Vitals

Gene Hackman as Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle, gruff NYPD narcotics detective

Marseille, France, Spring 1975

Film: French Connection II
Release Date: May 21, 1975
Director: John Frankenheimer
Costume Designer: Pierre Nourry

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

A lot of people may not even know they made a sequel to The French Connection. And why’s that? Because they didn’t really need to make it. But Gene Hackman’s portrayal of the profane detective “Popeye” Doyle was lightning in a bottle, and the late actor went two for two in bringing Popeye to the screen.

The French Connection‘s director William Friedkin was more reluctant than its star to get involved, citing French Connection II and follow-ups to The Exorcist as “shit… simply made to cash in on the title.” Hackman may have agreed with Hurricane Billy but was admirably never shy about admitting when a movie was simply a “money job,” as he tersely described The Poseidon Adventure to Ben Stiller when the two co-starred in The Royal Tenenbaums.

And so Hackman reprised his Academy Award-winning role for French Connection II, released fifty years ago today on May 21, 1975. The sequel—which indeed does not include the definite article “The” in the title—picks up the action shortly after its predecessor, with NYPD narc Doyle still on the trail of the elusive and urbane drug kingpin Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey), who absconded to his native Marseille after the events of The French Connection.

Popeye arrives in Marseille on April Fool’s Day, teaming up with a small crew of local police led by Inspector Henri Barthélémy (Bernard Fresson), who mocks him as “an authentic American hero” and resents Popeye’s aggressive attitude and approach to police work. At the same time, Popeye resents being babysat by the French police and resolves to escape their oversight and nab Charnier on his own:

I’d rather be a lamppost in New York than the president of France, but I came over for one thing and one thing only—that’s to get Charnier, and that’s what I’m gonna do.

While The French Connection was loosely inspired by real-life detective Eddie Egan’s record-setting breakup of a New York heroin ring, the sequel is a completely fictionalized continuation of the story… though Popeye’s mid-detox monologue about playing with the Yankees’ minor-league team with Mickey Mantle recalls Egan’s own baseball days before he joined the NYPD.

Hackman’s return to one of his most iconic roles and John Frankenheimer’s characteristically strong direction elevate French Connection II to what Empire magazine rated the 16th best sequel of all time in 2009 and which Roger Ebert described in his two-and-a-half (out of four) star review as “better than most of the many cop movies that followed The French Connection into release.”

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What’d He Wear?

Through the first half of French Connection II, Popeye typically dresses the same as he did on the job in New York, rotating through outdated suits and sport jackets with sloppily knotted ties and his trademark pork-pie hat. After he’s kidnapped and forcibly hooked on heroin by Charnier, Popeye abandons his more professional wardrobe and dresses for the final act in a boldly printed aloha shirt like a tacky tourist—hardly a stretch for the brash, unsophisticated New Yorker.

The short-sleeved rayon shirt is predominantly blue, with swirls and shadows intended to represent the water and skies surrounding the colorful scenic print of palm trees, sandy islands with huts and dark-skinned topless women in red and white hula skirts, and the occasional red canoe navigating those blue waters. Translucent white plastic 4-hole buttons fasten up the plain front; unlike many aloha-style shirts with a flat camp or loop collar, this sport shirt can button up to the neck, though Popeye leaves the top button undone. The shirt also has two non-matching chest pockets.

Based on the two-pocket styling, overall cut, and the specific print, I’m almost positive that Hackman wears a 1960s-era Korean-made 100% rayon aloha shirt by Sir Clifford Holiday Wear. Vintage examples of these classic shirts can still be found at secondhand retailers like eBay and Etsy.

For his single-handed fiery raid of the Hotel des Colonnades where Charnier held him as a hostage-induced captive and the police’s subsequent shipyard raid, Popeye wears the aloha shirt with his dark-brown pork-pie hat and the same gray textured mini-striped business suit he wore for his arrival in Marseille. The suit is all but ruined and his hat is lost when Charnier’s henchmen release the spillways to flood the dry dock.

