klute, which won the Best Actress award for Jane Fonda.

So, two quality movies, two hits. The French Connection hit bigger than Klute, with a Best Picture win and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nom for Roy Scheider -- sympathetic as the buddy movie partner to cop Gene Hackman in a movie that wasn't too buddy-buddy at all.

Both The French Connection and Klute were set in a gritty New York City, "underbelly up" -- though Klute had a bit more glamour given the upperclass world in which call girl Fonda moved.

Scheider's role in Klute was more dangerous to his career, perhaps than his hero cop in The French Connection. In Klute, Scheider is an upper-level "white pimp" working out of a nice apartment with a cover job -- but he is very much a villain, whose control of Fonda (as demonstrated to "nice guy cop" Donald Sutherland as Klute) is the usual "bad guy wins" sort of proposition.

Indeed, its hard to believe the slimy pimp played by Scheider in Klute being the same "regular guy" on the sea in Jaws...but...that's acting.

"French Connection" director William Friedkin gave Scheider the "American lead" in the international cast thriller "Sorcerer" which was a big flop after Friedkin's two hits(French Connection and The Exorcist.) Friedkin almost had Steve McQueen for the part, but lost him. Schieder's inability to play movie star at McQueen level probably cost him later. "All that Jazz" was a fluke -- Scheider replaced Dreyfuss.

Roy Scheider had a solid, long career until death. He went out as he came in -- a solid character man in support. With some leads in between.

But its fun to see him "making his debut"(after some other unknown movies) all in the same year, only a month or two apart in the fall, as I recall.

The cop in The French Connection. The pimp in Klute. A great launch until that great white shark could make him a star.

[–] christomacin (4660) a year ago

Apparently, Friedkin wasn't able to get Euro stars Lino Ventura or Marcello Mastroiani in Sorcerer either once McQueen backed out. Friedkin claims neither of them would accept second billing to Scheider. McQueen yes, Scheider no. Perhaps they also felt the shark was the true star of Jaws... and it was a three handed ensemble piece in the third act, after all. Shaw, Scheider and Dreyfus were about equal in terms of star power and box office appeal circa 1975.

This reminds me of Hitchcock not being able to secure the acting services of Yves Montand for Topaz. These bits of luck cost both directors, financially AND artistically for Hitchcock and financially but (in my opinion) not artistically for Friedkin. Friedman had an amazing amount of casting luck with The French Connection and The Exorcist, so I guess it was bound to run out sometime and it did.

[–] letess (1563) a year ago

I love this bit of info. And both directors’ hindsight. The Friedkin McQueen connection was new to me and I had to look it up. I’m a huge fan of McQueen and I know most of the movies he turned down and wondered what the film would be like if he had been it.

A few years ago, I was a French film festival and for their classic film they chose Wages of Fear. First time viewing for me. I have never seen something so suspenseful. I always loved Clouzot but this was a masterpiece. I liked Sorcerer but hadn’t realized that it was a remake at the time I saw it. I never knew McQueen wanted this role and was all in until he found out he’d have to go on location to South America. He didn’t want to leave MacGraw. He thought it was going to be local but proposed to Friedkin an alternative if she could come along and get producer credit. Friedkin declined and it was a decision he would regret. He said in 2016 of McQueen and the location issue:

“I was so stupid and so arrogant and so out of it that I did not realize at the time — which I do now — that a close-up of Steve McQueen is worth the most beautiful landscape in the world.”

[–] christomacin (4660) a year ago

Just for clarification, the location was in the Caribbean (the Dominican Republic). Friedkin claimed in an interview that the studio head had large property holdings and business interests in the Domican Republic and that also factored into the decision to shoot there.

McQueen had offered Friedkin three main options to get him to participate:1) shoot the film in the US, or 2) give his wife a part in the film, or 3) give his wife an executive producer role. I think Friedkin was correct to refuse options one and two, but, it seems to me option 3 could have worked it was understood to be a mostly honorific role with no actual creative responsibilities. Give her a mostly PR and promotional role, for instance.

[–] letess (1563) a year ago

Yes. Latin America not South America. Sorry. Still, this was all news to me. Fascinating. I can see Lino more than Marcello.

