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.

Sy's accomplices become aware of his involvement, and he seeks to fend them off as well as the unwelcome attention of Phelan, a police detective who dislikes him.

Because of his surreptitious taping, Devlin learns that Sy is deceiving him about the amount of money the insurance company agrees to pay for the jewels.

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.

[1] Los Angeles Times reviewer Don Page called The Connection a "90-minute exercise in character delineation," well-played by a largely Broadway cast.