The French Connection Scene 22 Summary

  • Back at Sal and Angie's shop, Sal exits, looking around suspiciously, then chides Angie, in a blonde wig, to come along.
  • A shot of the Pan Am Building pans down to the street below, Sal getting out of his LTD, and Angie driving away in it.
  • Popeye and Cloudy pull up, and Cloudy gets out, running down the block after Sal, into a parking structure.
  • As Sal walks down the parking ramp, he looks around for Sal, but he's nowhere.
  • Just then, Sal comes out from behind a column. "I can't seem to find the damn ticket," Cloudy stutters.
  • Sal nods, and lights a cigar, while Cloudy tries to seem inconspicuous.
  • The valet brings around a brown Lincoln Mk III, with French plates—the same car, it seems, that Devereaux brought over on the ship. Sal takes the keys from the valet and drives out.
  • Cloudy sticks around, talking to the valet in nonsense, then runs after the car as soon as it's back out on the street, and gets into Popeye's ride, points out the car. They follow.
  • The Lincoln drives down cobblestone streets, and Popeye and Cloudy follow.
  • Sal parks the Lincoln and gets out, and the cops pull over and tell Klein over the radio of Sal's whereabouts.
  • Angie is waiting for Sal in the LTD. "Cute," Cloudy says over the radio to Klein and Mulderig, and that they'll stay on the Lincoln while the Feds follow Angie and Sal in the LTD.
  • "That car's dirty, Cloudy," Popeye says. He and Cloudy decide to sit on it for as long as they need to.
  • Now it's dark, and a bunch of boys are playing street hockey next to the Lincoln, Popeye at watch, Cloudy snoozing in the back.
  • Just then Sal's white car comes cruising down the block, honks at the boys to move, and drives around the corner.
  • It's later, now, and the boys are gone. Popeye is still watching. So are the Feds, in their own car. The white car comes back. Again, they go around the block.
  • Exhausted, Popeye fondles his watch. It's after 4 a.m. Cloudy is growing impatient.
  • The white car comes back a third time, now, but this time they stop down the block from the Lincoln. A bunch of men get out. "Hit em!" screams Popeye, and they turn on the sirens as the men scatter. Popeye fires his gun in the air. "Freeze!"
  • The cops line everyone up against the wall, and Popeye asks who the leader of the gang is. One man speaks up, saying they saw the car and were going to steal its tires. Popeye says to lock them up.
  • As they go off, Popeye walks down the street, enraged and kicking things.
  • Mulderig tells him there's nothing in the Lincoln but a New York City map. Popeye insists the car's dirty, and wants to take it in and tear it apart.