Sorcerer is playing next week at the local American Cinematheque theater and it’s already sold out.

[–] GolfnGuitars (2938) a year ago

I really enjoyed reading this. I was thinking that Roy Schneider just passed away a few years ago (like 2017 or 2018), but he died in 2008 (15 years ago)!

I've never seen "Klute." That will go on my "need to watch" list. I love "The French Connection" and think he's great in it. And I liked him in "Jaws 2" also...while it's not nearly as great as the first one, I think it's an entertaining movie.

I think it's hard to imagine an actor with Schneider's resume being "underrated," but I think he really was underrated. For example, the improvisation of "You're gonna need a bigger boat" and having the grieving mother genuinely slap him in "Jaws." In fact, while "Bruce" is probably the "star" of "Jaws," the human performances really are amazing IMO and are a big reason why the movie is such a classic.

[–] Lucia2016 (617) a year ago

He was always my favourite part from Marathon Man, in fact i could have watched an entire film based off of his character. Can't say i've seen too much of him bar that and Jaws but i have always rated him just based off of those. Plus his candid interviews are great to watch.

[–] roger1 (3703) a year ago

I’m a huge fan of McQueen and I know most of the movies he turned down and wondered what the film would be like if he had been it.

---

McQueen took a huge payday for 1974's The Towering Inferno -- and then pretty much took the rest of the 70's off. It was amazing at the time; one of the biggest stars simply not working. He made only one more movie in the 70's -- 1977's Enemy of the People, but it was an art house Ibsen play on film, nobody saw it, barely any release(he wasn't THAT powerful.)

But the irony was, McQueen COULD have been in all sorts of movies from 1975-1979; the deals kept falling through. In addition to the Sorcerer stories told in this thread, I like the one about A Bridge Too Far(1977.) That had a gigantic all star cast(Connery, Caine, Caan, Gould, O'Neal) but screenwriter William Goldman wrote that distributors demanded a cameo by one of two male stars to book the film: Steve McQueen or Robert Redford. THAT tells you who the top stars were in 1976. Goldman knew Redford; director Richard Attenborough knew McQueen(they'd worked together as actors in The Great Escape and The Sand Pebbles.) So both actors were interested, and it came down to McQueen wanting too much(somebody had to buy one of his houses for sale). Redford said "yes" and he's the one in the movie.

McQueen turned down Close Encounters and Apocalypse Now(movies that WERE made) but almost did Tai-Pan(which was made years later, wasn't it?)

Irony piled upon irony. McQueen finally came back with two movies in 1980 -- a Western(Tom Horn) and an action movie(The Hunter.) And he died the same year.

CONT

[–] roger1 (3703) a year ago

A few years ago, I was a French film festival and for their classic film they chose Wages of Fear. First time viewing for me. I have never seen something so suspenseful.

---

It remains an incredibly suspenseful film with an incredibly suspenseful premise. The original was also daringly LONG -- it took a long time to backstory and assemble the four men. Friedkin was perhaps taking a risk in remaking an ART FILM suspenser.

--
. I liked Sorcerer but hadn’t realized that it was a remake at the time I saw it.

---

Friedkin noted how Star Wars wiped it out -- as if Star Wars automatically shut down the gritty American cinema of The French Connection and The Exorcist. But those two movies were sold as (1) a cop action movie with a car chase and (2) a Satanic horror movie. THAT's why audiences came. Sorcerer never really explained itself in advertising(folks thought the title Sorcerer was like The Exorcist, Satanic, etc.)

I never knew McQueen wanted this role and was all in until he found out he’d have to go on location to South America. He didn’t want to leave MacGraw. He thought it was going to be local but proposed to Friedkin an alternative if she could come along and get producer credit. Friedkin declined and it was a decision he would regret. He said in 2016 of McQueen and the location issue:

---
Yes. As noted elsewhere in this thread, Freidkin COULD have met McQueen's demands -- maybe -- if he simply found a job for Ali MacGraw. Didn't have to be acting, and McQueen probably would have agreed to the distant location.

