El mayor robo del siglo

Dino DeLaurentis' "The Brinks Job" actually holds an infamous place in Boston's cinematic history. In an attempt to distance itself from a cheap TV movie quickie (made to capitalize on the announcement of the big-budget film) director William Friedkin decided to shoot his version in Boston at the actual site of the crime -- the Brink's building -- long since converted into a neighborhood parking garage and available to rent out.

There had been a few movies shooting mostly exteriors in Boston in the 70s including the still locally remembered "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" in 1973. But "Brinks" was the largest production ever mounted with Friedkin completely shooting it in the Boston area. And because of what happened during the production, Hollywood avoided shooting anything of this size in Boston for 20 years!

When the movie trucks rolled in, the privateers descended. Suddenly, anything the movie company needed to buy was more expensive and the crew had to conceal who they were when purchasing goods and services. But the worst was what the Teamsters did.

The production wanted the key people of the film to be picked up by limos in the morning and brought back to their hotels in the evening. But the local Teamsters insisted that their drivers be paid to be standing by 24-hours a day, seven days a week which added $1 million to the film's budget. Two Teamster leaders were found guilty of racketeering and mail fraud and sentenced to jail time because of this shake-down. It was learned the Teamsters had been doing this to films shot in Boston for the previous 10 years.

Additionally, the film's Boston production office was held up by armed gunmen who made off with 15 reels of film which were held for $600,000 in ransom. The thieves later lowered their demand to $500,000, but were told over the phone by Friedkin that the footage was duplicates and they could keep them.

Word filtered back to Hollywood to avoid Boston and for nearly 20 years major productions skipped the city and used other places like Philadelphia to stand in for Boston. "A Civil Action" in 1997 represented a turning point and since then the city and the state of Massachusetts cleaned up their act and even sought out film productions by offering an unlimited 25% tax incentive.

Today, Boston and Massachusetts are bustling with more than 30 productions a year with three sound stage facilities and more planned for the area. But in the '80s and most of the '90s, the city was a no-man's land for movies as it paid the price for profiteering off "The Brinks Job."

In 1938 Boston, petty criminal Tony Pino (Peter Falk) and his robbery gang get caught. In 1944, his friend Joe McGinnis (Peter Boyle) picks him up after getting released from prison. He rejoins wife Mary (Gena Rowlands). He gets a new crew which includes idiot brother-in-law Vinnie (Allen Garfield), disturbed war veteran Specs O'Keefe (Warren Oates), and Jazz Maffie (Paul Sorvino). The bumbling crew struggles to rob a candy factory. Tony passes by Brink's and is enticed by the cash. He talks into the warehouse and copies a key. The crew starts stealing from the trucks but no one seems to catch on. They realize the careless security and robs the vault for $1 million. The large amount and notoriety draws in J. Edgar Hoover (Sheldon Leonard).

It's a fine period heist movie from William Friedkin. There's a bit of fun. This is not a high functioning crew. It could easily turn into a more slapstick comedy than it already is. There are some great idiocy like Specs suggesting blasting the vault with a bazooka. There are bits and pieces of goodness but I'm less enamored with the last section. It becomes a muddle as the crew is gathered up. The action is lost and I can't figure out each character. Normally, the action would go bigger into the climax. I do have respect for going the other way including Mary casually making dinner for the cops.

Words almost fail me in talking about how much I love this film, this very funny, very stylish portrayal of what was considered the robbery of the last century.

First of all it could never have been done earlier. J. Edgar Hoover was not a figure to be satirized before May of 1972 when he breathed his last. Sheldon Leonard who plays him here and has him get it all wrong about who pulled the Brink's Armored Car Robbery, would not have taken the role, neither would any other actor. No one wanted to be on that man's bad side. Hoover was not quite the figure you see Leonard play here, though Leonard is fine in the part. Books and films subsequent to his death still really haven't got it quite right about him.

