Charley Varrick (1973)

“You don’t have much choice, Harold. They’re gonna try to make you tell where the money is. You know what kind of people they are. They’re gonna strip you naked and go to work on you with a pair of pliers and a blowtorch.” – Maynard Boyle

Number of Times Seen – 1 (15 Oct 2013)

Brief Synopsis – 4 bank robbers unwittingly rob a bank filled with money belonging to the mob

My Take on it – This is definitely new territory for fans of Walther Matthau.

This movie is darker than his regular fare and it lacks his witty lines that are common for his characters.

In this movie, he plays the title character of Charlie Varrick who is an astute bank robber who has everything planned to a science except the fact that the owners of the money will do whatever necessary to catch him and make him pay for his crime.

The twist is that the owners of the money are also on the opposite side of the law: The Mafia.

Matthau and his accomplices need to figure out how to survive and evade the mob enforcers in order to live long enough to be able to spend the money the stole.

It’s interesting to see that the quote above was paraphrased in Pulp Fiction (1994).

Bottom Line -Not your typical Matthau movie, but interesting story.

Rating – BAFTA Worthy