This film about an armored car heist has a script with more holes in it than Swiss cheese, but just forget all that and enjoy the action and fun.
It's about that late 50's production code busting vibe, about gangsters who, like James Cagney's Cody Jarrett, now found themselves made obsolete by police with high tech methods, and about musical numbers that are inserted into the film that are half old-style production number half coffee-house beatnik stuff.
Don't think too hard! Don't ask yourself why the best-of-the-bad gangsters (Gerald Mohr as Chuck Wheeler) in the film manages to win the heart of nightclub singer Vi Victor (Mamie Van Doren) when the first thing he does when they meet is slap her and paw her like she has no say in the matter or how he endears himself to her for only killing three people instead of five. Don't ask yourself why Vi bothers to put on a robe when she answers the door in the middle of the night when that robe is practically transparent and then she lets it "all hang out" by not closing the robe. Don't ponder why Vi's estranged convict husband (Lee Van Cleef as Mike Bennett) breaks out of prison just three months before his parole and then ruins a heist that was his idea in the first place by killing two of the three people involved in the heist the day before the job. By the way, Bennett would have been up for parole, not just automatically released. I can't believe that any parole board would have taken one look at that snarling animal and done anything but send him back to finish his sentence.
Finally, don't ask yourself why when the heist finally comes off that the crooks just didn't leave the easily identified armored car in the garage in the first place and take off with the money in a "civilian" car or why when things went bad they went BACK to the garage where the armored car last reported its status - flat tire - where they had to know the cops were headed.
The ending is a hoot with a voice over reminiscent of the old "Highway Patrol" series in which the film has to make a hero out of....the armored car??? ... with the announcer saying "it did what it was designed to do". A real hoot and highly recommended for the fun of it all.
It's about that late 50's production code busting vibe, about gangsters who, like James Cagney's Cody Jarrett, now found themselves made obsolete by police with high tech methods, and about musical numbers that are inserted into the film that are half old-style production number half coffee-house beatnik stuff.
Don't think too hard! Don't ask yourself why the best-of-the-bad gangsters (Gerald Mohr as Chuck Wheeler) in the film manages to win the heart of nightclub singer Vi Victor (Mamie Van Doren) when the first thing he does when they meet is slap her and paw her like she has no say in the matter or how he endears himself to her for only killing three people instead of five. Don't ask yourself why Vi bothers to put on a robe when she answers the door in the middle of the night when that robe is practically transparent and then she lets it "all hang out" by not closing the robe. Don't ponder why Vi's estranged convict husband (Lee Van Cleef as Mike Bennett) breaks out of prison just three months before his parole and then ruins a heist that was his idea in the first place by killing two of the three people involved in the heist the day before the job. By the way, Bennett would have been up for parole, not just automatically released. I can't believe that any parole board would have taken one look at that snarling animal and done anything but send him back to finish his sentence.
Finally, don't ask yourself why when the heist finally comes off that the crooks just didn't leave the easily identified armored car in the garage in the first place and take off with the money in a "civilian" car or why when things went bad they went BACK to the garage where the armored car last reported its status - flat tire - where they had to know the cops were headed.
The ending is a hoot with a voice over reminiscent of the old "Highway Patrol" series in which the film has to make a hero out of....the armored car??? ... with the announcer saying "it did what it was designed to do". A real hoot and highly recommended for the fun of it all.