Charley Varrick
Film poster
Directed byDon Siegel
Written by
Based onThe Looters (novel)
by John H. Reese
Produced byDon Siegel
Starring
CinematographyMichael C. Butler
Edited byFrank Morriss
Music byLalo Schifrin
Color processTechnicolor
Production
company
Universal Pictures
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • October 19, 1973 (1973-10-19)
Running time
111 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Charley Varrick (a.k.a.The Last of the Independents and Kill Charley Varrick) is a 1973 American neo-noir crime film directed by Don Siegel and starring Walter Matthau, Andrew Robinson, Joe Don Baker and John Vernon. Charley Varrick was based on the novel The Looters by John H. Reese and is the first of four consecutive films Matthau appeared in that were not comedies.

Plot

Charley Varrick is a crop-duster and former stunt pilot with knowledge about explosives. He, his wife, and two others, Al and Harman, rob a bank in rural New Mexico. Al and Charley's wife are killed when the crime turns violent. Having got away to a distant trailer park, Charley and Harman discover the heist netted more than three-quarters of a million dollars. When a news outlet reports that less than $2,000 was stolen, Charley correctly concludes the bank was being used to launder illicit Mafia cash.

Charley tells Harman the mob will never stop looking for the money and the robbers, and their best chance of staying safe is to live their normal lives for the next few years and not do anything that draws attention to them. Harman tells Charley he intends to live it up with his share of the loot. Although in mourning over his wife's death, Charley takes steps to get away. He hides all the money and arranges to get passports for he and Harman to leave the country.

A Reno-based gangster named Boyle hires a sadistic contract murderer, "Molly", to find the stolen cash and make an example of the robbers. His search leads him to Harman. While Charley is outside the trailer hiding, Molly tortures Harman to find out about the money and then beats him to death. The mobster Boyle meets secretly with the bank manager, Harold Young. He tells Young that his Mafia superiors will suspect the robbery was an inside job because it occurred during the brief period when the money was on site. He suggests Young will be tortured to find out the extent of his involvement. A terrified Young commits suicide soon after.

Charley flies his crop-duster biplane to Reno and contacts Boyle's secretary. She warns Charley not to trust her boss and they spend the night together. Charley phones Boyle and offers to return the stolen money. He arranges a meeting the next morning at a remote junkyard and tells Boyle to come alone. Molly is with Boyle at the time, and comes up with a plan of his own. Charley lands his plane at the junkyard and, acting overjoyed, hugs a confounded Boyle. Watching from a distance, Molly assumes that Boyle and Charley were working together. Molly runs Boyle down with his car, killing him. Molly in his car then chases Charley in his plane, and damages it so it will not be able to fly. Still being pursued by Molly, Charley’s plane flips upside down. Trapped in the wreckage, Charley tells Molly the money is in the trunk of a nearby car. Molly opens the trunk and sees Harman's body and the bank satchels. A moment later the trunk explodes, killing Molly. Charley releases himself. He throws a wad of hundred-dollar bills onto the flames of the burning car, then gets into another car and drives away.

Cast

Production

Director Don Siegel wanted Varrick's company's motto, "Last of the Independents", to be the title of the film. The motto appears on the film poster and briefly as a subtitle in the film trailer.

When the hit man Molly arrives at Jewell's photo studio and introduces himself, Jewell sarcastically replies, "Yeah, I didn't figure you for Clint Eastwood". The role of Varrick was written for Eastwood, who turned it down, reportedly because he could not find any redeeming features in the character. Matthau was also reported to have been unimpressed by the film, and Siegel later claimed that Matthau hurt the film's box-office by publicly stating that he neither liked the film nor understood what it was about. Matthau sent Siegel a note that said, "I have seen it three times, and am of slightly better than average intelligence (IQ 120) but I still don't quite understand what's going on. Is there a device we can use to explain to people what they're seeing?"[1]

Varrick's aircraft is a converted Boeing PT-17 Stearman Kaydet (N53039) crop-duster flown by Hollywood aerial pilot Frank Tallman. The modified crop-duster belonged to a California agricultural spraying business. This same aircraft crashed in Oakdale, California on December 31, 1976, killing the pilot, who was crop dusting. The plane's wing caught an electric wire and crashed.[2]

Locations

Director Don Siegel filmed several of his movies in northern Nevada, including Charley Varrick, The Shootist and Jinxed! Charley Varrick was set in New Mexico, but was filmed primarily in two small Nevada towns, Dayton and Genoa. Both towns lay a claim to being the oldest towns in the state. The opening bank robbery exterior scenes were filmed in Genoa, at the old Douglas County court house. The sheriff's chase of Varrick and his gang was filmed nearby on Genoa Lane, and on Nevada State Route 207.