About which: after McQueen suffered a grueling foreign shoot on Papillion(1973), he informed his agents to "look for something in Los Angeles and California for the next one," so he could stay at home. Thus he accepted The Towering Inferno, shot mainly at Fox in LA with some location work in San Francisco.

McQueen also felt punished by his work in Asia on "The Sand Pebbles." So he was risk adverse to foreign locales.

CONT

[–] roger1 (3703) a year ago

“I was so stupid and so arrogant and so out of it that I did not realize at the time — which I do now — that a close-up of Steve McQueen is worth the most beautiful landscape in the world.”

---

That statement from William Friedkin was correct on all counts. By his own admission , he WAS "stupid and arrogant" around this time because -- why not? The French Connection was a hit that won Best Picture and The Exorcist was a huge blockbuster. Friedkin "over-believed" in his own talent. Friedkin mellowed considerably in the decades after Sorcerer -- a heart attack and some flops seemed to change his manner.

As for a Steve McQueen close-up -- yes. Notice how often he is in close-up in Bullitt(1968), quietly thinking, quietly rebelling against the slimy politicians pressuing him, brooding. He has some great close-ups -- on an older, more weathered face -- in The Towering Inferno. The movie rises on the value of his close-ups -- and on those of the prettier Paul Newman.

CONT

[–] roger1 (3703) a year ago

I was thinking that Roy Schneider just passed away a few years ago (like 2017 or 2018), but he died in 2008 (15 years ago)!

---

I always find things like that truly amazing. Time moves so fast...particularly "backwards away from us." I'll think something happened "two or three years ago," and realize...nope...15!

And the years moved for Roy Scheider. OK, so he died in 2008. I remember him "near the end" in The Rainmaker of 1997 (I thought he was great in a small part as a smiling but corrupt insurance boss in a really bad sweater on the court witness stand.) But he had 11 more years to go!

---

I've never seen "Klute." That will go on my "need to watch" list.

---

Its interesting to see Scheider not only as a villian, but as the kind of kinky/psychotic type that a pimp can be.
Even his haircut is creepy in that one.

--

I love "The French Connection" and think he's great in it.

---

Well, he got an Oscar nom(supporting) and he was more likeable than Hackman's Popeye. He's sort of the audience's "eyes into the story."

--

And I liked him in "Jaws 2" also...while it's not nearly as great as the first one, I think it's an entertaining movie.

--

Alas, another on the list of "not good enough" sequels. Shaw's character was dead, and Dreyfuss refused to do the movie, but Scheider had a contractural obligation. I saw him on a talk show around that time saying "I wasn't crazy about doing Jaws 2, but on I was on contract, and that's me up there alone, so I tried to make it work." My beef with Jaws 2 -- after a great story of three MEN at sea -- was this one was focussed on a group of "disco-permed" teenagers. No gravitas. There was a commercial with young people singing "I'm a Pepper, he's a Pepper...wouldn't you like to be a pepper, too?" and I thought all those Jaws 2 kids looked like Peppers.
Heh.

---

[–] roger1 (3703) a year ago

I think it's hard to imagine an actor with Schneider's resume being "underrated," but I think he really was underrated.

---

I certainly see it. Consider Jaws. Shaw's Quint is the big hammy entertainment character in the film ("I'm talkin about workin' for a livin', I'm talkin' about sharkin'!) Richard Dreyfuss was young and quirky and funny..and bearded. Scheider played the clean-shaven "regular guy"(albeit a retired NYC cop) and had to stand back while the other two guys chewed the scenery.

---

For example, the improvisation of "You're gonna need a bigger boat" and having the grieving mother genuinely slap him in "Jaws."

---

Yes...Scheider ends up inventing one of the great lines in movie history (part of his legacy, now he's gone.)
And everyone remembers the slap -- plus(I'd say) Richard Dreyfuss watching in empathy for Scheider(Dreyfuss turns from Scheider's foe to his friend in that moment.)

---

In fact, while "Bruce" is probably the "star" of "Jaws," the human performances really are amazing IMO and are a big reason why the movie is such a classic.

