$
                       
Director: Richard Brooks
Year: 1971
Rating: 7.0
Aka - Dollars


Driven by a funky Quincy Jones soundtrack, this heist film barely takes a breath. It was produced during that period of the 1960's and 70's in which they were quite popular and generally charming with major matinee male stars - and not very violent - this one a little grittier than most. Some of my other favorite heist films from those days are The Italian Job with Michael Caine, Oceans 11 with the Rat Pack, Topkapi from director Jules Dassin who had earlier directed the amazing classic heist film Rififi, The Thomas Crown Affair with McQueen, Gambit again with Michael Caine, Beatty in Kaleidoscope which was sort of a heist film, Hot Rock with Redford and Segal, How to Steal a Million with O'Toole and Audrey Hepburn, The Anderson Tapes with Sean Connery and a bunch of others that won't come to mind. They were good family fun in the theater.


 
It begins with a frantic blink and you will miss merry-go-round montage of various characters - who all seem to be up to no good. But it takes a while before you begin to sense who they all are and what the plot of the film is. It is all about the money. Who has it and who wants it. Three different crooks have it and are keeping it in safety boxes in a Hamburg bank that is managed by Gert Frobe (who isn't a killer or crook for a change). Warren Beatty is the American whiz kid who is an expert on security and has built a robber-proof set of protections. Robert Webber, Scott Brady and Arthur Brauss are the crooks who keep their illegal gains in the bank. Beatty wants their money. As he explains to his confederate call-girl Goldie Hawn, they can't report that their money has been stolen because they stole it. The heist is actually a fairly simple affair compared to most of the other heist films at the time since he knows all the ins and outs of the system. It is the getting way from the bad guys that is more difficult.

 

This one is slightly schizophrenic as it bounces back and forth between a ditzy Goldie Hawn with her customers and a fairly tense bank heist and then the getaway. That final chase seems to go on longer than a Russian novel. It is exhausting to watch. Beatty basically walks through this film - charming and glib as ever, but not having to show much emotion or range. Good fun film that seems to have disappeared in the cracks of time. Perhaps titling it $ wasn't a great idea. It is directed by Richard Brooks and is a surprise for him to helm such a light film after fare like Elmer Gantry, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Lord Jim and In Cold Blood. Maybe he needed a laugh.