Charley Varrick – 3.5 stars

A smarter than average bank robber (Walter Matthau) robs a small town New Mexico bank that, unbeknownst to him, is holding $750,000 in mob money. The job goes bad, his wife and wheel woman (Jacqueline Scott) and an accomplice are shot dead, and when Matthau and his surviving accomplice (Andrew Robinson, the memorable Scorpio Killer in Dirty Harry) hear on TV that the robbers only got away with several thousand, he susses out the massive shitstorm that is coming. The storm comes in the form of mob money man John Vernon and enforcer Joe Don Baker. Matthau has to figure out how to survive the ordeal.      

This is a competent and serviceable Don Siegel (Dirty Harry, Escape from Alcatraz) crime flick. The picture is no great shakes but it has its moments, and the cat-and-mouse machinations of the characters are compelling.  

The picture is also very very weird, for several reasons.

First, apparently, in the 70s, all you had to do to a woman to transform her to putty in your hands is rough them up a bit. Sure, 1960s James Bond could get away with it, but a majority of those women were play acting for the post-coital kill. Not so the women of this flick. A slap or threat, and they positively melt. So, that’s changed.

Second, there are several actors who should not be kissing women in film. John Wayne is probably number one, Brad Pitt, with his blasé remove, is three.  Matthau has got to be number two. In this flick, he kisses his dead wife on the lips – twice – and then he beds a live woman (John Vernon’s executive secretary, Felicia Farr). It’s hard to tell which woman was less enthralled. Matthau looks ridiculous.

Last, has there ever been a luckier actor than Joe Don Baker? “Oh, so, you want me to be a quirky Southern tough guy who can exude jovial sarcasm followed immediately by swift violence?  I can do that.” And a career playing basically the same role – and playing it well – followed.

On Amazon Prime.