Simply A Masterpiece

Sadly Over-hyped

Best movie ever!

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This is just a good, clean, fun movie with an excellent cast. It was shot back in the 1970's. It is amazing that the movie did not do better at the box office, because of all the stars that were cast in it. It is interesting to note that this movie was shot mostly in Mansfield, Ohio at the Mansfield Reformatory. Since then, Shawshank Redemption and Con Air were filmed there as well. The prison used for the movie has since been replaced by a new one and is now an historical site, open to the public. I think you will find some good laughs here. It is not brain surgery and a great way to experience some top stars in one package. I was an extra in this movie, playing both a prison guard and a prisoner. Chasing James Caan and Elliot Gould was a hoot. The cast and crew of this movie had a great time filming it. I might add that the director, Mark Rydell, went on to direct the movie,On Golden Pond.

An earlier poster commented that it came and went in the theaters. That's because (at least in America), it was savaged by the critics. But when I saw this on cable a little while after, I actually found it to be very funny, and even taped it for my personal collection. The sequence at the end when Harry and Walter are doing what they can to extend the play so they can steal the money is very funny. When James Caan stops the play and starts singing his lines that, "he's not the real Prince Herbert, I am!" I thought was really great. I remember the "owls who" line as well, but Caan's singing his lines was what I most enjoyed in that movie. I also liked the scene where Caan and Gould go into the fancy restaurant, order fancy wine, and have no idea what to do when the sommelier tries to serve it to them.

A thoroughly well-made and well-paced movie, with a wonderful score, both in the lead characters' signature song "Nobody's Perfect" and in the incidental music. James Caan and Elliot Gould do a great job of playing the low comedy foils of high comedy master Michael Caine.Excellent for kids, too...although there are touches of violence, romance, and illegal behavior, they are all mild, and it's got a delightfully old-fashioned morality to it.

A pair of inept vaudevillians team up with a liberal newswoman to rob a bank. Her reasons were for the furtherance of mankind. At the same time a notorious thief and his gang are plotting the same job. The reason he uses is simple revenge. This was pretty banal stuff, but was fairly entertaining and had a ridiculously funny ending.