Gritty thriller and robbery from 1971with
a terrific cast. The film begins with Anderson (Sean Connery) being filmed
in a psychology session in jail where he compares stealing and breaking into
a safe to rape - in a good way. You know this film isn't from today. After
he gets released, he goes to visit his old girlfriend, now a kept woman,
(a terrific performance from Dyan Cannon) and his first words to her are
"I haven't been laid in 10 years" and he doesn't have to say much else. He
puts together a gang to pull off a robbery - of an entire luxury condominium
- every apartment - and his gang includes a flamboyantly gay Martin Balsam
and Christopher Walken in one of his first grown-up roles. Other support
comes from Alan King as a mobster, Ralph Meeker (Mike Hammer in Kiss Me Deadly)
as a tough no nonsense cop called Iron Balls, Garret Morris as a cop and
Margaret Hamilton (The Wicked Witch) as one of the robbery victims.
Director Sidney Lumet was in the middle of a ten year streak of the best
films of his career - Fail Safe, The Hill (also starring Connery), Serpico,
Dog Day Afternoon and Network. Lumet loses control of the film a bit towards
the end with some misplaced comedy and a rushed ending - but it is great
seeing an old fashioned caper that is totally not dependent on fancy technology.
