The Connection is an ABC Movie of the Week that was broadcast on February 27, 1973, starring Charles Durning as an out-of-work newspaper reporter who becomes involved with jewel thieves.
Synopsis
Frank Devlin is a popular newspaper columnist who is now out of work and in debt. A young man he knows through his regular poker game, Sy McGruder, approaches him through his wife, June. Sy was one of the robbers and now wants to sell back the jewels to the insurance company.
Devlin agrees in return for ten percent of the proceeds. But Sy and his wife double-cross him. The movie ends with a high-speed chase through the West Side of Manhattan in which Sy and his wife are prevented from making off with the insurance money.
Cast
Charles Durning as Frank Devlin
Ronny Cox as Everett Hutchneker
Zohra Lampert as Hannah
Dennis Cole as Sy McGruder
Heather MacRae as June McGruder
Howard Cosell as Himself
Mike Kellin as Pillo
Dana Wynter as Eleanor Warren
Richard Bright as BeeJay
Joe Keyes Jr. as Dewey
Tom Rosqui as Detective Phelan
Christopher Allport as Richard Wilcox
Norman Bush as Gilson
Franklin Cover as Lee Harris
Dan Frazer as Verplanck
Frank Gio as Kloss
Merwin Goldsmith as Summons Server
Burt Young as Ernie
Reception
New York Times reviewer John J. O'Connor wrote that the plot "had holes wide enough to need a car chase or two" but praised the directing by Tom Gries and the performance by Charles Durning, whose character he described as resembling Jimmy Breslin.
