THE FRENCH CONNECTION 2 opens in New York. Directed by John Frankenheimer. Written by Alexander Jacobs, Robert Dillon and Laurie Dillon. Fictional extension of the largely fact-based events covered in the earlier film finds Gene Hackman's pugnacious New York narcotics cop "Popeye" Doyle butting heads with law enforcement in Marseilles, France as his ongoing obsessive pursuit of the drug kingpin (Fernando Rey) that eluded him in New York some three years earlier heads towards a grim showdown. A punchy, potent sequel with Hackman, particularly in an extended sequence depicting his character's forced descent into drug addition hell, once again in full tour-de-force mode. Also starring Bernard Fresson, Philippe Leotard and Cathleen Nesbitt.