John Frankenheimer (1975)
John Frankenheimer is well up to handling the action sequences that dominated the original but this sequel is principally a showcase for Gene Hackman, reprising the role that won him an Oscar last time around. Foul-mouthed, amoral Popeye Doyle is now playing away, in Marseilles. The centrepiece is a cold turkey episode after Popeye has been pumped full of heroin. This, like plenty more in the film, is too much, in spite of Hackman’s excellence and Claude Renoir’s almost literally stunning photography. Yet like its predecessor, French Connection II delivers in terms of visceral excitement and Frankenheimer makes the ending cleverly economical. Dislikeable but recommended.
[1970s]
