Les intouchables

Old school crime film with hard case armed robber John Cassavetes at its centre. John plays Hank, once part of a Bonnie and Clyde type duo who's spent twelve years in the joint. His son, who's basically a stranger to him, springs him from the clink to take part in another heist - this one being the robbery of a classy casino in Vegas.

This casino is the centre of a complicated business involving newly appointed mob boss Peter Falk, who has taken over mafia duties on the West coast from a guy who was killed in front of his kids. His New York mob superiors have told Peter not to touch anything in Vegas, and they are enraged that he's muscling in on a casino he doesn't know they own. Worse still, Peter seems unaware that his young wife (a big-haired Florinda Bolkan) seems to have a past with one of the New York mob bosses...

In between not trusting his son, really not trusting the two goons his son is hanging about with, and preparing for the heist, John somehow still manages the time to romance Britt Ekland, who really is the only innocent person in the film. Nevertheless, she also gets caught up in all the double crossing and (in one case literal) back stabbing as the cast is whittled down.

Apart from The Dirty Dozen (a film that spawned several thousand Italian rip-offs) I don't know much about John Cassavetes, but he makes a pretty convincing gangster, and who doesn't want to see Colombo in an Italian crime film? I'd pretty much watch Peter Falk in anything, so seeing him on screen with Italian genre regulars Luigi Pistilli and Florinda Bolkan just ticks all the boxes for me. Tony Kendall usually shows up in Spaghetti Westerns, but manages to stand out here as a suave button-man hunting down Cassavetes.

This film has two other things going for it - the nice cinematography that captures the Californian atmosphere (as well as the harsh sunlight invading interior scenes) and Ennio Morricone's melancholy soundtrack. Keep in mind this an old school Eurocrime film that is a bit more classy than the trashy, over the top ones of the seventies. I prefer those, for the record.

John Cassavetes is supremely cool as the protagonist of this glittery 60s crime flick. Directed with gusto by Giuliano Montaldo, it has Cassavetes as the tough title character, an armed robber getting out of prison after a dozen year stretch. Almost immediately, McCains' pathetic son Jack (Pierluigi Apra) is recruiting him for a job. But McCain is agreeable, despite having some misgivings about who he's working with. The job is the robbery of the Royal Casino in Las Vegas, a place that's hotly contested by both the West Coast and East Coast mob families.

This well-paced film is quite enjoyable in general. All the fighting between various mobsters is good for some amusement, with the great Peter Falk scoring as an ambitious mafioso who's eager to make some real dough. Britt Ekland doesn't have to do much besides look very sexy as a young woman who catches McCains' eye. Cassavetes' real-life partner Gena Rowlands makes a special guest appearance as an old flame, and naturally he has more genuine chemistry with her than he does Ekland. Other top notch character actors include Gabriele Ferzetti, Luigi Pistilli, and Steffen Zacharias, and lovers of Euro-cult cinema will note the presence of thespians such as Florinda Bolkan (as Falk's wife), Tony Kendall, and Salvo Randone. But other than Falk, it's starring actor Cassavetes who is the main reason to watch. A sardonic, witty, surly guy (with an obvious contempt for his son), he's a compulsively watchable antihero.

You add to that the excellent widescreen photography, the stunning, colourful locales, some very satisfying explosions, a riveting chase finale wherein you see the lead character literally afraid for his life, and yet another superb Ennio Morricone soundtrack, and you have the makings of a good, solid film of this type.

Seven out of 10.

Peter Falk's performance as a ruthless gangster was the best part of this movie.

What undermines this movie is McCain's stupidity. Even when he knows that the Mob is looking for him he goes to his friends and ex-wife for help. Doesn't he know they are the first places the Mob would look ? Didn't he have a plan for how to disappear with the money ?

Twenty-five large buys hard-time con Hank McCain (John Cassavetes) a parole so he can take part in a Vegas casino heist, but when the job is called off, McCain decides to go it on his own, despite knowing whose money he's planning on boosting. The nihilistic story is cold and hard and as such, a perfect fit for Cassavetes smouldering persona. Peter Falk is quite good as volatile mob underboss Charlie Adamo who sets things in motion (if the film was made in the 90's, the part would have been a perfect fit for Joe Pesci). Gabriele Ferzetti is also good as Don Francesco DeMarco, a menacing New York capo. On the distaff side, classic 60's beauty Britt Ekland is along as McCain's moll and Gena Rowlands has a small but strong role as McCain's tough former partner/lover. Unfortunately, the story is not up to the cast. The central heist is simple enough to be realistic but no explanation is provided as to why the vault door seems to have been left partly open during the evacuation and later both McCain and the pursuing mod-underlings seem to make elementary mistakes, which undermines their characterisations as experienced and competent gangsters (McCain continues to return to old haunts even when he knows he's being hunted; and what wise-guy would allow a hard-case ex-con to put her hand in her purse shortly after threatening her with torture). With a little more attention to detail, this could have been a classic 60's neo-noir gangster film. Too bad, but the soundtrack is good and the images of Las Vegas at its flashiest/trashiest are fun.

An ex-con with explosives experience gets back into the swing of things when he lines up a job to rob a Mafia run casino in Las Vegas. With John Cassavetes in the lead one would think this film would be more available than merely catching it by luck on TCM on their midnight Underground Cinema showcase. Though the production is more or less lower budget and the spoken words don't exactly line up with the movement of the lips, it's nonetheless vintage 60's crime with Cassavetes as great as ever, and Peter Falk playing the casino manager and lower level Mafiosi. There are some neat scenes of the San Francisco night life, and the action shifts to the Las Vegas strip with Cassavetes and his new bride Arlene (Britt Eklund) and the ruthless revenge of the Mafia as the movie becomes a pretty dark chase film through LA with Gena Rowlands getting a tough little part as the vise tightens.