Let me start out by saying I think the main star in this flick, John Cassavettes is one of the most underrated actors of his time. I was expecting this movie to blow me out of the water. I'm a huge fan of euro action and gangster flicks. Maybe I've seen too many...or maybe "Machine Gun McCain" just wasn't trashy enough for me.The plot is simple and straightforward. John is great as the quintessential old school tough guy. His son represents everything he isn't. I liked that part of the story- the relationship between Hank and his son.This movie lacked the overall trashiness that I like to see in these Italian crime flicks. I prefer stuff like "Street Law" or Fulci's "Contraband," and recently I saw Deodato's "Live Like A Cop Die Like A Man" which is way more along the lines of the stuff I like (more violence, more shock, more trash)...I rented this movie and I doubt I'll purchase it for my collection.However, I'd recommend it for fans of John Cassavettes. As I said, he really makes the movie. Look for a young Florinda Bolkan as Josie.6 out of 10, kids.

(There are Spoilers) Fast pace and hard hitting robbery caper involving the newly opened Royal Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. With the West Coast mob boss Charlie Adamo, Peter Falk, determined to get a piece of the action at the hotel that the manager Abe Silverman Steffen Zacharias, cut him out of he has, by paying off the right people, convicted armed robber Hank McCain, John Cassavetes, sprung from San Quentin. All this after McCain served just twelve years of his 25 to life sentence. Unknown to McCain Adamo has his foolish and bumbling 20 year old son Jack,Pierlugi Apa, masterminding the robbery of the Royal with his two equally incompetent partners Barcly & Cudo, Cludio Biava & James Morrison.It just happens that the Royal is secretly owned by the New York crime syndicate whom Boss Adamo is working for! By the time Adamo finds that out he, in order to save his hide, calls off the robbery. McCain feeling that he's out of the loop, in the planing of the robbery, and unknown to New York Mafia boss Don Savaltore and his #1 man Don DeMarco, Salvo Randone & Gabriele Ferzetti, decides to pull it off anyway together with his new found love and gun moll Irene Tucker, Britt Ekland. It's Irene whom the sex-staved-after 12 years without a women's company- McCain picked up, and later married, at a San Francisco nightclub.The action is hot and heavy with McCain going on his own, after Jack together with his two henchmen were rubbed out, to rob the Royal Hotel of it's weekly take of some two million dollars. The robbery goes according to plan with McCain taking off with the cash together with Irene. The mob finds out who McCain is by beating it out of Adamo's right-hand man Duke Mazzanga, Luigi Pistilli. This has both McCain and Irene, with their photo's made available to the public, on the run for their lives before the mob can get a hold of them.In the end McCain gets a bit nostalgic by tracking down his wife Rosemary Scott, Gena Rowland, who was convicted together with him for armed robbery some 12 years ago. This sets off fireworks between Rosemary and Irene, who's younger and more attractive, over their man handsome but a bit unstable Hank McCain. This also leads, by Irene later getting captured by the mob, to the mob to not only find Rosemary but McCain himself.***SPOILERS***Great acting by John Cassavetes Peter Falk & Co. makes the film a lot better then it really is. The ending has just the right touch in showing what happens when one tries to stiff the mob and thinks he, or she, is going to get away with it. McCain who should have know better learned that fact the hard way and in the end he ended up paying for it with his life!

This is a stylish, complex and exciting gangster melodrama (which Leonard Maltin in "Movies & Video Guide" calls "junk" and awards a mere **!) bolstered by an infectious Ennio Morricone score (especially the title ballad). Amazingly, it was shown on Italian TV at the time of the Cannes Film Festival as part of a series of past nominees; unfortunately, however, the print was of the choppy 94-minute U.S. version (bearing the Columbia logo upfront) and panned-and-scanned to boot (making the Techniscope compositions pretty claustrophobic)!! I've been unable to determine the film's original length, but I've seen running-times as long as 119 minutes! The film is well-served by a great cast: an intense and fearless John Cassavetes as the title character, a delectable Britt Ekland as a girl he meets and marries on being sprung from jail (who becomes an accomplice in his criminal schemes without batting an eyelid, at least in this version!), Peter Falk as a bad-tempered small-time hood whose ambitions see him clash with his ruthless superiors, Florinda Bolkan as his even more avaricious wife, Gabriele Ferzetti as the crossed Don who goes to teach Falk a lesson (and who seems to be having an affair with Bolkan!), Luigi Pistilli (rather under-used as Falk's right-hand man), Salvo Randone (as the No. 1 Mafia Boss who keeps track of the situation from his New York office), Tony Kendall (as the hit-man dispatched to eliminate both Falk and Cassavetes) and "Special Guest Star" Gena Rowlands (as McCain's tough old flame - together they were a legendary criminal double-act, and the real-life couple demonstrate undeniable chemistry in their one scene together! - who, still having feelings for him, aids in his escape from the Mob and suffers the consequences for her actions). It's an interesting mix of 'styles': the Italians give it authenticity, the women a touch of class and the two male stars (who, regrettably, don't share any screen-time but were eventually re-teamed in a gangland milieu in MIKEY AND NICKY [1976] - which I recently watched - and where they were practically inseparable!) an aura of intelligence. Some sources credit The Doors' frontman Jim Morrison in the role of a lackey, but it certainly didn't seem like him to me! The best sequence is the ingenious heist from a Las Vegas casino (indeed, the glitzy and often sleazy locations are a definite asset) and, in the cynical fashion of cinema in the late 60s, the film ends - rather abruptly - with a downbeat 'curtain'. Montaldo didn't make that many films but from the three I've watched - the others being the enjoyable light-hearted caper GRAND SLAM (1967) and the excellent IL GIOCATTOLO (1979), a Death Wish-type drama with a remarkable leading performance from Nino Manfredi - he certainly knew his business.

The movie is pretty good to see in that Peter Falk, of Columbo fame, gives an unexpectedly good performance as a ruthless gangster. I saw the movie on A and E, so I probably missed some details. The gist is that Cassavettes tries to win one more score from Ganster Falk(sort of like Superfly)and attempts to do so with the help of his "Little Friend", a Thompson Automatic. For a film of the late sixties, it is pretty violent. However, Cassavettes created his own style of directing, and this film showcases it.It was hard to follow at parts, but again this may have been due to the commercial interruptions and editing.It's about a 7.5 out of 10.