Les quatre malfrats

The Hot Rock has a soft spot in my heart because the area of Brooklyn where a lot of the film was shot, I know very well, Eastern Parkway, The Botanical Gardens and most of all The Brooklyn Museum I know very well from years of living in the Borough of homes and churches. The Brooklyn Museum is where the elusive Hot Rock resides or at least where it first resides.

Robert Redford is released from prison and his brother-in-law George Segal is there to greet him. As Redford says to warden Graham Jarvis there ain't no chance in hell he's going straight. Straight into another caper that Segal has lined up for him with Ron Leibman and Paul Sand.

The amiable team is hired by African ambassador Moses Gunn from some fictional central African country to get a national treasure, a rather large diamond on display at the Brooklyn Museum. They do steal the diamond, but through an incredible combination of circumstances have to plan and execute four different break-ins before The Hot Rock is in their hands.

Redford and Segal display a good chemistry, as good as the fabled co-starring chemistry of Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Why they were not heralded as a buddy combination is beyond me.

Stealing the film in whatever scenes they are in are shyster attorney Zero Mostel and his doofus of a son, Paul Sand. In the first caper at the museum, Sand gets caught and what he does with the diamond sets up the entire rest of the film.

As for Zero we find he's an attorney with absolutely no scruples whatsoever, the kind they make excellent lawyer jokes about. But he does give us some excellent laughs.

The Hot Rock is something on the order of an American domestic version of Topkapi. The laughs in it are good and strong, although some of the Seventies fashions make me wince. Despite that the film holds up well today. I'm surprised no one is thinking of remaking this one.

I saw this film for the first time when I was a kid of about 4th grade age. It hooked me then and has stuck with me ever since as an enjoyable, fun, light caper movie. Granted it is not deep, serious or complicated. You do, however, "get your money's worth" because there is more than one caper that gets pulled for the good guys to finally come out ahead. If you are looking for fun adventure with the 70's charm and very little violence and virtually no adult language, give this movie a try.

Dortmunder (Robert Redford) just left prison and vows to not do another job. He's wrangled immediately by his sister's man Kelp (George Segal) to do a job. Dr. Amusa (Moses Gunn) is paying for the heist who claims the gem was stolen from the African people.

The heist isn't sophisticated. There is a lot of Keystone Cops elements in this movie. It's cute bordering on funny. Dortmunder's frustration with Kelp's constant prodding is kind of funny. George Segal, Robert Redford, Paul Sand, and Ron Leibman make for the perfect antidote to the Ocean's movies. These guys make up for the lack of cool with an abundance of bumbling determination. Zero Mostel makes an appearance as Paul Sand's lawyer father. He has a bit fun. The movie is a bit of fun action from the early 70s.

There is always a risk with these 'period' pieces that it will become dated very easily with changing tastes & expectations. Fortunately, caper movies are still getting made ('Entrapment'), Redford is still a sex-symbol, & crime still pays. So 'Hot Rock' is as eminently watchable today as it was way back then, provided of course you don't start wondering too much about the plot. Ride Quincy Jones' music (Gerry Mulligan plays the sax) & Redford's easy charm & you are safe home.

The performances all round are very muted, except the wonderful Zero Mostel's over-the-top crooked lawyer. At times you feel everybody is just too reluctant to get on with it, but I guess that is the kind of 'cool seventies' effect that director Yates was trying to get (& I feel, succeeded). Anyway Yates was riding high at this time with some great movies like Bullitt & Murphy's War & his confidence shows.

"The Hot Rock" is an unusual sort of caper film. In that, at times, the plot is a bit funny as well as ridiculous. Because of this, it stands out compared to the average crime film.

The story begins with Dortmunder (Robert Redford) getting out of prison. He is apparently a brilliant crook who has a habit of getting caught And, he's also learned nothing in the process as one of the first things he plans on doing is yet another robbery...this time with the help of his brother (George Segal) and a couple new guys (Rob Liebman and Paul Sand). What makes this robbery unusual at the beginning is that they are doing it for someone...a doctor who wants a diamond stolen because his country things it's theirs. But the robbery does NOT go as planned...and this sets up yet another crime...and another...and another. The problems keep snowballing...but Dortmunder is determined NOT to give up even when things seem hopeless.

The acting is very good in this one. Redford is fine....but the weird performances by Liebman, Sand and Zero Mostel really make this a quirky and enjoyable change of pace. Not a brilliant film but a very enjoyable one.