Bank officers Manny Benchly (Richard Basehart), Julius Taggart (Ned Beatty), and Jack Stutz (Burgess Meredith) discover $100k is missing from their small town bank. In order to avoid any scandal, they decide to cook the books and fake a robbery. Head bank clerk Richard Smedley (Paul Sand) is being enticed. People start confessing to Reverend Manigma (Michael Murphy).
I love the premise and these three are great veteran actors. This movie has great potential. Smedley is the first problem. His confession is annoying. I'm willing to buy the pathetic loser but the rest doesn't make sense. The three men should make him their patsy right away. The easiest move is for them to go to the police with his confession. They could claim ignorance. When the money amounts don't match up, the suspicion would land squarely on Smedley. As for Smedley himself, he's already confessed. What he does afterwards makes even less sense. These people start acting dumb and the story stops being compelling. For this movie to work, these need to be smart people. This has to be a smart movie. Initially, I thought the three leads are those smart people.
I love the premise and these three are great veteran actors. This movie has great potential. Smedley is the first problem. His confession is annoying. I'm willing to buy the pathetic loser but the rest doesn't make sense. The three men should make him their patsy right away. The easiest move is for them to go to the police with his confession. They could claim ignorance. When the money amounts don't match up, the suspicion would land squarely on Smedley. As for Smedley himself, he's already confessed. What he does afterwards makes even less sense. These people start acting dumb and the story stops being compelling. For this movie to work, these need to be smart people. This has to be a smart movie. Initially, I thought the three leads are those smart people.