Charley Varrick

Veteran small time crook Charley Varrick and his gang rob a small bank in the south west. Expecting modest takings, Charley is shocked to discover that the haul is $750,000. The catch is that the money belongs to the Mafia, who are soon on the trail of the robbers. Charley must devise a scheme to escape with his life, and hopefully the money as well.

This is a very pleasing piece of work all round. Directed with customery efficiency and style by Don Siegel, it twists and turns, always keeping you interested. Its helped by good casting. The ever watchable Walter Matthau effortlessly slips into the role of Varrick, Joe Don Baker is quite chilling as the ruthless hitman with impeccable manners and John Vernon extracts some sympathy as the Banker/Mafia man trying to smooth everything over. Add some pleasant locations and an intelligent script and the result is a very satisfying, if different '70s crime thriller.

As I watched this again last night on BBC1, I remembered that on its previous screening it was preceeded by an introduction by Mark Kermode. In it he commented on the fact that Matthau hated the film. After a second viewing I still can't imagine why.

Walter Matthau playing the title role of Charley Varrick expected a few thousand dollars as the score in a small town bank in New Mexico. It was a costly robbery in human terms with only Matthau and hotheaded Andy Robinson who survive out of the original team of four.

Imagine their surprise when they discover what they've got is three quarters of a million dollars. It turns out the bank was a laundering operation for Syndicate money and they're not the forgiving kind even if he was so inclined to return the money.

Under Don Siegel's direction, Matthau turns in one of his best film performances as the wily bank robber who keeps a cool head in a very tricky situation. Matthau plays beautifully against Robinson who's everything Matthau's not in terms of brains and self control.

Matching Matthau is the syndicate cleanup man Joe Don Baker who's also a shrewd man with a very suspicious nature. That comes with the territory of Baker's job, still he's got a streak of meanness in him as well. Matthau and Baker are an evenly matched pair. What I especially love about Charley Varrick is how Matthau uses Baker's own suspicions against him in the end. Beautifully written and beautifully played.

If you liked the gritty realism of a film like The Asphalt Jungle you will definitely like Charley Varrick.

Now that more and more people are reflecting on the great career of Walter Matthau it is surprising that very few critics have mentioned his top-notch performance in Charley Varrick (the best thing he has ever done). I got interested in this film when I discovered that it had an underground following with everyone from "The Pretenders" to several critics. I bought the film and became floored by how outstanding of a movie this is. In my opinion it is the most under appreciated movie ever made and the best movie to come out of the 70's (yes, even better than THE GODFATHER, DAYS OF HEAVEN, TAXI DRIVER and APOCALYPSE NOW). It is also one of the ten best movies I have ever seen. I have seen this movie over 20 times and it gets better every time I see it. It is surprising that I have learned more about how to make a great suspense/action film from this movie than any other which I have seen. The interesting thing about Charley Varrick is that you wonder why you are so taken in by the story. It's a relatively simple one. Yet, this is a story with a conclusion that leaves you stunned every time you see it and convinces you that this is a film that should be seen again and again (unlike some great movies that should be seen only once). I make it an effort to see Charley Varrick on a regular basis. The story starts out as follows: a group of bank robbers attempt to make a small killing and right when they think that they have succeeded . . . The story then allows the viewer to be consumed in a film of drum-tight professionalism with great action sequences, excellent performances, incredible dialogue, and possibly the greatest single screen villain of all time in the form of Joe Don Baker (I wouldn't have believed it until I saw it). I am convinced that in the near future Charley Varrick will be resurrected in the form of a remake (not that I am looking toward that day). But in context, Don Siegel's masterpiece is a film that stands by itself as one of the great under appreciated and undervalued movies of all time and is a film for everyone. It doesn't get any better than this.

Director Don Siegel followed up his mega-hit "Dirty Harry" with "Charley Varrick." "Dirty Harry" was about a cop (Clint Eastwood.) "Charley Varrick" is about a robber (Walter Matthau.) "Dirty Harry" puts Westerner Eastwood in big city San Francisco. "Charley Varrick" puts Easterner Walter Matthau in back country New Mexico (with a side-trip to high desert Reno.) "Dirty Harry" was a hit. "Charley Varrick" was not -- perhaps because, despite Matthau's deadpan charm as Varrick, he is a robber whose gang kills cops and "Dirty Harry" had been dedicated to officers dead in the line of duty. Siegel was returning to tough crime territory, with Varrick the most likeable and centered of crooks in a movie filled with them. Varrick finds himself in trouble when his heist of a tiny backwater bank nets big money -- Mafia money. In "Dirty Harry," Eastwood chases a killer. In "Charley Varrick," a killer chases Matthau: Joe Don Baker's implacable pipe-smoking hit man. The fun comes from watching Matthau's brain pitted against Baker's brawn, with plenty of twists as Matthau tries to escape certain death. The charismatic Matthau plays it straight here, and plays almost his entire part by chewing gum and silently thinking about what to do next. A perfectly made, tight thriller, with a great ending. Watch for the single-take scene between mobsters as a shadow fills the cow pasture in which they talk. And Matthau beds a beautiful woman played by Felicia Farr -- wife of Matthau pal Jack Lemmon. This is one of those movies that makes me miss Matthau.

Charley Varrick (Walter Matthau) is a former stunt pilot turned independent crop duster who is on the low end of the socio-economic scale. He lives in a trailer park with his girlfriend, Nadine (Jacqueline Scott). He decides to supplement his income by robbing a small bank in a backwater New Mexican town. Unfortunately, not everything goes as planned.

I watched Charley Varrick (in a fine widescreen transfer by the way; at present only a bad pan and scan version appears to exist on DVD) during a TCM channel marathon of director Don Siegel's films. I had just finished Madigan (1968), which I didn't care that much for (although I thought the limited action sequences were good and the direction fine), and was about to finally shut off the television and go to sleep. However, Walter Matthau is one of my favorite actors, and Charley Varrick was starting almost immediately after the end of Madigan, so I figured I'd at least "peek" at the first few minutes. That was a long peek, because this is one excellent film. Charley Varrick ended up with a 10 out of 10 from me.

It probably wouldn't be quite so good without Matthau as the lead. He's had a plethora of fantastic performances, but none are better than Charley Varrick (many are just as good). Matthau was perfectly cast--he had exactly the right age, the right look, and the right disposition for this role. His understated, intelligent manner makes the character and his actions eminently believable within the context of the film. As this is a film that hinges on a fairly complex, logically intricate plot, believability within the context of the film is very important.

Not that the other elements aren't laudable. Siegel's direction--most of it imbued with a great, gritty, early 1970s "feel"--is impeccable, and ranges from a series of beautiful shots of the countryside during the opening credits to elaborately staged, underhanded "clues" as to the "plot beneath the plot"--during most of the middle section, Varrick makes a number of moves that would seem bizarre if taken at their surface value, but he's really hatching a scheme to extricate himself from the mire he's sunken into. None of this is explicitly stated, but Siegel easily conveys it with his direction. There is even one point--right after a character named Molly (Joe Don Baker) visits Jewell Everett (Sheree North), that it seems like maybe Siegel made a fatal misstep, and a scene or two are missing, but I retained faith that it would work out in the end, and it did, seamlessly.

The rest of the cast is fantastic, as well, and of course a film like this wouldn't succeed without a great script, in this case written by Dean Riesner and Howard Rodman from a John Reese novel. This is a too-little-known gem that deserves wider recognition and better treatment, such as a good DVD transfer with lots of extras.