An einem Freitag in Las Vegas

Lee J. Cobb, Jack Palance, Elke Sommer and Gary Lockwood (2001) in caper film set in Las Vegas. Some wonderful actors who don't really have the chance to interact. Elke is fabulous as usual, but we don't see enough of her, and her dalliances with Cobb and Lockwood to create any real excitement. Palance and Cobb growl their best but are let down by the ponderous pace. Some great scenes and ideas (hiding the armored car in the middle of the Nevada desert), and some truncated interplay between Palance and Sommer that suggests that a lot was left on the cutting room floor. But great fun to watch just to see a great looking classic sixties cast. Whatever happened to Gary Lockwood?

I can remember watching this film when it came out and it has been one of my favourites ever since.

The atmosphere is slow but that is the correct pace as the relationship between Tony and Ann is explored as well as her relationship with Skorsky. Also, the tension between the thieves is very real especially as things don't go exactly to plan. Cooper is an idiot but there is always one in every gang and it sometimes doesn`t show up until they are put into a stress related situation.

There are two plots going through the film. Firstly we have Skorsky (played superbly by Cobb,) moving money for the Mob and wanting out and secondly we have Tony planning to steal one of Skorsky`s trucks. Tony doesn't realise what he is going to find when he finally gets inside the truck. Also, the treasury department are after Skorsky for his financial dealings and we have them just one step behind him all throughout the film.

There are some excellent moments of complete realism, the killing in the casino and the scant regard for life that the gang has as they murder a passer by in the dessert `Just in case'. Tony's instruction to end this unfortunate person's life was simply `Chop him'.

I have just managed to obtain a CD of the music to this film by George Garvarentz via Amazon. I wish the video of the film was available, a widescreen version would be very collectable. Especially if people knew that Gary Lockwood`s (Tony,) previous film had been 2001.

Love the red 1966 Chevy Covair COSA covertible in the desert. Later we see it parked in front of the courthouse where they call it a 1964- I don't think so. . Thus film does give a pretty good ' snapshot ' of the Las Vegas and Los Angeles of the late sixties. Elke is super good and has to submit the routes on computer punch cards! It has a lot of gadgets and taoe recodte3 and video screens presaging the future. That Gary Lockwood would go on to be the co star of one of the seminal futuristic films of all time - only to be killed by a computer , HAL, I. 2001 : A Space Odyssey, is also interesting.

After his aging mentor gets killed in a holdup, a youthful criminal protégé named Tony (Gary Lockwood) and his girlfriend Ann (Elke Sommer) plot an armored car heist in the desert southwest of Las Vegas. But things get complicated as Ann works for the armored car owner named Skorsky (Lee J. Cobb) who has ties to the Mafia. And the Feds are trying to nail Skorsky. Still, Tony thinks he can pull it off because, unlike his mentor, Tony has a more modern outlook. When Ann says to Tony: "Nobody can get into a Skorsky truck", Tony replies: " ... it can be done, just a question of information, like where's the key ... see, it's all so simple; information".

The plot starts out okay but bogs down in the middle; the film could probably have been shortened by at least twenty minutes. But I have to say that Tony's solution to hiding the armored car is ingenious; and the film is worth watching if for no other reason.

This is a European production, and it shows. Dialogue is dubbed; some of the actors are Italian or French. And the score sounds like what one would hear in a Spaghetti Western, cold and haunting. But it's the production design and costumes that render this film locked into a cinematic time capsule.

Blonde bimbos wear mini-skirts. Vehicles include Olds Toronados, Pontiac GTOs, Vokswagon bugs, station wagons, and Corvairs. In desert scenes, men use walkie-talkies. And the casting of Elke Sommer adds to the time capsule feel, with her ten-inch long false eyelashes. Computers are big clunky stand-alone machines that use cardboard punch cards and reel-to-reel tapes. And the dialogue doesn't help either; at one point Ann is referred to as a "broad".

Acting is borderline acceptable, except for Elke Sommer, whose robotic movements and emotionless expressions make her seem like some kind of futuristic mannequin. Cinematography is dark, and there are lots of close-up and extreme close-up shots. At one point in the second half there's a physical fight. Because of the photography or maybe because of the Direction, I couldn't tell who was doing what to whom. Rear-screen projection in some scenes also dates the production. And there are a lot of scenes shot along the Sunset Strip in Vegas, which may have been stock footage.

Undeniably different, especially in the way the armored truck is concealed, this gritty film is worth watching once. But the viewer needs to have high tolerance for dated elements, which make the film time-bound, to the point of unintentional humor at times.

I saw this movie as a child and still remember it. It has one of those plots that's so interesting that you don't forget it. It reminds me of "Sudden Fury"(Canadian) and "Loophole" (UK). Wish they'd bring it out on DVD. I remember Elke Summer and Lee J. Cobb in it. Didn't recall Jack Palance at all. The movie is very believable and the plot and motives of the characters interesting. At one point it seems the whole thing has reached a stalemate and you didn't have a sense of what direction the plot is going to take which was right down my street. Hate those movies where you can guess how the plot will play out and it does just that. If you want a movie with an unpredictable and interesting plot this is it.