''Bank Shot'' is a 1974 American heist

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by

Gower Champion Gower Carlyle Champion (June 22, 1919 – August 25, 1980) was an American actor, theatre director, choreographer, and dancer. Early years Champion was born on June 22, 1919, in Geneva, Illinois, as the son of John W. Champion and Beatrice Ca ...

and written by Wendell Mayes. It was loosely based upon Donald E. Westlake's 1972 novel of the same name, which was the second book of his " Dortmunder" series. The film stars

George C. Scott George Campbell Scott (October 18, 1927 – September 22, 1999) was an American actor. He had a celebrated career on both stage and screen. With a gruff demeanor and commanding presence, Scott became known for his portrayal of stern but complex ...

Joanna Cassidy Joanna Cassidy (born Joanna Virginia Caskey; August 2, 1945) is an American actress and former model. She began working as a model in the 1960s and made her professional acting debut in 1973, appearing in the thriller films ''The Laughing Policem ...

Sorrell Booke Sorrell Booke (January 4, 1930 – February 11, 1994) was an American actor who performed on stage, screen, and television. He acted in more than 100 plays and 150 television shows, and is best known for his role as corrupt politician Jefferson ...

, and

G. Wood George Wood (December 31, 1919 – July 24, 2000) was an American film and television actor, usually billed as G. Wood. Wood was born in Forrest City, Arkansas. He was one of four actors to appear in both the 1970 film ''M*A*S*H'' and the telev ...

Plot

The film is partly narrated by

Warden A warden is a custodian, defender, or guardian. Warden is often used in the sense of a watchman or guardian, as in a prison warden. It can also refer to a chief or head official, as in the Warden of the Mint. ''Warden'' is etymologically ident ...

Streiger (known as "Bulldog" Streiger). A bank, temporarily housed in a mobile home while a new building is built, looks like an easy target to break into. That is what Al Karp, the former partner of jailed criminal planner Walter Ballantine, thinks, so Karp arranges for Ballantine to escape from the Streiger Institute (a privately run penitentiary). Ballantine isn't keen on the job, given that the last one, also brought to him by Karp, landed him in jail. Two members of the team aren't also to his liking: Victor, the nephew of Karp, is a former FBI agent but also absolutely clueless. And the financier of the coup, Eleonora, has got a crush on him. Finally, after seeing the bank, Ballantine is ready to give up. A hold-up is out of question - there isn't a good escape route, and the possibility of being shot in the back when leaving the bank has also to be considered. Because of the opening hours of the nearby stores, on Thursday nights money is kept in the bank. But in a hard-to-crack Mosler safe, guarded by four security guards. So breaking into the bank is also no option. At this moment, Ballantine has a flash of inspiration: Instead of stealing the money out of the bank, they will steal the whole bank. And while Streiger together with his FBI buddy Andrew Constable is setting up a command center to catch Ballantine, the team around Ballantine is getting to work: Since the provisional bank is missing wheels, they have to steal a tractor together with wheels, and install them under the bank. Everything is going perfectly and according to plan: They stage a diversion to lure the police patrol cars away from the bank and drive away with it. Thanks to trickery, the guards flee the bank in panic. After camouflaging it by giving it a fresh, pink painting instead of the old green one, they hide it in a trailer park, and start to work on the safe. Even when the police controls the site, the only result is the harassment of another mobile home owner, who has also arrived the same night, and whose trailer is green. Things begin to go awry when the pink color, not being waterproof, is washed away by a lawn sprinkler, and the manager of the trailer park, not wanting more disturbances, forces them to leave. Without a better option, they park the bank on top of a hill in a wasteland, installing a prominent billboard for real estate development. Resuming the work on the safe, it proves to be a very tough nut. They resort to the use of nitroglycerine, when the mobile home is spotted by a helicopter, and Streiger together with Constable are rushing to the scene. Meanwhile, the team finally blasts open the safe, blowing the roof and the walls of the bank away as collateral damage. The wreckage of the bank, together with the safe, begins to roll down the hill, and only Ballantine manages to jump on it. The ensuing pursuit ends at a high cliff on the coast: The team, together with Streiger, witness how the bank plunges together with Ballantine into the water. Ballantine, not wanting to be arrested again, begins to swim into the open sea. Streiger, being a non-swimmer, has to give up the hunt, and the rest of the team also stays behind. The movie closes showing the majestic ocean, and a voice-over of Streiger as narrator, telling that some days later, the national bank of Samoa was robbed by a man. Nothing fancy about that, except that he was described as dripping wet, and Streiger vows to learn to swim and that he will catch Ballantine at last.

Cast

Production

Wendell Mayes later said he wrote it because he loved Westlake's novels but felt the film failed due to the direction of Gower Champion. "I felt that Hollywood had never truly done justice to his estlake'speculiar brand of humor in motion pictures," said Mayes. "I was trying to do that brand of humor, something that is just slightly tilted, which at first you don't realize is slightly tilted. It was a charming idea ..the idea of not simply robbing a bank but stealing the whole building. What happened is that Gower tried to turn it into a farce, and it didn't work. The people weren't equipped to play farce. Gower was a nice guy and a marvelous stage director; but the film simply wasn't deft, and it should have been. He held pretty much to the script but ruined what I thought was a good piece. He was the only bad experience I've ever had in my career with a director. I was bitterly disappointed."

Reception

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who was the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in 2000. ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' was mildly amused: "It's not a great movie. It's not worth taking a taxi to see. Yet there are many less invigorating ways to waste one's time. ... The intensity of Scott's performance is highly comic. His Walter Ballantine has the discipline, self-assurance and narrow vision of the true fanatic. So, too, do most of the other characters in the film... Gower Champion, who has had more success as a Broadway director (''Hello, Dolly'') than as a maker of films ('' My Six Loves''), seems to have had a great deal of fun with first-rate actors doing ''Bank Shot'' — grace of a work by someone who knows exactly what he's doing." Arthur D. Murphy of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' called it "an innocuous little trifle" and "formula caper material, hyped by humor that is variously silly, forced and strident."

Gene Siskel Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the ''Chicago Tribune'' who co-hosted a movie review television series alongside colleague Roger Ebert. Siskel started writing for the '' ...

of the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

'' gave the film two stars out of four and dismissed it as "a trivial, television-caliber, bank heist comedy."

Charles Champlin Charles Davenport Champlin (March 23, 1926 – November 16, 2014) was an American film critic and writer. Life and career Champlin was born in Hammondsport, New York. He attended high school in Camden, New York, working as a columnist for the ...

of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' wrote, "While 'The Bank Shot,' adapted by Wendell Mayes from a Donald Westlake novel, is at best a lightly amusing and never very suspenseful caper film, it is lit with moments of plain wonderful and imaginative silliness." Gary Arnold of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' stated, "Despite its rather too effective air of inconsequence, 'The Bank Shot' is a reasonably good time," adding that "Champion demonstrates a wonderful talent for staging and shooting wide-screen sight gags." Richard Combs of ''

The Monthly Film Bulletin The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 until April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those wi ...

'' remarked that the film "definitely looks as if it belongs to a bygone age, to the days of Kramer's '' Mad, Mad World''," with much of its sense of fun coming off as "decidedly strenuous and heavily mugged."

References

External links