For all of J. Edgar's fulminations about the great Communist conspiracy at work in the Brink's job, the whole point of The Brink's Job is who actually did it. Six very ordinary street criminals, none of them violent felons in any way and one fence who declared himself in on the job.

The group is headed by Peter Falk who should have been Oscar nominated for his portrayal of Tony Pino, the group's leader and planner. You see The Brink's Job, Peter Falk will remain with you forever. A man without complications and hangups, he's a thief because it's his profession. He does have pride in how good he is though.

Some of Falk's best scenes are with his wife Gena Rowlands. She too is a woman who stands by her man. No doubt they came from the same hardscrabble background in Boston's Italian North End and she's completely supportive of him and his work. In particular I love the scene where she's bidding him off to work just like any other wife who's husband had a night job. Don't forget your screwdriver, here's a sandwich in case you get hungry, the scene is priceless.

I also love the scene in the restaurant where he takes her after a nice score. Falk is at the height of his considerable talents as he tells Rowlands of his plans for the Brink's Armored Car Company.

What everyone will love when they see this film is how comparatively easy it was for these knockabout guys from Boston to accomplish stealing over 4 million dollars. This score was so big, it HAD to be the work of a master criminal mind. The thing is it was, the mind was just not in a body where you would expect it to be found.

The others in the mob are Paul Sorvino, Kevin O'Connor, Warren Oates, Gerard Murphy and Peter Boyle who plays the fence. But my favorite in the mob and in the film is Allen Garfield who plays Falk's brother-in-law and sidekick who Falk keeps around for laughs. They have an Abbott&Costello like relationship with everything Garfield touches turning to waste product. My favorite scene in the whole film is when they decide to rob a gum factory payroll. Poor Garfield accidentally presses the wrong switch and he's awash in gumballs. Falk's and Sorvino's differing reactions are priceless.

A lot of the film was shot in Boston which in many ways is a city that tries more than most to keep it's traditional look. I haven't been in that city in about five years, but I daresay you could remake The Brink's Job today in the same area.

But if you did it wouldn't be as good, that isn't possible.

A group of small-time crooks in Boston successfully rob millions of dollars from an inept and complacent security firm, only to get their collars felt.

This film's script is based on real-life events in 1950 and many hundreds of hours of interviews with surviving members of the gang. The film is played part action, part for laughs.

The FBI were convinced that this was the work of organised crime and/or communists, spent a fortune trying to crack the case, and only ever retrieved a small fraction of the loot. Some of the local population treated the crooks as folk heroes, which the authorities were not at all keen on.

The film is basically not at all bad but it is slightly unevenly paced and of course rather slow by modern standards, being (for a movie) fairly realistic. Also whilst Falk is a pretty good actor rather than a one-trick pony , it is difficult to look past Lt Columbo and see him as a small time crook here.

So overall with caveats (I.e. bearing in mind what the film is about and how it is made), I give this 7/10.

What's impressive about "The Brink's Job" is that it's a true story that also manages to be a lighthearted comedy. I had never heard of the Great Brink's Robbery until watching this movie, but William Friedkin managed to turn it into a fun story. Peter Falk, Peter Boyle, Warren Oates, Gena Rowlands, Paul Sorvino, Sheldon Leonard* and the rest of the cast turn in fine performances. It was a pleasant surprise to see Malachy McCourt (the brother of "Angela's Ashes" author Frank McCourt) in a supporting role. It so happened that I had watched this just a few hours after watching the horror-fantasy flick "Q", which also featured him in a supporting role. It was a pure coincidence that I rented two movies that happened to star him.

All in all, a good movie. I suspect that they had fun filming it. Really different turn for Friedkin after "The French Connection" and "The Exorcist".

*Put another way, the movie stars Columbo, Frankenstein's monster, one of the Wild Bunch, the woman under the influence, Henry Kissinger and the producer of several TV shows (and namesake of the main characters on "The Big Bang Theory").