CHARLEY VARRICK (1973)

Director: Don Siegel

Writers: Howard Rodman, Dean Riesner, adapted from John H. Reese’s novel The Looters

Producer: Don Siegel

Cast: Walter Matthau, Joe Don Baker, Andy Robinson, John Vernon, Sheree North, Felicia Farr, Jacqueline Scott, William Schallert, Benson Fong, Woodrow Parfrey, Marjorie Bennett, Norman Fell, Kathleen O’Malley, Tom Tulley, Albert Popwell, Colby Chester, Rudy Diaz, Christina Hart, Charlie Briggs, Craig Baxley, Scott Hale, Priscilla Garcia, Hope Summers, Charles Matthau, Monica Lewis, Al Dunlap, Virginia Wing, Don Siegel, James Nolan, (and uncredited cast) Bob Steele, Joe Conforte, Fred Scheiwiller, Robert D. Carver, Carol Daniels, Art Cribbs, Thomas Dunbar, Richard R. Hogan, Walt Wallace, Holly Nutter, Fred Little, Carlos Valesquez 

Crop duster and former stunt flier Charley Varrick (Walter Matthau) leads an armed robbery of a small town New Mexico bank. Things don’t go according to plan when shooting starts and two members of his gang are killed. Varrick and his surviving accomplice (Andy Robinson) are surprised to find over three-quarters of a million dollars in the moneybags they stole. Since the loot happens to be a secret stash of Mafia money, both the Mob and law enforcement are after the thieves. 

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Unlike most heist movies, Charley Varrick is not a film that details the elaborate planning of the crime building up to the climax of the robbery’s execution. The film opens with the bank robbery that leads to the rest of the story’s conflict and complications. This is a heist-gone-wrong movie. In addition to some cops getting shot, two of Charley Varrick’s accomplices are killed during the robbery. Varrick and his surviving partner, Harman Sullivan, seem to have hit the jackpot with a much larger pile of dough than they could have expected. But Varrick, figuring that so much money has no legitimate reason being stashed in such a small bank, correctly assumes that it is money being laundered by the Mafia. The rest of the film concerns Varrick trying to figure out how to survive the Mob’s retribution for his dumb-luck, criminal payday. 

Despite the recent success of The Godfather (1972), another film about criminal protagonists, Charley Varrick was probably a bit before its time for a mainstream movie. The Godfather film also had the advantage of being based on a best-selling novel. Director Quentin Tarantino would later popularize crime thrillers without any redeeming characters as protagonists in the 1990s, but back in 1973 this was usually a much harder pill to swallow. That is why director Siegel’s frequent star Clint Eastwood turned down the title role and probably why the film’s lead, Walter Matthau, was displeased and a bit confused with the finished movie. Ultimately, many people will ask, “Where’s the hero?” 

Most American movies still seem to have the need for a moral center to them. If they focus on the evil or amoral motives and actions of the main characters, we expect those characters to get their just desserts. Failing that, the criminal-centric story usually has to be about bad guys vs. bad guys. Once an audience gets past the lack of a moral center in a film, they can engage with criminal characters’ backgrounds and motives, yet that audience is still usually picking sides and deciding which law-breakers should prevail against their more despicable adversaries. 

In Charley Varrick, the title character is whom we are almost traditionally bound to root for. He is the main protagonist and has admirable and unflappable stealth and intelligence. However, he masterminded a bank robbery that got some innocent people shot. He spends the rest of the movie trying to save his own skin. His defining character trait is pragmatism. The only sentiment we ever see him express is some sorrow for his late wife (Jacqueline Scott). In spite of his criminality, we admire his quick thinking and ingenuity. He confides in no one and manages to be one step ahead of everyone, including the audience. 

Despite Matthau’s dissatisfaction with the finished production, his performance as Charley Varrick is what really holds the film together. This is not Matthau in comedy mode. His offhand decisiveness and total lack of swagger creates a peculiar confidence and authority for his character without diminishing the sense of danger that he faces. Since Matthau’s Varrick is a criminal, we are even more uncertain of his eventual fate than we would be for a more honorable protagonist. 

Andy Robinson plays Varrick’s partner in crime, Harman Sullivan. He turns out to be an added risk for Charley Varrick. The younger and hotheaded Sullivan is overjoyed with the surprise of a much bigger haul of cash than expected from the bank robbery. The older and more cautious Varrick has his hands full trying to keep his impulsive partner from recklessly spending the money too soon and exposing them to the Mafia or the law. Robinson will forever be one of the most reviled movie villains ever as the Scorpio Killer from director Siegel’s classic Dirty Harry (1971). Had Clint Eastwood not turned down the role of Charley Varrick, it would have been a real kick to see him in a criminal alliance with Robinson in this film just two years after Eastwood’s iconic hero ‘Dirty’ Harry Callahan faced off against Robinson’s psychopath. 

