Tony Ferris' older brother Gino escapes from prison and plans to steal a casino's futuristic high-tech armored car. He and his gang are all killed... but then Tony plans a 2nd attempt, with far-more careful planning. This involves getting information from Ann Bennett-- the mistress of Steve Skorsky, whose security company built the "impregnable" armored car. They manage the seeming-impossible, and pull off an incredibly-complex heist in the middle of the Nevada desert-- before things go wrong, as they always do in old "heist" films.
But early on, the plot throws in a huge twist. It seems the "insurance investigator" is really a Federal agent from the Treasury Department (gee, like Elliot Ness!) who's out to NAIL Skorsky for something HE's doing that's illegal! So you have two different forces going after Skorsky at the same time, each unaware of the other's existence or intentions-- until the robbery happens.
What we have here is a European thriller (a Spanish-Italian-French-West German co-production) filmed partly in Spain and partly in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco-- with all that entails. There's English dubbing after-the-fact, some INCREDIBLY-cool jazz music, lots of style over personality, but with a plot that gets SO twisted, SO complex (especially in the last half-hour) that I was MESMERIZED, trying to guess from one moment to another, WHERE is this all going? I wouldn't say this was the greatest heist film ever made, but I LOVED it!
Gary Lockwood (STAR TREK, 2001) is "Tony Ferris", who very determinedly plans and executes the incredible heist, with the sometime-reluctant help of his girlfriend. Even when things go wrong (among other things, one of his own gang goes rebel and really should have been killed about halfway through the film), Tony keeps his head.
Elke Sommer (A SHOT IN THE DARK) is "Ann Bennett", Skorsky's mistress and Tony's lover, who winds up being trailed both by the cops and by the Mafia in the last act.
Lee J. Cobb (12 ANGRY MEN, COOGAN'S BLUFF) is "Steve Skorsky", whose reputation for his security company masks his MAFIA connections.
Jack Palance (Dan Curtis' DRACULA) is "Douglas", who's posing as an insurance investigator while all the time is secretly trying to take down not only Skorsky but his Mafia bosses. WHO ever imagined Palance would be playing a GOOD guy in one of these things? Certainly not me. One of the best parts was his relationship with the local sheriff, who's as anxious to clear up the case as Douglas is, and helps him keep the top people in D. C. at bay when it looks like the whole operation may fall apart. When they finally get a lead, you can see both men are really thrilled about just doing their jobs.
Jean Servais is "Gino", whose robbery attempt goes tragically, fatally wrong. Back in 1955, he played "Tony le Stéphanois", who masterminded the jewelry heist in RIFIFI.
I never even heard of this movie until a few weeks before I got the 2010 Warner Archive DVD. I heard about it from IMDB reviewer "SearchAndDestroy-1", who pointed out that the actual robbery in this film apparently was swiped outright for the 1972 TV pilot of BANACEK, with George Peppard as the freelance insurance investigator who gets 10% of whatever he recovers. I'm planning to get my hands on that series on DVD sometime soon, but wanted to get this film first! One of the best things about this film is that they never tell you how Tony plans to steal the truck in advance-- you find out AS it's happening!
I was half surprised the Warner DVD didn't have a foreign language dub on it. Or any extras at all. Oh well! At least it was CHEAP. The ending left me wondering about the fate of Tony & Ann. SURE, they were guilty of so many things (including the murder of TWO Federal agents and one innocent bystander). But the way things panned out, I wouldn't be surprised if some Federal judge didn't give both of them a suspended sentence.
But early on, the plot throws in a huge twist. It seems the "insurance investigator" is really a Federal agent from the Treasury Department (gee, like Elliot Ness!) who's out to NAIL Skorsky for something HE's doing that's illegal! So you have two different forces going after Skorsky at the same time, each unaware of the other's existence or intentions-- until the robbery happens.
What we have here is a European thriller (a Spanish-Italian-French-West German co-production) filmed partly in Spain and partly in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco-- with all that entails. There's English dubbing after-the-fact, some INCREDIBLY-cool jazz music, lots of style over personality, but with a plot that gets SO twisted, SO complex (especially in the last half-hour) that I was MESMERIZED, trying to guess from one moment to another, WHERE is this all going? I wouldn't say this was the greatest heist film ever made, but I LOVED it!
Gary Lockwood (STAR TREK, 2001) is "Tony Ferris", who very determinedly plans and executes the incredible heist, with the sometime-reluctant help of his girlfriend. Even when things go wrong (among other things, one of his own gang goes rebel and really should have been killed about halfway through the film), Tony keeps his head.
Elke Sommer (A SHOT IN THE DARK) is "Ann Bennett", Skorsky's mistress and Tony's lover, who winds up being trailed both by the cops and by the Mafia in the last act.
Lee J. Cobb (12 ANGRY MEN, COOGAN'S BLUFF) is "Steve Skorsky", whose reputation for his security company masks his MAFIA connections.
Jack Palance (Dan Curtis' DRACULA) is "Douglas", who's posing as an insurance investigator while all the time is secretly trying to take down not only Skorsky but his Mafia bosses. WHO ever imagined Palance would be playing a GOOD guy in one of these things? Certainly not me. One of the best parts was his relationship with the local sheriff, who's as anxious to clear up the case as Douglas is, and helps him keep the top people in D. C. at bay when it looks like the whole operation may fall apart. When they finally get a lead, you can see both men are really thrilled about just doing their jobs.
Jean Servais is "Gino", whose robbery attempt goes tragically, fatally wrong. Back in 1955, he played "Tony le Stéphanois", who masterminded the jewelry heist in RIFIFI.
I never even heard of this movie until a few weeks before I got the 2010 Warner Archive DVD. I heard about it from IMDB reviewer "SearchAndDestroy-1", who pointed out that the actual robbery in this film apparently was swiped outright for the 1972 TV pilot of BANACEK, with George Peppard as the freelance insurance investigator who gets 10% of whatever he recovers. I'm planning to get my hands on that series on DVD sometime soon, but wanted to get this film first! One of the best things about this film is that they never tell you how Tony plans to steal the truck in advance-- you find out AS it's happening!
I was half surprised the Warner DVD didn't have a foreign language dub on it. Or any extras at all. Oh well! At least it was CHEAP. The ending left me wondering about the fate of Tony & Ann. SURE, they were guilty of so many things (including the murder of TWO Federal agents and one innocent bystander). But the way things panned out, I wouldn't be surprised if some Federal judge didn't give both of them a suspended sentence.