p e n g u i n d e v i l

Inspired by a pbs show about Carol Burnett. I had the urge to watch a Walter Matthau movie. Luckily, I had one right here that I’d never seen… Charley Varrick. This is the film Don Siegal made following Dirty Harry, and though it isn’t quite the classic, it does star a number of actors from that film. Walter Matthau is the leader of a bank robbery gang who is looking to make the occasional small haul. His gang includes his wife, an unpleasant man named Harman (played by Andrew Robinson who has previously made me nervous in Hellraiser and his scarily perfect performance as The Scorpio Killer in Dirty Harry) and some other fellow who we don’t get much of a chance to know.

Once they pull a bloody heist at a little bank in a terribly small town in New Mexico, they are rather surprised to end up with three quarters of a million dollars, a surprise that becomes too mysterious after a news announcement states that $2,000 was stolen. Charley becomes paranoid and is instantly convinced that the money was there for some other unsundry purpose. He is right of course, and he is either less paranoid than he should be, or maybe more clever than we think.

The people who had the money want it back and with that, the rest of the great cast comes out! John Vernon is Maynard Boyle, the bank president who has lost the money and isn’t too pleased by it. To get it back, he calls in a clean-up guy named Molly to hunt down whoever has taken it. Molly (the always tough and cool Joe Don Baker, following up Walking Tall) is perfectly prepared to do whatever is needed. Once he gets a car, as a repo job from a displeased Albert Popwell (also a veteran of Dirty Harry. In fact, from the best scene in Dirty Harry), it doesn’t take him long to get on the trail.

Normal Fell is also here, as a representative of the law who has taken over the bank. He gets somewhat in the way of Boyle, as Boyle is trying to determine if it is an inside job, or at least if he can find a way to ensure that his “associates” don’t think that he had anything to do with it. Throughout all of this, Varrick’s partner Harman, is just causing trouble. Drinking whiskey and getting mad that Charley is preventing him from going out and spending all of his new found money. How on Earth is Charley going to deal with all these people and survive this mess? It has a fairly casual pace and it’s not the greatest movie, but it is easily worth watching if you come upon as the daytime movie on TV or something.