Terrific underrated crime film from veteran Hollywood director Don Siegel. Siegel was coming off the biggest hit of his career with "Dirty Harry" when he made this quirky crime film starring Walter Matthau, who at the time was best known for his comedic roles. Matthau plays career criminal Charley Varrick, who pulls a bank job with Andrew Robinson (the deranged killer in "Dirty Harry"), but the two realize there was far more money in the bank than their should have been and that the bank is a mob front, meaning they just robbed the mafia and are now on the run for their lives. To reveal more would spoil the clever and twisting plot, but I can say that things kick off with bank president John Vernon calling upon a laconic mob hitman named Molly, played by the always great Joe Don Baker to track down the stolen money. The rest of the cast includes many familiar character actors, including Norman Fell, William Schallert, and even future director Craig R. Baxley ("I Come in Peace" and "Action Jackson"). The film was co-written by frequent Siegel collaborator Dean Riesner (uncredited script doctor on "Starman", "Sudden Impact", and "Blue Thunder" and credited writer on "Dirty Harry", "Coogan's Bluff", and "Rich Man, Poor Man"). Siegel's frequent composer Lalo Schifrin ("Bullitt", "Enter the Dragon", "Mission Impossible") is also on hand to deliver another excellent score. Overall, if you're fan of 70s crime films along the lines of "Prime Cut" or "The Outfit", you'll greatly enjoy "Charley Varrick". FUN FACT! At one point in the film, John Vernon's character tell's another character, "They're gonna strip you naked and go to work on you with a pair of pliers and a blowtorch," which Quentin Tarantino paid homage to in "Pulp Fiction" when Marsellus Wallace says almost the exact same line.

One of my favorite action movies from this era. I gather that Don Siegel originally wanted Clint Eastwood in the role of Charlie Varrick. But I think it makes for a far more interesting film when everyman Walter Matthau is being pursued by a terminator-like Joe Don Baker. You just expect that Clint Eastwood will always come out on top against man or machine.

"Charley Varrick", an adaptation of John Reese's book "The Looters", begins with a flurry of violent excitement: former stunt pilot Varrick, now using a crop dusting business as a front, robs a bank with his cronies in small New Mexico town. They only should have netted about two grand, but the quarter-million dollar haul they pick up raises a red flag. Varrick's first hunch turns out to be right, that the money was being held at the bank as a drop for the mafia, and "dirty" money can't be spent because it leaves a trail. Crime-drama directed by Don Siegel has a gritty panache that gives the picture character (it's better than your average bank robbery melee...and how could it not be with cagey Walter Matthau in the lead?). However, there's no trustworthy characters in the film--everyone is sleazy--including Varrick who, after a time, begins looking as crummy as the 'bad guys' who are after him. These are dirty deeds, all right, and the movie leaves unresolved sour feelings in its wake. Lalo Schifrin's instantly-dated score is overused by Siegel, carpeting the whole movie with perky noise. **1/2 from ****

On the face of it, CHARLEY VARRICK really shouldn't work as well as it does. It's a slightly predictable and hackneyed story about a gang of bank robbers who accidentally steal from the mob and find themselves on the run, directed by Don Siegel, the man best known for his collaborations with Clint Eastwood. It's a resolutely low budget production, quite rough around the edges, and in Walter Matthau it has a leading man best known for his comedy roles.And yet, and yet, CHARLEY VARRICK works, and works very well. Sure, it's a slow burner throughout, and it's never as suspenseful or exciting as it should be, but it has a certain kind of atmosphere all of its own and a depth of characterisation you don't normally see in a thriller. The visuals are great, and the film is book-ended by two classic scenes; the opening bank robbery is brief but thrilling, while the climactic plane action really impresses. Matthau is excellent as the lead, and given fine, twitchy support from Andrew Robinson as his accomplice and Joe Don Baker as the hit-man. Watch out for a scene-stealing John Vernon in a particularly slimy role.