The Anderson Tapes (1971)

Director: Sidney Lumet

Writers: Lawrence Sanders, Frank Pierson

Composer: Quincy Jones

Starring: Sean Connery, Dyan Cannon, Martin Balsam, Ralph Meeker, Alan King, Christopher Walken, Val Avery, Dick Anthony Williams, Garrett Morris, Margaret Hamilton, Conrad Bain, Judith Lowry, Max Showalter

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The Crime of the Century!

Plot: After Duke Anderson is released from prison after ten years for taking the rap for a scion of a Mafia family, he cashes in a debt of honor with the mob to bankroll a caper.

My rating:  6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.  Twice is enough.

It's been a good twenty-five years since I last saw this and I feel the same about it now as I did then - it's an OK heist movie.  The cast is loaded with actors that I really dig.  Balsam hams it up as a flamboyant homosexual but he is fun.  I would've liked more of a violent edge to Connery and some of the others.  The first half of the film is the heist setup with the second half being the execution.  Connery's plan is too ambitious to think that they might get away with it.  And things get ridiculous when there's a computer whiz kid in the joint that throws a monkey wrench into the works.  I liked the technical parts (directing, editing and so on) so I guess my issue is with the story.  The last minute of the picture adds an extra bit of "oh, shit" but it's not all that effective and any power it's supposed to have has been diminished by the lackluster story.  The Columbia DVD is part of the Martini Movies collection so you get two 1.5 minutes clips compilations on how to be a leading man and how to drink.  They're forgettable and annoying.  The movie itself and the theatrical trailer are both anamorphic widescreen.