---

Absolutely, the three guys are key to EVERYTHING. They were big jerks in the novel, Spielberg, his writers and his cast humanized them and created a "three-way conflict" that was also buddy-buddy. None of the Jaws sequels came close to that acting.

By the way, Spielberg wanted a comic actor named Joe Bologna first for Chief Brody..Bologna would have done it, but Universal nixed the choice. And Roy Scheider got the lucky break.

CONT

[–] roger1 (3703) a year ago

SPOILERS FOR MARATHON MAN

He was always my favourite part from Marathon Man, in fact i could have watched an entire film based off of his character.

---

Once Scheider 'hit big" with Jaws, he had to be careful about choosing the right "next role."

The aged Alfred Hitchcock -- a legend but not quite Top Dog anymore in 1975 -- offered Scheider the villailn part in "Family Plot"(1975), but Marathon Man was going into production too -- and Scheider was offered the much SHORTER part of Dustin Hoffman's secret-spy brother. Rather like Janet Leigh in HItchcock's Psycho, Scheider's character is brutally killed early in "Marathon Man" -- but Scheider knew this was a bigger deal than Family Plot -- what with Hoffman and Laurence Olivier in the leads. Scheider graciously said "I was very sorry to have to turn Hitchcock down, but I wanted this other role."

Hitchocck cast Roy Thinnes as the Family Plot villain, and announced him at a press conference as "Roy Scheider." (Oops.) Then Hitchocck fired Roy Thinnes and replaced him with William Devane -- who is also a villain in...Marathon Man!

Round and round and round it goes...

[–] roger1 (3703) a year ago

(Freidkin not getting McQueen for Sorcerer) reminds me of Hitchcock not being able to secure the acting services of Yves Montand for Topaz.

----

Well, Hitchcock was perhaps in a worse place. Once he agreed to make Topaz(he said Lew Wasserman at Universal pretty much forced it on him) he was confronted with a story in which the lead had to be a Frenchman old enough to have a married daughter. That meant that Yves Montand, at the time, was pretty much the ONLY French actor who fit that bill(Belmondo and others were too young.) Evidently, Hitch pitched Montand's actress wife, Simone Signoret, for the wife role, but no go. (For one thing, the politics of Montand and Signoret were not aligned with Topaz.)

So Hitchcock couldn't even find a "Roy Scheider" level star for the Topaz lead and he went for a near unknown instead -- Frederick Stafford, who looked a lot like John Gavin from Psycho.

---

These bits of luck cost both directors, financially AND artistically for Hitchcock and financially but (in my opinion) not artistically for Friedkin.

---

Agreed.

---

Friedman had an amazing amount of casting luck with The French Connection and The Exorcist, so I guess it was bound to run out sometime and it did.

---

I daresay that the foreign location and gruelilng storyline of Sorcerer scared off big stars(though I've only read of the McQueen near miss.) Plus...Scheidier and Friedkin went back to The French Connection. Its like when McQueen (and Nicholson) turned down Close Encouters. Spielberg went back to Richard Dreyfuss from Jaws.

[–] roger1 (3703) a year ago

More on Roy Scheider on "Marathan Man."

Screenwniter William Goldman(Butch Cassidy) wrote both the novel and teh screenplay for "Marathon Man." In his book "Adventures in the Screen Trade," Goldman really does a number on Dustin Hoffman's star diva behavior on that movie -- including his forcing the aged and ill Laurence Ollivier to "walk through a scene" through great pain.

Goldman writes about Hoffman doing a scene with Roy Scheider(playing Hoffman's brother) in which Hoffman disagreed with the scene and argued and argued and argued about it to the director for about an hour.

Goldman wrote(paraphrased): "My greatest memory of this argument was how Roy Scheider stood silently through all of it, never saying a word, never interfering, totally calm and patient." Goldman contended that Scheider knew he was on a big movie, and that Hoffman was the star and that he would just have to remain quiet and tough it out.

[–] Yatzo (1928) a year ago

Yes, and watching The French Connection now, for its one of my favorite holiday films!
Roy was also great in 52 Pickup from 1987.
A sleazy Elmore Leonard story starring Roy and Ann Margaret.
I miss Roy, he made 70s films great!