That was a great idea to get Johnny Cash as a killer who plays guitar before violent action on his victims (remember Lino Ventura in Pensione Edelweiss). Cash wasn't really prepared for acting (see his scene when he learns what bank he and his partner are going to rob, he's completely dull). But when he takes the director's bank wife as a hostage, he becomes a complete psycho and he is quite frightening, but he still lacks some real madness to reach the top (remember Arch Hall Jr in the Sadist). Imagine Timothy Carey instead.The other very fine casting is Merle Travis guitar we hear all through the movie. When Jonny Cash plays guitar, it is Merle Travis we hear and sometimes we see his hands. Merle Travis plays a virtuoso and strong guitar sound which matches perfectly with the scenes : Johnny Cash plays fascinating guitar and then gets violent. And the title song is very cynical. These are the best scenes of that very minor heist movie. The heist in itself isn't exciting at all and the ending is a complete change of tone in comic style, and we get the kid Ron Howard stealing the scene with a big laugh.So, Johnny Cash is the main attraction of this minor heist movie that would have deserved better script and direction. The noir director of photography Carl Guthrie is quite disappointing here, but don't miss the intro, I love the final close-up.

Reasonably taut thriller concerning a twisted killer (Cash) recruited by crook (Tayback) to hold the wife (Forrester) of a bank manager (Woods) hostage at their house while Tayback extorts $70k at the bank for the safe release of the wife - confirmed by a series of phone calls at five minute intervals. Complications emerge when the bank manager proves reluctant to pay the ransom, seeing an opportunity to become free of his wife and take up with his mistress (Mason).Co-star Forrester's script is functional, perhaps predictably giving her domestic characters more depth than usual, her performance benefiting from the extra attention in the dialogue. Cash isn't really an actor, though his offbeat expressions, timing and other attributes (serenading his victims with songs) manage to conjure something akin to a psychopath. Renowned tough-guy Tayback delivers his trademark mobster with all the expected motifs and the attractive Midge Ware has a brief role as Cash's ill-fated moll.As far as unconventional casting of singers in movies go, this is somewhere between Neil Sedaka's bizarre appearance in "The Playgirl Killer" and a traditional Elvis Presley vehicle. And while there's no arbitrary album previews (the singing is short and in context), there remain a few extraneous interactions to pad out the modest 74 minutes in what could have been a more compact 30-minute TV episode. Nevertheless, there's some genuinely palpable tension and decent performances from Forrester, Tayback, Mason and even Ron Howard as the precocious son in an unexpected, pivotal supporting role.

Hi, I'm Johnny Cashless. I need to make a quick buck and I have a guitar that Merle Travis actually plays while they show my hands which are really Merle's finger pickin' hands. Got it so far? Oh, and I have a gun with a silencer but it makes a big noise when I shoot it.Merle Travis and Johnny Cash are both country music legends who appear here as actors. They act like they are acting. Dolly Parton was too young and Minnie Pearl was busy with a function at Grinder's Switch so they got some blonde who looks like Barbara Billingsley to be the female lead who also has to pretend to act.Good cast with Vic Taybeck thrown in. He is OK as a sleasey guy. Ronnie Howard does a good job. The old dinosaur who plays the bank guard is a believable character. There's also a dark haired other woman, who I guess is either Pamela Mason or Tiny Tim or Raymond Burr. She looks a lot like Jack Lemmon did in Some Like it Hot but she is less desirable, of course.The plot is a basic bank robbery gone wrong/telephone/nice '60s cars type of chowder served with a fur covered negligee and some broken statuettes. If it were not for the great names in the cast this one would have disappeared altogether like many other fun films that gave us a look at the technology and attitudes of 50 years ago.The only thing I missed seeing here was a revolving door at the bank. That is always a great place for a shootout.The title song is so bad even Johnny Cash can't save it. The song could be done worse by Wayne Newton or Dinah Shore, but it really kills any popcorn appetite you might have brought into your viewing room.Other than that it was OK and I did watch it for free so I am not complaining. I want to watch it again after I have watched every other movie that has ever been made.Johnny Cash did do some other acting roles where he was pretty good. Many pop singers became good actors such as Bobby Darin and John Denver and Burl Ives.

This is a tough little movie. It would work quite well without names. But let's face it: The leading man is the draw. Johnny Cash, in 1961, looking a little like Elvis, as a ruthless killer. A killer, to be sure, who sings the title song and whom we see playing guitar.Donald Woods is a dead ringer for the Darren character in "Bewitched." He is a complacent suburban dad. Cay Forrester is just right as his upwardly mobile blonde wife. Ron Howard is very cute as their son. (And Pamela Mason turns in a good acting job but is a little implausible as Woods's mistress.) Before he got the job cooking for Alice, Tayback was apparently a crook. A pretty mean one, at that. And here, he has hired Cash to hold banker Woods's wife hostage. (Before he takes the job, Cash has to dump his girlfriend, the greedy Doris, AKA Dory.) For an obviously low budget movie, this does its job neatly. And it holds up very well 45 years after it was released.