Various movie genres ebb and flow in popularity. Others never go out of style. One such evergreen genre is the caper film. Few movies are more satisfying than a well-executed heist movie. Ocean’s Thirteen, reviewed here last week, was not a terribly strong example of one, but it got me thinking of all the great ones over the years. Some have become well-deserved classics, such as the jubilant Topkapi, the somber Bob le flambeur, the jocular Big Deal on Madonna Street, and the granddaddy of them all, the smooth-as-ice Rififi. Others have fallen out of memory or never quite made it into the permanent consciousness. Here are a few you might not know that are definitely worth seeing.
Gambit (1966) came out just as the old, restrictive Hays code was starting to give way to a more carefree age, probably a bit too Technicolor and coy to match up against Bonnie and Clyde. But this bouncy, set-bound film has lovely young Shirley MacLaine at her most fiery and Michael Caine at his most insouciant. She plays a dancer reluctantly recruited by his suave, cold thief to steal an invaluable mask from a dangerous Arabian millionaire (Herbert Lom). Most great heist movies offset the job with a distracting subplot. All there is to this one is the palpable romantic tension between Caine and MacLaine. It’s like a frothy caper version of Notorious.
The Hot Rock (1972) is based on the book by Donald Westlake. Robert Redford is far too handsome to play Westlake’s truculent creation, Dortmunder, but he captures just enough of his slow-burn gruffness to make it work. The job: steal a jewel from a museum. The problem: it keeps ending up in more and more ridiculous places—a prison, a police station. The team: overanxious brother-in-law George Segal, overzealous driver Ron Liebman, and overly neurotic explosives expert Paul Sand. The bonus: Zero Mostel as a shady lawyer. The ending may fall a little flat compared to most of its ilk, but for the twists along the way, The Hot Rock is hard to beat.
Charley Varrick (1973)—it’s hard to believe that for a time in the late ’60s and early ’70s, Walter Matthau played a series of straight leads and nobody laughed. He even bedded his much younger, much more attractive costars. As former stunt pilot and current thief Charlie Varrick, Matthau must outwit a double-crossing partner and elude a brutally vicious Joe Don Baker. Director Don Siegel is best known for his violent crime stories Dirty Harry and The Killers. Only Siegel could consider this lighter fare. But the harsh violence ultimately adds to the stakes and keeps you from ever being certain that this movie will end happily.
11 Harrowhouse (1974)—just as Steve Carrell is the surprise comic superstar of the day, Charles Grodin found himself in the same position after the success of the Heartbreak Kid in 1972. His next move? He adapted the novel by Gerald A. Browne into one of the oddest, most idiosyncratic of all heist films. Grodin plays a small-time diamond merchant with an inexplicably beautiful, devoted girlfriend (Candice Bergen). Tired of being belittled by a major London Diamond House (located at the title address), Grodin recruits equally maligned employee James Mason to help him rob the place. Impressive car chases, an ingenious heist, and a dollop of James Bond are counteracted by the truly bizarre narration by Grodin. A lot of it doesn’t make sense, while at other times it’s exasperatingly intrusive. But the overall effect is pretty delightful.
Alex Manugian lives in Sherman Oaks, California, and works for the Cartoon Network. He grew up in Groton and has reviewed movies for Harvard residents for many years.