El reparto

Richard Stark's novel "The Seventh" becomes a great-looking all-star heist flick with a football backdrop which, unfortunately, completely falls apart in the final quarter. Drifting thief, apparently a genius at concocting schemes and rounding up partners, comes up with a brilliant plan to rob the cash-office at the Los Angeles Coliseum during a football game. Selecting his ex-con cohorts by means of making them display their muscles (not especially their skills) is rather perplexing, though it works for the movie. What doesn't work is a sharp left turn in the narrative about an hour into the proceedings, with an absolutely unbelievable (and unforgivable) turn of events pitting the robbers against each other. This ridiculous third act smacks of desperation, and leaves Gene Hackman (as a somewhat dirty detective) with nothing but absurdity to play opposite. The rest of the cast does well until the screenplay drops the ball, and Burnett Guffey's cinematography is first-rate. *1/2 from ****

An underrated actioner from the Swinging Sixties, ''The Split'' boasts an incredible cast. Though former football great Jim Brown gets star billing, the meaty parts go to such reliable performers as Julie Harris, Ernest Borgnine, Jack Klugman,Gene Hackman, James Whitmore Warren Oates and Donald Sutherland. The story, about a well-planned and well-executed robbery (which takes place during a Football Game at the L.A Coliseum)is taut and mean.Hard-Bitten Harris and Career Criminal Brown hatch the plot, and it's up to him to round up a suitable group of thugs capable of pulling it off. And a nastier bunch has seldom been seen on screen. Donald Sutherland, in an early part as a psychopathic sadist, really makes his presence felt, as do Borgnine, Klugman and Oates (as usual.) As the leader of this group, Brown has a rather one note part. He's given little room for displaying anything much besides toughness. Diahann Carroll is wasted once again, as his ex-wife, who still loves him, and though she's the only ''good'' character in the story,she's supposedly tainted by her association with Brown. On the sidelines are seedy landlord Whitmore, and crooked cop Hackman. Both are excellent, but it's Julie Harris, successfully cast against type as the ''Brains''behind the scheme, who comes close to stealing the picture.(And, considering the rest of the cast, that's no small achievement.)Still, Hooker Joyce Jameson gets the best line, when she tells prospective client Oates: ''If you catch anything from me, it WON'T be a cold ''. Naturally, the real tension comes toward the end of the story, when the gang turn on each other, but until then, there's still plenty worth seeing.Yes, the ''Thieves Fall Out'' plot has been done before, but it's the twists and turns this movie takes that provide the excitement. Director Gordon Flemying maintains a brisk pace throughout, slowing down only for the obligatory ''love scenes''.The photography is excellent, and the same goes for Quincy Jones moody score (available on cd). The other technical credits are equally fine. This month, the ''Warner Archives'' will release the film, for the first time on home video. The DVD will be in it's original Anamorphic (Panavision) Widescreen aspect ratio, and, judging from the sample clip provided, should look fine. Hopefully, the snappy Theatrical Trailer will be provided as well. As the ads for the film proclaimed: ''Watch what happens when it's time for ''The Split''!.

After football great Jim Brown died recently, I decided to watch two of his films he made after retiring from the sport that made him famous. I've long been interested in watching this one because I found out it was the first one to be rated R after the Motion PIcture Association of America (now simply reduced to Motion Picture Association) started doing the letter ratings system. R at the time meant that "no one under 16 admitted without parent or adult guardian" only raising the age limit to 17 two years later. Anyway, Brown ends up planning a heist of the box office earnings from a football game with Donald Sutherland, Ernest Borgnine (two of Brown's previous co-stars from The Dirty Dozen), Warren Oates, Jack Klugman, and Julie Harris in on the action. Diahann Carroll is his leading lady and Gene Hackman is a police detective on the trail. I liked most of the goings-on most of the time though I admit some scenes confused me. But The Split was really intriguing to me especially when Quincy Jones' score was used. So I recommend The Split for anyone looking for one of Jim Brown's early films. Next, I'll review him in El Condor.

Near the beginning of this film, there is a fistfight, but it's not exciting because we don't know why the two men are fighting. A little later, there is a car chase, but it's not exciting either, because we don't know who's chasing whom or why. Later still, we find out the answers to those questions, but two potentially good action scenes have been wasted. And then the movie turns into a standard heist flick....thankfully only for a while. The focus here is not on the actual heist, but more on the aftermath. And it's there that the movie finally goes in unexpected directions.

There is, for example, the bizarre scene in which a man gets off on shooting someone with a machine-gun. There is the memorable image of a white sheet that gradually "absorbs" the blood of the body that's underneath it, and red spots start appearing on it. And there some neat plot twists along the way, mostly involving a character (I won't say which) that enters the picture when you least expect him to.

If the whole movie was as good as its final 30 minutes, I'd give it one more star, but for now this gets a ** rating.

The cast list of this film reads like a who's who of 60's and 70's Hollywood character actors. While they don't all get a chance to really shine here, their familiar faces and inherent skills help move this heist flick along nicely. Brown is a ne'er do well thief who returns to Los Angeles just in time to help Harris mastermind the robbery of the L.A. Coliseum during a Rams play-off game. He enlists the aid of four disparate men (Borgnine, Klugman, Oates and Sutherland) who form a tenuous alliance, working as a unit just long enough to get the job done and split the $500,000 take. The heist itself is suspensefully handled and skillfully done, but the primary thrust of the story kicks in when it's time to divvy out the loot, hence the title of the film (brought home even more in the title of the source novel.) Brown, though stiff at times, is such a physical presence (and an amiable one) that he anchors the story well, faltering only when it's called upon him to enact scenes of grief. Harris is tough-as-nails as a hard, (big!) red-haired schemer. All of the men in the gang give their customary polished and distinct performances. Borgnine is, of course, the most blustery. Klugman (who would return to this venue in "Two Minute Warning") plays the nervous one. Oates gives the most texture to his role as a wary safe-cracker. Sutherland is a class-act hit man with the necessary cool and effortlessness. Carroll is very attractive in a thankless role of decoration/plot device. Hackman turns up late as the police detective assigned to a murder related to the heist and gives a decent performance. Trivia buffs will note that one of the clerks (Joseph) provided the voice of Melody in the 70's cartoon series "Josie and the Pussycats". Nearly all of the roles in the film are filled with people who worked extensively as guest stars in major television series. The film is creatively directed, contains bouncy Quincy Jones music and clips along at a very tight pace except for a mouthwash commercial-esque romantic montage between Brown and Carroll. Some of the plot elements are pretty preposterous (such as Brown's initial sequences of "auditioning" the heist participants), but it makes for interesting viewing. The movie serves as a fun time capsule of the era's fashions and procedures (check out the hair on Borgnine's secretary!) The story is never completely predictable and is at home with other similar (if more polished and better known) films from that time such as "Bullit" and "The Thomas Crown Affair".