"Cat Ballou" meets "The Sting," though not as good as either. Zero Mostel leads a group of con artists scheming to rob a high security bank. It's a pretty standard comic heist story, except that it's set in the old west. The main charm of the film is the cast, led by Mostel and Kim Novak, but which also includes Clint Walker, Claude Akins, Larry Storch, Sam Jaffe, Mako, and Elisha Cook Jr. The film also features a peppy score by Nelson Riddle, but overall, it's pretty inconsequential fluff that I may have enjoyed more than most because of my affection for Kim Novak.

From the very start of "The Great Bank Robbery," it seems that Warner Brothers was trying to cash in on the popularity of a couple of large group comedies. A large cast of many moderately size roles had worked with two recent comedies in Hollywood. Both of those were independent films distributed by United Artists. And, the screenplays were written by the same person – William Rose. The mold was cast in 1963 with "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World," which was a smashing success. It was followed three years later by "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming," also a big success. "Mad World" had more than a dozen big name stars in significant roles and more than two dozen well-known actors in supporting roles. It had a total of some 100 roles cast. "The Russians" had six big name stars and half a dozen key supporting roles, with a total of 38 roles cast. And, significantly, both of those films had top comedy actors of the day. Jonathan Winters appeared in both films, as did Carl Reiner and Paul Ford. The cast of "Mad World" reads like a list of top comedy actors and writers of the time. So, now the Warners try their hand at the large scale group comedy. They need a different setting and original plot, and they go with a Western. That was fine because Westerns already had shown promise with comedies and more would in the future. So, then they needed a plot with a screenplay. To be very good, it should include situations, humorous antics and lots of funny dialog. Then, it needed the cast to fill the many roles. And that's where this movie flops – on all levels but the original idea for a plot. The script is very weak in comedy. For instance, Claude Akins has lines that repeat the same thing several times -- that he will have to do something bad to people, that he doesn't like killing all these people. It wasn't even funny the first time. His lines throughout mostly are terrible, and he is not a comedy actor. Clint Walker's lines and acting are hardly better. John Anderson as Mayor Kincaid is mostly a straight character throughout. Kim Novak is fair as the flighty but not otherwise funny Sister Lyda. Only three roles in this entire film are done well, and with some humor. Zero Mostel is very good as Rev. Pious Blue, Ruth Warrick is genuinely funny as Mrs. Applebee, and Akim Tamiroff is good, but wasted with very little screen time. The only two people in the entire cast that have comedy talent are Mostel and Tamiroff. And the cast has no more than half a dozen actors total that audiences would recognize at the time. Many stock players fill in supporting roles, but with almost no comedy. The film was based on a novel by Frank O'Rourke. I imagine it was supposed to be a funny story, but Warner Brothers wasn't able to pull it off with this film. I couldn't find the budget for this movie anywhere, but it's box office return in 1969 was just $1.5 million.That probably didn't come even close to paying the bills. In one word, "The Great Bank Robbery" is a dud. If you want to see great comedy and top comedians and other actors of the period, watch either of the other two films – "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World," or "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming." Their box office takes were $60 million (more than six times its budget) for Mad World in 1963, and nearly $22 million (more than five times its budget) for The Russians Are Coming in 1966.

Zero Mostel and Kim Novak. Larry Storch. How can it go wrong? Well, it can. And did.At this writing, there are no "memorable quotes" from this movie on the IMDb site, and for good reason: I really can't remember anything particularly funny or witty from this script. My understanding from some sources is that this movie had a fat bankroll, and Mostel, Novak, and some of the others in this movie were doing what they were told and collecting a big paycheck. Mostel, for example, had just recovered from being blacklisted, and after a series of Broadway and movie successes, was trying to earn money to make up for lost time. Don't get me wrong, however, a poorly utilized Zero Mostel is still better than a well utilized almost anyone else. Unfortunately, he didn't have the support to really make it sizzle.But the saddest part is the tragic misuse of Kim Novak. She is in this movie solely to decorate the screen. (Which she does, admirably. One good thing about this movie is that this may be Kim Novak at her most beautiful.) It is amazing, however, how many scenes she has where she has absolutely no lines, and just is there to look pretty. The Lady Godiva scene is a classic example of the "shut up and look pretty" mentality, and it's a pointless embarrassment. Give her some lines to say! As an actress, she was good enough for Hitchcock, so she should have been good enough for Hy Averback and this piece of drivel.Sorry, I'm getting more and more worked up as I write this review. I'll quit now. BOTTOM LINE: I could have used a pleasant movie on a pleasant Saturday afternoon. This wasn't it.

In the western town of Friendly, there's a bank so impenetrable that even as hordes of Mexicans stampede down the street to rob it, people continue chatting and throwing horseshoes because it's just that impossible to rob. This is the bank referred to in the title of this spoofy western, in which no less than four separate teams are planning to break in, most of whom want the loot that famous outlaws have stashed there (because of it's fortress-like stature and a manager who keeps the books hidden from authorities.) Mostel plays a faux-reverend whose flock include a tunnel-digger, a demolitions man, an artist and a decoy (played by a shockingly curvy and flesh-flashing Novak.) He is the top-billed star of the film, but it's really an ensemble piece not unlike "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" or any other overdone comedy in which disparate people want the same thing and wind up fighting for it in an extended chase at the end. Walker plays a Texas Ranger who wants inside the bank for it's account information. Other potential bank robbers include Tamiroff and Storch leading the Mexican contingent of bandits and Akins as an outlaw who claims to hate killing people, though he does so frequently. The film is broad and occasionally loud, but has been unfairly dismissed as worthless and unfunny. Though the humor is low and sometimes lame, there are still a number of laughs to be had. All of the performers are quite dedicated to their roles and to the parodic elements of the story. Some of them just tend to overplay it. Mostel has an outlandishly ridiculous musical number which is funny in spite of itself. It's so tacky and ludicrous it winds up being entertaining on a camp level. Novak, not exactly a strong comedienne, has a lot to offer physically. She betrays all her fine earlier work in films like "Vertigo" (!) and "The Man with the Golden Arm" taking on such a decorative and exploitive role, but does deliver on those terms. Walker is everyone's ideal authority figure. Sure and proud, he's the perfect choice for his role. He has a dazzlingly bizarre picnic scene with Novak in which he is slipped some peyote and is given a rare opportunity to cut loose and have some fun while displaying (for one of the last times?) his tremendous chest. At 42, he puts anyone else on earth to shame hanging from a tree by one arm and rolling around in the grass with his head upside down. Many other familiar actors round out the cast, notably "All My Children"'s Warrick in a weak role that she makes the very most of. Cook also does well as Akin's nervous sidekick. It's all a big, overblown mess by the end (and in a grievous error, Walker is offscreen for ages in the climax), but it's worth a look for several amusing moments and the physical attributes of Novak and Walker. The approach to drugs is dated and it doesn't always hold up completely, but there is a certain degree of cleverness in it. One note: A free bag of peanuts to anyone who can understand what Tamiroff is saying in his opening scene.