Former NYPD Detective Randy Jurgensen watched the classic car chase in “The French Connection” from a front row seat: The passenger’s side of Popeye Doyle’s 1970 four-door Pontiac sedan.
The ex-cop worked as a technical advisor for director William Friedkin on the Academy Award-winning film. And Friedkin was hell-bent on creating an unprecedented cinematic spectacle as the fictional Doyle pursued an international heroin dealer inside the subway above on an elevated stretch of the L train in Brooklyn.
“Billy decides we’re doing to up the ante a little bit,” recalls Jurgensen, now in his 80s, over coffee and bagels at a Westchester County diner. “So off we go. No flashing lights, no city permits, no protective gear. Nothing.”
The speeding Pontiac, in a touch of cinema verite, bounced off a city bus and lost a rear view mirror that banged against its side as Jurgensen rode shotgun during the non-stop 26-block tear along Stillwell Ave. With two cameras inside and a third mounted on the front bumper, the car screeched back to its starting spot and the cheers of the crew.
Jurgensen, who also played a cop in the movie, reminisced with the Daily News as “The French Connection” marks a pair of anniversaries: 50 years since the movie premiere. And 60 years since the legendary seizure of 112 pounds of imported French heroin.
The movie endures as a film classic and its unique two-level pursuit is still routinely cited as one of the greatest ever. The film captured five Oscars in 1972, including best picture, best actor for Gene Hackman and best director for Friedkin.
The real-life probe made headlines again that same year with a plot twist wilder than anything on the silver screen.
The case began as detectives Eddie (Popeye) Egan and Sonny Grosso enjoyed a cocktail inside the Copacabana, where the pair noticed a table of bad guys to ignite the 1961 investigation into the Gallic dope dealers and their New York buyers.
Both men are now gone, with Grosso passing last year at the age of 89.
“And so, I’m the last living cop linked to the ‘French Connection,'” the Manhattan-born Jurgensen says wistfully. His involvement on the film actually began with a phone call from Grosso, by then his partner in the 28th Precinct.
“He says, ‘They’re gonna make a ‘French Connection’ movie, and we need you here right now,'” recalled Jurgensen. “I say okay, and Sonny tells me to come over to the East Side, all the way over by the river.”
Jurgensen arrived to find Friedkin working with his first choice for the role of Doyle: Daily News columnist Jimmy Breslin, who proved a better reporter than cop (and balked at driving a car). Jackie Gleason and Robert Mitchum were also considered before the part went to Hackman, with Roy Scheider playing his partner Buddy Russo.
Jurgenson was hired as a consultant, squiring Friedkin to an assortment of squalid crime scenes as the director soaked up the atmosphere like a sponge.
“We took out a shooting gallery … Billy almost wants to be the first guy through the door!” recalls Jurgensen. “In the end, Billy Friedkin was a New York City homicide detective. He was well-armed in the knowledge of how it works in the streets, because that’s where it all happens.”
Jurgensen provided the same services for Hackman, and the detective keeps a photo of the actor practicing pat-down techniques as he plays the part of a suspect — with both hands against a wall.
Jurgensen went on to enjoy a show biz career of his own. He played one of the Mafia soldiers gunning down Sonny Corleone at a toll booth in “The Godfather,” and the 1980 Al Pacino flick “Cruising” (with Jurgensen as an NYPD lieutenant) was based on one of his undercover investigations.
He also worked as a technical advisor on “Die Hard with a Vengeance,” and played a cop in the first “Superman” movie with Christopher Reeve.
The release of “The French Connection” was not the end of the tale. One year later, 57 pounds of the seized French heroin disappeared from an NYPD property clerk’s office — a true-crime sequel that left red-faced police officials baffled.
“$12M IN DOPE GONE” screamed one Daily News headline. No one was ever charged in the thefts.
Before finishing his coffee, Jurgensen shares a final memory of the epic shoot: A rehearsal of the scene where Hackman guns down an unarmed French drug dealer to end the car/subway chase. The outraged Jurgensen instantly squawked that the killing violated every police protocol imaginable.
Friedkin was unmoved, declaring it worked for him. The scene, along with the bad guy, was shot as scripted.
Fast forward to the Oscar-winning movie’s 1971 Manhattan premiere. As Hackman opens fire and the Frenchman goes down, the audience explodes with raucous delight.
“A roar like you can’t believe,” Jurgensen recounts. “Billy Friedkin comes running up the aisle of the theater to me and he said, ‘Randy, I f—ing told you it works for me. It works for the audience. I hope the f–k it works for you!'”