Though Popeye continues wearing the now-dried aloha shirt, he changes out of the ruined suit into the windowpane sports coat and charcoal trousers he previously wore with a white shirt and striped tie while aiding the Marseille detectives.

This single-breasted sport jacket has a dark-gray ground, checked in a prominent white windowpane offset by a more subdued rust-colored windowpane. The notch lapels are swelled at the edges, gently rolling just over the top of the two-button front positioned over Hackman’s waist. The jacket has the traditional arrangement of a welted breast pocket and straight flapped hip pockets, with a single back vent and two buttons spaced apart at each cuff.

Popeye contrasts the windowpane jacket with darker charcoal-gray flat-front trousers. These medium-rise slacks have side pockets, button-through back pockets, and turn-ups (cuffs). He holds them up with his usual black leather belt that closes through a gold-toned rectangular single-prong buckle.

Popeye only wears one set of shoes throughout French Connection II. These black calf leather derbies have moc-style stitching around the squared toe box and long vamps with three-eyelet lacing. Unlike the bolder burgundy socks he occasionally wears with his suits and sport jackets, Popeye’s socks through this sequence are plain black cotton lisle.

Rather than the Timex Marlin he wore in The French Connection, Popeye now sports an all-gold watch with a round gold “pie-pan” dial on a gold straight-link expansion band, which gets slipped off his left wrist and stolen by an old junkie (Cathleen Nesbitt) while in his heroin-induced daze. Unfortunately, the watch is never returned to him so he doesn’t have it for the finale.

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The Guns

Smith & Wesson Model 36

“You carry no gun, I hope! You know it’s illegal for foreigners, even policemen,” Insp. Barthélémy warns Popeye. “Nah, no gun,” Popeye chuckles in response, adding with self-deprecating sarcasm: “I’m strictly by the book. You read my file, right?”

“That’s why I ask,” Barthélémy responds… though he should have done more than just ask, as he may have discovered the blued Smith & Wesson Model 36 snub-nosed revolver that Doyle smuggled into the country with a box of Western .38 Special ammunition. He keeps the weapon positioned butt-forward in a black leather ankle holster with a single-snap retention strap, positioned over the inside of his right ankle. Though he loses the revolver during his kidnapping, Barthélémy covertly returns it to him with his passport on the morning he’s scheduled to leave, barking “I don’t want to see that, keep it under wraps!”

Smith & Wesson introduced this easily concealed revolver on its new J-frame platform during the 1950 International Association of the Chiefs of Police (IACP) convention, where the attendees voted on its initial “Chiefs Special” nomenclature. When Smith & Wesson began numbering its models later in the decade, the Chiefs Special became the Model 36, which it remains designated today.

Available in both two-inch “snub-nose” barrel and a three-inch barrel, the Model 36 is produced in a blued steel frame that functions with a traditional double/single-action trigger. The swing-out cylinder can be loaded with up to five rounds of .38 Special ammunition, which creates a slimmer profile and lighter weight than revolvers with a traditional six-round cylinder.

Popeye had previously carried a Colt Detective Special as his standard sidearm in The French Connection, though the Smith & Wesson Model 36 occasionally appeared in continuity errors. The Model 36 in French Connection II is likely intended to be a personal or unauthorized weapon that he could carry and dispose of with more ease than his NYPD-issued sidearm.

Though the Model 36’s five-round cylinder makes it somewhat smaller than the six-shot Detective Special, Popeye may have been well-advised to look for an even lighter alternative like a Smith & Wesson “Airweight” model, built with an aluminum alloy frame and shrouded hammer—easier to conceal and lightweight at 14 ounces, as opposed to the 19-oz. all steel-framed Model 36 with its exposed hammer.

