Charley Varrick (1973)

Directed by: Don Siegel
Starring: Walter Matthau, Joe Don Baker

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Molly [reading Varrick's business card]: 'Charley Varrick, Last of the Independents.' I like that. It has an air of... finality

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At the Quentin Tarantino Festival this year, one night was themed Italian Crime Films of the 70's night. We saw Death Rage starring Yul Brynner and No Way Out with Alain Delon. Now that night could have well been called Bad-Ass Hitman night, because Brynner & Delon's performances were both insanely cool and incredibly scary. Without a doubt, Charley Varrick could have screened after those two and absolutely held its own... a smart caper flick with not one, but two dripping-with-machismo actors in Walter Matthau and Joe Don Baker. Scene-for-scene as cool as the films of guys like Tarantino and Rodriguez, Charley Varrick is one of my new all-time favorites.

The movie opens with a slightly-botched bank robbery. Matthau plays the titular Varrick, a crop duster turned small-time crook. He leads a gang of 4 to rob a tiny bank in a small New Mexico town. Unfortunately, two of Varrick's gang (including his girlfriend) get killed trying to escape... only Varrick and a guy named Harman (Andrew Robinson) make it out alive. The duo pull off their surprisingly well-thought out getaway plan, then head back to Varrick's trailer to count the loot and wait until the cops stop looking for them. They'll spend the rest of the movie trying to avoid detection and get out of town, a task that becomes overwhelmingly more difficult when they discover that instead of the $5-6K they expected, they've stolen over $750K! Harman doesn't understand why Varrick is suddenly very worried:

Harman: The money was there, right?
Varrick: Right.
Harman: And now it's here, right?
Varrick: Right.
Harman: So what's the problem?

When the nightly news quotes the bank manager as claiming a $4K loss, Varrick's fears are confirmed. There's only one reason a small bank would have that much unreported cash, and he knows he is royally screwed... he's unwittingly stolen from the mob. Varrick explains the situation to his somewhat slow buddy: "The cops'll stop looking in 3-4 days. But the mafia? They won't stop looking until they've found the money. And we're dead." We find Varrick's fears are valid in the next scene when Joe Don Baker (Mitchell, Walking Tall) - playing an enforcer called Molly - gets called in to track down the missing cash.

In this movie, Baker is The Man. Almost every line out of his mouth is something impossibly bad-ass... we're talking the Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction and Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke level cool. In one scene a group of hookers giggle and make a joke about Molly's name. He stops what he's doing and shuts the group up with a single glance. Once he's got their attention he real quitely tell them "I didn't travel 600 miles for the amusement of fools" then stares at 'em with a look that almost begs them to say something else... just so he'd have an excuse to slap a few tramps around. A few minutes later the madame offers Molly the services of one of the girls. The girl smiles heads towards Molly until he stops her cold by announcing "I don't sleep with whores... knowingly." And those aren't even the best lines in the movie. Baker is the epitome of badassery in this movie... one of those instances where all the elements come together to create an iconic performance.

Its one of those movies were after each scene you think "It can't possibly get any better than this... I bet the rest of the movie is going to be a let-down." But here's the thing... the movie just keeps getting better and better. Siegel has absolutely loaded this film with cool sequences. Siegel takes advantage of scenes that most directors usually use just to get from one plot point to the next. When Molly needs a car, instead of just being handed one, his contact sends him to go repossess one - leading to a great scene where the car's debt-ridden owner tries to save face in front of his young son. Or the scene where, after the robbery, Varrick goes to talk to his elderly neighbor to distract her from seeing Harman carrying bank bags from the van to the trailer. The old lady launches into a really funny conversation with Varrick explaining how she thinks her milk delivery guy is out to molest her... then her phone rings and as she walks in to answer it she offhandedly sighs "It's probably an obscene caller." There's the little gimmicks of Varrick and Molly - Varrick's constantly popping in a fresh stick of gum, while Molly smokes a pipe and wears a weird-looking grandpa hat. Then there's a handful of interesting minor characters, from 'Honest John,' the operator of a local whorehouse, to a greedy fence in a wheelchair who tries to stand up to Molly, to the chainsmoking lady passport forger...

I've only touched on Matthau's performance here, but he's every bit as good as Baker. Varrick is a guy who just wants get a little nest egg together... who never wanted any of the trouble that comes with stealing from the mob... but when he realizes there's nothing he can do about his situation he doesn't bitch or moan... he just figures out what has to be done, and takes care of it. Until recently, I didn't realize how great Matthau was in his pre-Grumpy Old Men days. Movies like this, Fail-Safe, and The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 have completely opened my eyes to Matthau's awesomeness. There's one scene in particular that I like in this movie where Matthau has broken into a young woman's house to get some information. He gets it, then nods towards the circular bed in her living room:

Varrick: You know, I've never slept in a round bed before.
Woman: Oh yeah?
Varrick: Yeah. What's the best way? North? South? East? West?
Woman [smiles]: Well... it depends on what you want to do?
Varrick: Hmmm... actually, I'm planning on boxing the compass.

The movie ends with a classic scene where Molly (driving a '67 Chrysler Imperial) and Varrick (driving his crop-dusting plane) play chicken/demolition derby in a giant junkyard. It's an amazing sequence that makes you want to rewatch in slo-mo to figure out how Seigel pulls off some of the stunts. I simply cannot say enough good things about this movie. If you like hard-boiled, whiskey-drinking, cigarette-smoking, women-slapping, gun-blazing movies about guys who don't take no shit off nobody... Charley Varrick is everything you've ever wanted, and more. And the best thing is, you can pick it up online for just $6.

- Micah