Joe Don Baker threatens to steal the show as eccentric mob enforcer Molly. With his Texan accent and western-styled apparel, the big, pipe-smoking thug has an amiable and dignified manner that seems contrary to the brutality he enjoys inflicting. Molly has been sent to track down the bank robbers and retrieve the stolen money. He is the clearest example of how the offbeat characters maintain our interest in this film without true heroes to root for. 

Another Dirty Harry cast member, John Vernon, appears here as crooked bank president Maynard Boyle. Despite knowingly stashing money for the Mafia in one of his bank branches, and as a result being under suspicion by the Mob of possibly arranging the robbery, Boyle manages to remain cool and controlled. 

In her small role as Jewell Everett, a photographer and passport forger, Sheree North contributes her world-weary sex appeal with just a touch of kink. Her amusing scene with Matthau’s Varrick raises our expectations for something to develop between these two. She has a couple surprises for us that seem all too likely in this film’s cold, cruel world. 

Elderly Marjorie Bennett is very funny as Mrs. Taft, Charley Varrick’s trailer park neighbor. She is convinced that she has to be on her guard at all times against sex-crazed men. 

It is this assortment of odd characters and the satisfaction we derive from how Varrick copes with his criminal predicament that keeps us involved with director Don Siegel’s neo-noir film. Perhaps its protagonists were too amoral to rake in much loot at the box office, but if approached with an expectation of a crime thriller just about criminals, Charley Varrick really takes off.

WINTER KILL (1974)

Director: Jud Taylor

Writers: John Michael Hayes, David Karp

Producer: Burt Nodella

Cast: Andy Griffith, John Larch, Lawrence Pressman, Sheree North, Tim O’Connor, Eugene Roche, Joyce Van Patten, John Calvin, Charles Tyner, Louise Latham, Nick Nolte, Robert F, Simon, Ruth McDevitt, Walter Brooke, Devra Korwin, David Frankham, Elayne Heilveil, Vaughn Taylor (uncredited) 

In the mountain resort town of Eagle Lake, California, Police Chief Sam McNeill (Andy Griffith) is called to the scene of a shotgun murder. Most disturbing is the red spray-painted message left in the snow that reads: THE FIRST. 

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Once Andy Griffith finished his long-running role of Sheriff Andy Taylor in The Andy Griffith Show, he went on to make guest appearances in other television series throughout the 1970s. He also starred in plenty of made-for-television movies; several were designed as pilots for potential series. That was the hope for the mystery thriller Winter Kill. 

Griffith brings an amiable authority to his role. Of course, at this time he was instantly recognizable to the television audience. They would have an immediate rapport with the down-to-earth, nice guy Griffith persona, yet it must have been quite a novelty to see him in this grim drama about a serial killer. He is a small town head of law enforcement again, but this time in the picturesque wintertime locale of the California mountains. 

Griffith’s character of Police Chief Sam McNeill is dealing with some unaccustomed friction from the locals. They are panicked and want fast results from the police. It isn’t every day that a violent crime spree assails the peace of this small resort town and could disrupt the season’s tourist trade. Since we are almost genetically predisposed to side with good guy Griffith’s Sam McNeill, we quickly relate to his stressful situation. 

Fortunately, Sam McNeill can take the edge off with his girlfriend Betty (Sheree North), the proprietor of the local diner. If you’ve got her to snuggle up with on cold winter nights, tracking down a sneaky killer in a town full of ingrates would be a lot easier to take. Since I had fallen hard for Sheree North during her sexy role in The Gypsy Moths (1969), her presence in Winter Kill was a major motive for me to seek it out. North’s character of Betty winds up being a pretty crucial component in the killer’s deadly mission. 

There are many other faces that were familiar to television viewers of the ’70s to be found here in Winter Kill. The one that would go on to the most fame would be Nick Nolte. Here he plays the rather self-centered stud and ski bum Dave Michaels. 

Director Jud Taylor does a pretty good job of teasing us with the suspenseful setups as the killer goes about his deadly business. Working on a 1974 prime time TV-movie, Taylor had to suggest rather than explicitly depict the grisly damage that a shotgun would inflict on the victims. Therefore, I find it rather curious that one kill is depicted in full view in broad daylight on the snow making it quite apparent that not a single drop of blood is shed. 

Once we learn just what this killer’s grievance is about, it seems that there is a clash between repressive sexual mores of the past and those of the sexually liberated ’70s. Regardless of the era, human nature does not change. People would always mess around; how they dealt with the consequences of sex is often dictated by the current state of the culture they live in. It was probably social sexual intolerance of the past that led to the killer’s past lack of responsibility. This also led to guilt that was stirred into a vengeful rage against those that he wants to blame for a recent tragedy. 