Browning Hi-Power

Barthélémy and his fellow Marseille policemen generally carry Browning Hi-Power semi-automatic pistols, including the detective who gets shot in front of Popeye as they storm Charnier’s drug warehouse. Unable to conveniently reach his ankle-holstered Model 36—and likely grateful for the additional firepower of the Hi-Power’s double-stack magazine—Popeye uses the Hi-Power to return fire and take out one of Charnier’s guards.

The Hi-Power was borne from a World War I-era request from the French government for a new robust, portable handgun with a capacity of at least ten rounds of potent ammunition, configured with an external hammer and external safety mechanism. Belgian manufacturer Fabrique Nationale (FN) Herstal contracted legendary American firearms designer John M. Browning, who built two different prototypes that utilized Belgian designer Dieudonné Saive’s innovative staggered magazine design which allowed for a higher capacity without dramatically increasing grip size.

After Browning’s death in 1926 and the expiration of Colt’s patents for the M1911 pistol two years later, Saive incorporated elements from the 1911 into a design—which was now being targeted to stand alone as its own model for potential clients beyond the French military. The decision was fortuitous as—despite their initial request—the French military opted for Charles Petter’s smaller Modèle 1935A, which concealed the hammer and fired the less powerful and now-obsolete 7.65×20mm Longue ammunition—fed from only eight-round magazines.

Despite the French military’s decision to reject it, Browning and Saive’s new “Grande Puissance” (translating to “High Power”, in reference to its 13-round magazine of 9x19mm Parabellum ammunition) found many eager users upon its launch in 1935, including the Belgian military. As World War II loomed in Europe, many other nations followed suit to adopt this high-capacity pistol. Once it was clear that the Belgian plant would fall into German hands—as indeed the Nazis would produce their own Hi-Powers as the Pistole 640(b)—the plans were shipped to John Inglis and Company in Toronto, where the Hi-Power was manufactured under license for Allied usage.

After the war, the Hi-Power was finally adopted by several French agencies like the National Gendarmerie, reflected in French Connection II by the detectives armed with Hi-Power pistols fitted with adjustable tangent rear sights.

In addition to a number of licensed copies or unlicensed clones made by manufacturers ranging from FEG, GIRSAN, Inglis, Norinco, and Springfield Armory, the FN Herstal plant has produced Hi-Power pistols almost continually since 1935, only pausing production in 2018 before FN America unveiled an updated version in 2022.

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What to Imbibe

Appropriate for the country of origin of the cargo ship Tarrön they surveil in the final act, Popeye and Barthélémy drink small “grenade” bottles of the Dutch pale lager Heineken.

Earlier, after unsuccessful attempts to order Early Times bourbon and Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey from André (André Penvern) the bartender, Popeye had settled for “El Scotcho” and was given a few drams of Ballantine’s Finest blended Scotch. Popeye would prefer it neat, but the language barrier resulted in his accidentally ordering it on the rocks.

André: Avec glace? (“With ice?”)
Popeye: Yeah, in a glass.

During his detox, Barthélémy treats Popeye to Gaston de Legrange cognac, which Popeye marvels is “good stuff” that he wouldn’t normally be drinking back home. A bottle of this is also present during their dockside stakeout, though Popeye seems to stick to [multiple] bottles of Heineken.

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How to Get the Look

Popeye Doyle doesn’t have any qualms about looking like a tacky tourist as he runs through the streets of Marseille with his incongruously paired gray-toned 1960s tailoring and brash tropical-printed aloha shirt—as well as his signature porkpie hat, which is eventually lost during his misadventures.

• Blue tropical-print raylon short-sleeved aloha shirt with spread collar, plain 4-button front, and two non-matching chest pockets
• Dark-gray windowpane-check single-breasted 2-button sport jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, spaced 2-button cuffs, and single vent
• Charcoal-gray flat-front trousers with belt loops, side pockets, button-through back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Black leather belt with gold-toned rectangular single-prong buckle
• Black calf leather squared moc-toe 3-eyelet derby shoes
• Black cotton lisle socks

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

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The Quote

I’ll knock your dick stiff!