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5 Against the House!
Topic Started: Mar 14 2011, 12:02 PM (289 Views)
mort bakaprevski
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Saw this at Video Journeys last week & remembered it fondly from my yout! It's part of Columbia's Film Noir series, BUT it's a far cry from noir. It's really a heist movie... &, probably, the first one I ever saw.

Unfortunately, like many films, it wasn't nearly as good as I remembered it. First of all you have to buy the concept of four college students who are in their thirties (hokay, so Kerwin Mathews was only 29). Granted, they're supposed to be in law school and at least two of 'em are Korean War vets, but I guess that war musta lasted longer than I remember it.

Then there's Kim Novak looking for all the world like Thelma Todd as the "college widow" in HORSE FEATHERS. Guy Madison (& I just gotta believe he a got a nose job sometime early in his career) & Brian Keith are the two vets. A very irritating Alvy Moore is the dummy in this bridge foursome.

Seems the quartet is in Reno at the outset on vacation & are told by someone that it would be impossible to rob Harold's Club. This sets Kerwin a-thinkin'. And, after a good deal of the film has played out, he struts out his plan for "the perfect crime." Of course, being wealthy, he has no intention of keeping the money. He just wants to prove it can be done. However, Brian Keith has ideas of his own.

The film lumbers along for about 45 minutes before we get down to business & then it really does get fun.... including a creative bit that takes place in a semi-automated parking garage. Phil Karlson directed, but even he is stymied by a script that just lies there for about 2/3 of the film.

However, for me, there was an unexpected bonus. A fraternity brother I went to USC with has a fairly prominent part as a harassed freshman. This guy had an interesting career. When I knew him, he was in, at least, his late twenties, but he still had something of an adolescent voice and was fairly short. In addition, he seemed to photograph even younger than he looked in real life. Consequently, he was still playing roles of kids (18 here &, usually younger). I think he realized a career of this nature would ultimately lead to a dead-end, so he was studying architecture at SC. Wonder whatever happened to him????
"Nov Shmoz Ka Pop."
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panzer the great & terrible
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Mouth Breather
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Pore ol' Karlson rarely got a good script, but his visual style was mostly impeccable. I like him more than I used to, and there aren't many other directors I can say that about. William Dieterle, Anthony Mann, and, um, that's about all.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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