Dollars (film)
| $ | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Original film poster | |
| Directed by | Richard Brooks |
| Written by | Richard Brooks |
| Produced by | M.J. Frankovich |
| Starring | Warren Beatty Goldie Hawn Gert Fröbe Robert Webber Scott Brady |
| Cinematography | Petrus R. Schlömp |
| Edited by | George Grenville |
| Music by | Quincy Jones Featuring Don Elliott Voices With performances by Little Richard Roberta Flack Doug Kershaw |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release date |  December 17, 1971 |
Running time | 121 min. |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
$, also known as Dollars and in the UK as The Heist, is a 1971 American caper film distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film was written and directed by Richard Brooks and produced by M.J. Frankovich. It stars Goldie Hawn, Warren Beatty with Gert Fröbe, Robert Webber and Scott Brady. The film was partly shot in Hamburg, Germany which forms the primary location of the film.
Plot
The film's title appears in the opening credits only in the form of a giant character, as would be used in a sign, being transported by a crane.
Set in Hamburg, West Germany, several criminals use safe deposit boxes in a German bank to store large amounts of illicit cash. Three of the criminals include a local drug dealer known as the Candy Man, a Las Vegas mobster, and a crooked U.S. Army sergeant. Joe Collins (Beatty), an American bank security employee of the large bank learns about their scheme. Collins devises a clever way to steal the money with Dawn Divine (Hawn), a hooker with a heart of gold who the robbers all patronize.
Joe carries out his plan at the end of one day when he locks himself inside the bank vault (after a bomb scare when Dawn anonymously phones the bank president, Mr. Kessel, in an attempt to steal a priceless gold bar). Once locked inside the vault, Joe uses a stopwatch to time the movements of a security camera so it will not detect him. Joe uses the three duplicate keys given to him by Dawn to open up the three safety deposit boxes, remove the cash, and deposit it in Dawn's box. Despite some obstacles, the heist is successfully pulled off and Joe sets himself up as the hero for "preventing" a robbery.
The next day, the three criminals, one by one, enter the bank to their safety deposit boxes only to discover that they are all empty. Given that the criminals can't report the theft to the police, they attempt to get the money back. When the Candy Man, after getting beaten up by his employers who want their money back, makes contact with the Sarge and his business partner, a crooked U.S. Army major, to join forces to look for the money, they realize that Dawn Divine knew all of them. After breaking into Dawn's apartment and getting the address of Joe's loft, the criminals go over there forcing Dawn and Joe to run.
In a long and climatic chase sequence, Dawn gives the Major the slip by leaving him on a moving train while the Candy Man and the Sarge chase Joe on foot and car through Hamburg across a railway yard, into a train station, through the streets, through the Elbe Tunnel and into the snowy countryside, leading to a climatic showdown on a frozen lake where the Candy Man attempts to run over Joe in a car which drives onto a patch of thin ice and sinks, drowning the Candy Man and allowing Joe to escape.
The Sarge catches up to Joe on a moving train only to find that the suitcase that Joe carried all through the chase contains nothing but seemingly innocuous marketplace items, including a bottle of champagne, as the sought after suitcase had been switched by Dawn at the outset of the chase.The Sarge opens the bottle and takes a swig only to fall dead; the bottle having been filled with a solution of concentrated LSD earlier in the film by the Candy Man. A bewildered Joe walks away, seemingly betrayed by Dawn.
The final scenes shows Dawn back in the USA and in bed with Joe implying that they had planned the switch all along.
Cast
- Warren Beatty as Joe Collins
- Goldie Hawn as Dawn Divine
- Gert Fröbe as Mr. Kessel
- Robert Webber as Attorney
- Scott Brady as Sarge
- Arthur Brauss as Candy Man
- Robert Stiles as Major
- Wolfgang Kieling as Granich
- Bob Herron as Bodyguard (as Robert Herron)
- Christiane Maybach as Helga
- Hans Hutter as Karl
- Monica Stender as Berta
- Horst Hesslein as Bruno
- Wolfgang Kuhlman as Furcoat
- Klaus Schichan as Knifeman
Soundtrack
The soundtrack to the film was composed by Quincy Jones, with performances by Little Richard, Roberta Flack and Doug Kershaw, in addition to featuring the Don Elliot Voices throughout the score.
Filming
Much of the film was shot in Hamburg, West Germany in January and February 1971. Other filming locations included Malibu, California and Sweden.
The building depicted as the exterior of the bank was really the Kunsthalle, Hamburg's principal museum of art. The route followed in the chase scenes realistically takes the viewer through many of the city's unique locales.
Release and reception
The premiere of the film was on December 15, 1971 and it was released across cinema in the United States on December 17, 1971. It was released in Austria and West Germany on February 17, 1972, in Denmark on March 10, and in Sweden on March 27, 1972
The response to the film by critics was received generally positively with many critics believing that the film was under-rated at the time of release. American film critic Roger Ebert, on reviewing the film on December 30, 1971, gave it a positive review. He described the film as having a "premise that has a beautiful simplicity to it" despite having numerous twists and turns that resembles typical heist films, yet described it as a "slick and breakneck caper movie that runs like a well-oiled thrill".[1]
He praised the performance of Beatty, describing him as "the best con man in movies, certainly since Clark Gable died. He is filled with deals, angles, things he has to pull you over in a corner to whisper. He can make you rich tomorrow, and himself, too, one of these days. And he has an unusual kind narcissism — unusual for an actor. He isn't narcissistic about himself, but about his style; he's in love with conning people".[1] Ebert approved of his on-screen chemistry and unique relationship with Goldie Hawn describing them as "weirdly interesting together"[1] and the way they successfully moved together and interacted throughout the film. He also approved in the dynamic nature of the script and directing by Robert Brooks stating that "Brooks never stops to explain anything, never lingers over a plot, never bores us with lectures and explanations. Instead, all his characters plunge ahead, obsessed with greed."[1]
A Channel 4 review of the film in the UK gave it 4/5, who, like Ebert, noted the pace of the directing and script by Brooks, describing it as "cutting more rapidly than usual, he kept the action moving fairly entertainingly for most of the movie, with includes a long and spectacular car chase".[2] However, unlike Ebert, critic Christopher Null believed the following of the film tired after the first hour, remarking that, "Beatty and Hawn carry this fun little heist/comedy picture for the first hour, but then the whole affair gets a little tiring".[3] He did, however, rate the film 3.5/5.
DVD release
The film was released on DVD in 2008,[4] concurrently with the CD re-release of the film's soundtrack, which had previously been released on CD in 2001.[5]
References
- ^ a b c d Ebert, Roger (December 30, 1971). "$ (Dollars)". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved September 2, 2008.
- ^ "Dollars Review". Channel 4. Retrieved September 2, 2008.
- ^ Null, Christopher (2005). "$". Filmcritic.com. Retrieved September 2, 2008.
- ^ Dollar$ DVD release history; www.amazon.com.
- ^ Dollar$ Soundtrack release history; www.allmusic.com.
External links