If I was asked for one of my favorite genre's of movies it would be the "Heist" film. The caper film has been around for awhile but starting in the 1950's it came in to it's own with such films as The Killing and Rififi. The heist film offers such potential for a writer. They can be played for suspense, or laughs or both.
One of my favorites is the Robert Redford film The Hot Rock. Based on the novel by Donald E. Westlake it follows the adventures of John Dortmunder (Redford) who is a master at planning complicated crimes, his only problem seems to be, he always gets caught.
We meet Dortmunder coming out of jail where he is picked up, in a stolen car, by his brother in law Andy Kelp (George Segal) a locksmith and wannabee criminal.
Kelp has the perfect heist lined up. A rare African diamond is on display at the Brooklyn Museum. An African diplomat, Dr. Amusa (Moses Gunn) from a neighboring country wants it stolen. He agrees to hire Dortmunder, kelp and two other members of his gang; getaway driver Stan Murch (Ron Leibman) and explosives expert Allan Greenburg (Paul Sand)
A complicated heist is planned and it almost goes off without a hitch until Allan is caught and arrested with the diamond in his possession. This leads to a prison breakout, a raid on a police precinct and when the group runs afoul of Allan father, attorney Abe Greenberg (Zero Mostel), they must figure out how to get into Abe's safety deposit box before Dr. Amusa fires them all without paying them a penny.
Redford is excellent as the cool Dortmunder, suffering with gastric distress and Segal plays off him well as his hapless cohort. Zero Mostel stands out as always as the sly, conniving lawyer and father.
The movie is both suspenseful and hilarious and is one of the best heist movies ever made. All I can say is Afghanistan, Banana Stand!!
At The Movie House rating ***1/2 stars
1 comment:
The highlight of this movie is the great filming of New York, including parts of Nassau County...quite a good movie....If they made it today, the jerks would have Nicholas Cage blowing stuff up and everyone going Wow, did you see him blow stuff up...the other morons would answer, No, I was on my ipod watching movies of people blowing stuff up
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