Adapted from a novel by Jim Thompson, who wrote The Killing's screenplay and many, many novels of which this, The Grifters and The Killer Inside Me were adapted after his death. He wrote the first draft but McQueen, who had final cut, replaced him with Walter Hill. It doesn't seem very Thompsony, except the bit where killer Al Lettieri pals up with dentist's faithless wife Sally Struthers.
'Doc' Steve McQueen heads up bank robbery that goes wrong. Faithless girlfriend Ali MacGraw has slept with job mastermind Ben Johnson - she kills him. So the mob and the police are after them as well as ex partner Lettieri.
For some stupid reason McQueen and MacGraw head to their original rendezvous that everyone knows he will be heading to - not too bright. He's betrayed there by hotel manager Dub Taylor but manages to kill everyone in slow motion, and ends up getting away with the loot with the aid of cowboy Slim Pickens (Dr Strangelove, Blazing Saddles). Also he should have seen that Lettieri was so bulked up because he was wearing the bullet proof vest.
The opening is a very interestingly edited sequence - Robert Wolfe, with Roger Spottiswoode as 'editorial consultant'. Lucien Ballard is the DP and the very distinctive music - featuring a didgeridoo amongst other instruments - is by Quincy Jones, who replaced Jerry Fielding, again at McQueen's insistence.
As we learned from The Offer, MacGraw left her husband Robert Evans to shack up with Steve McQueen. I think they're a pretty colourless couple of leads. Overall it's not a bad film, with McQueen and shotgun, robber on train, garbage truck, all interesting.
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| Heart attack, 1975 |
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