The movie THE FRENCH CONNECTION makes a lot of "Top" lists for best movie, ever. A good and perhaps great movie, to be sure. However, when you think of THE FRENCH CONNECTION what usually comes to mind? "Ever pick your feet in Poughkeepsie?" Or maybe its the car chase scene? Maybe its the directing by William Friedkin? The Acting? Rarely, if ever, does anyone blurt out Ernest Tidyman's screenplay! Most of you probably have never heard of the man.

Tidyman started out as a novelist and is probably best known for his novels featuring the cool and hip detective John Shaft. He  co-write the script for SHAFT (1971) which came out the same year as THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971). Tidyman's screenplay for TFC did get recognition, however, as he won  an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, as well as a Golden Globe Award and a Writers Guild of America award. (TFC was based on a true story about a  heroin arrest in 1961.)

Tidyman also wrote the screenplay for the 1973 film HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER -- Clint Eastwood directed and starred in. Tidyman wrote for television and continued to write novels. He died in 1984.