Charley Varrick

Director: Don Siegel

1973 / 111min / 35mm

“The Last of the Independents” is how Charley Varrick (Walter Matthau) bills his sideline crop-dusting business; as for orchestrating meticulously planned bank robberies, his true passion and principal source of income… well, that he doesn’t advertise. A stick-up job in New Mexico lands Charley and his hothead young partner (Andrew Robinson, Dirty Harry’s “Scorpio”) the payday of a lifetime, but because the haul happens to be mob money, they also get a hulking sadist named “Molly” (Joe Don Baker) dogging their steps, out for blood. A taut thriller pitting brains against brawn, and a film which has a great deal to tell us about how the contentious Siegel viewed his relationship with the industry in which he toiled.

Distributor: Universal