1974’s Winter Kill did not directly lead to a series as was intended. If it had I suppose it would have been another unlikely contrivance of an inordinate amount of murder and mayhem occurring in a small town like the later mystery series Murder, She Wrote (1984-1996). There was a 1975 series attempted that was a reworking of Winter Kill’s hero and setting called Adams of Eagle Lake. Andy Griffith also starred in the show that lasted just two episodes. 

If you are looking for a remedy to your cabin fever, give Winter Kill a chance. If a murder mystery in a quaint winter resort town can’t cure your doldrums, maybe Sheree North can. Who needs a hot toddy with her around?

THE GYPSY MOTHS (1969)

Director: John Frankenheimer

Writers: William Hanley adapting James Drought’s original novel

Producers: Hal Landers, Bobby Roberts

Cast: Burt Lancaster, Gene Hackman, Scott Wilson, Deborah Kerr, William Windom, Bonnie Bedelia, Sheree North, John Napier, Carl Reindel, Ford Rainey 

Mike Rettig (Burt Lancaster), Joe Browdy (Gene Hackman), and Malcolm Webson (Scott Wilson) are a team of skydivers that drive from town to town to perform their aerial stunts for public exhibitions. When they arrive in young Malcolm’s childhood hometown of Bridgeville, Kansas, Malcolm suggests that they stay at the home of Elizabeth and John Brandon (Deborah Kerr and William Windom). The Brandons are Malcolm’s aunt and uncle that he has not seen since he was orphaned. It soon becomes apparent that the Brandons are an unhappy and distant couple. While the skydiving trio prep for their performance that July 4th weekend, the risk-taking Rettig seems drawn to Elizabeth. 

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The attention-getting skydiving sequences may distinguish this film, but The Gypsy Moths is primarily a strange drama. The trio of Rettig, Browdy, and Webson are always on the move in a nomadic existence of travel, promotion, and performance to score some quick cash before packing up and moving on. One can’t really say that these guys are just trying to find themselves. Their motivations are mostly unspoken. We don’t know much about their background or why they risk death time after time in their performances. They never define goals they are striving for. At one point Browdy does suggest that maybe someday he’ll head to Hollywood to become a stuntman, yet no one is listening to him.

Burt Lancaster’s Mike Rettig is the uneasy subcurrent running through this story. Rettig keeps taking greater risks in his performances. He spends a lot of the film saying very little and we learn almost nothing about him. We only become aware of some of his feelings when he tells Deborah Kerr’s Elizabeth Brandon what he wants. Afterwards we are still left to wonder just what is running through Rettig’s mind and how he will react. 

This film’s stunt casting is the reunion of Lancaster with Deborah Kerr. From Here to Eternity (1953) had immortalized them with their iconic love-in-the-surf scene. Here they are two characters with different temperaments that are drawn to each other, yet both are risk-takers. Rettig’s risks are how he makes his living and that deadly edge seems to validate his life. Elizabeth risks upending the joyless security of her marriage by taking a growing interest in Rettig.

Scott Wilson, as Malcolm Webson, is the youngest member of the skydiving team. Although it is not stated, Webson was probably the replacement for a previous member of the group killed during a performance. This “kid” in the group shows the most safety-conscious sense of the trio. He is aware of Rettig’s growing recklessness in the act and tries to express that concern to him. Even though Webson is having his group stay with his relatives, he is not close to his aunt and uncle. He has not seen the Brandons since he was a child and still seems as alone in the world as his co-performers.

Bonnie Bedelia makes one of her earliest film appearances as Annie Burke, the college student also rooming with the Brandons. Despite the chemistry Annie has with Webson, there is still a bit of awkwardness between them. While this is perfectly natural between people that have only recently met, it seems that all of the main characters in this story have difficulty communicating and connecting at an emotional level. 

The live wire that provides most of the energy in the cast is Gene Hackman. As the boisterous Joe Browdy, he usually does most of the talking and provides some good humor. Browdy seems to be an absolutely carefree character, but this good-time Charley can be a bit sensitive about his devout churchgoing. Whether he does this to atone for his bawdy nightlife, to pray for safety during his daredevil performances, or to be sure he is ready to meet his maker if one of his stunts goes wrong is unclear. 

With this cast and some very impressive free-falling camerawork capturing the skydiving action, anyone should become involved with this unique story. However, Sheree North, as the Paradise Club waitress and stripper Mary, is the film’s most bedazzling spectacle. With her world-weary wit, big blue eyes, and fine form, her character deserved to headline a film all her own. This flashback fanatic has been hopelessly smitten once again.

The Gypsy Moths is an odd film that may leave many unsatisfied. Its characters are often defined by what they will not say or the choices that they won’t make. It does not provide the predictable and pat resolutions that we probably wish for some of its characters. Most viewers may find this sort of narrative frustrating, but those same people probably felt something along the way and are made to ponder whether the characters’ decisions will make them happy.