The interior bank scenes were filmed in Minden. The trailer park scenes were filmed in Dayton by Hwy 50, at the trailer park, located near the Red Hawk Casino, which was closed in 2008, and the Carson River, at the corner of Hart and Louie Streets. The photographer's studio and gun store scenes were filmed in Gardnerville. The crop duster flight scenes at the conclusion were filmed at the now-closed City Auto Wrecking east of Sparks, near Lockwood Nevada, by Canyon Way Road. The Reno, Nevada filming locations included the Chinese restaurant scenes, filmed at 538 South Virginia Street, and the Arlington Towers condominium building at 100 N. Arlington Avenue. This condo tower is where Varrick meets Miss Fort.[3]

Reception

“The ‘normal’ world—the terrain Seigel usually works in— is depicted by him as not at all normal…the characters are counterpoised against an environment which is as deranged as they are. The straight world is as phony, dishonest and evil as the criminal’s, without the one qualification which may be an improvement on the normal: they [the criminals] are honest about their lawlessness…”—Biographer Judith M. Kass in Don Seigel: The Hollywood Professionals, Vol. 4 (1975)[4]

Although very well received critically, it was a disappointment at the box office. Reviewer Paul Tatara described Charley Varrick as "intelligent, commercial filmmaking at its finest. They rarely make them like this anymore."[5]

Vincent Canby in his review for The New York Times considered Charley Varrick as both an action film and a mystery:

An intelligent action melodrama is probably one of the most difficult kinds of film to make. Intelligence in this case has nothing to do with being literate, poetic, or even reasonable. It has to do with movement, suspense, and sudden changes in fortune that are plausible enough to entertain without challenging you to question basic premises. If you start asking whether such-and-such could really have happened, or if so-and-so would have acted in a certain way, the action film falls apart.[6]

John Simon said Charley Varrick was one of the more accomplished specimens of the gangster genre.[7]

While not strictly a "remake", 2 Guns (2013) has many of its film elements lifted from Charley Varrick.[8]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 81% from 27 reviews with the consensus: "With Walter Matthau adding hangdog soul to Don Siegel's propulsive direction, Charley Varrick is a crime thriller that really scores."[9]

Awards

Matthau won the 1974 British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards for Best Actor in Charley Varrick.[10] In addition, Frank Morriss was nominated for the 1974 British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards for Best Editing.[11]

Home media

Charley Varrick was released as a Region 1 DVD with no extras on December 28, 2004. On February 14, 2008, the film was released as a Region 2 DVD in Europe in widescreen with some special features. Both DVD versions are uncut.[12] On March 19, 2015, the film was released in a Region B locked Blu-ray in Germany. This edition included a 72 minutes documentary on the making of the film, "Last of the Independents: Don Siegel and the Making of Charley Varrick." On November 12, 2019, the film was released in a Region A locked Blu-ray by Kino Lorber with an exclusive new 4K remaster. This edition includes the "Last of the Independents" documentary, "Refracted Personae", a new video essay with critic Howard S Berger, an archival episode of Trailers from Hell, and a new audio commentary with critic Toby Roan.

Cultural impact

According to Rory Gallagher's long-time bassist Gerry McAvoy, in his book Riding Shotgun: 35 Years on the Road with Rory Gallagher and 'Nine Below Zero', Gallagher's 1978 song "Last of the Independents" was inspired by Charley Varrick.[13][14] The logo 'Last of The Independents' appears on the back of Varrick's leather jacket at the beginning of the film when he works as an independent aerial crop sprayer.

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ George Anastasia & Glen Macnow, The Ultimate Book of Gangster Movies (Running Press, 2011), Chapter 78
  2. ↑ Santoir, Christian. "Charley Varrick". Aeromovies. Retrieved: December 1, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Locations: 'Charley Varrick' (1973)." IMDb. Retrieved: December 1, 2015.
  4. ↑ Kass, 1975 p. 127
  5. ↑ Tatara, Paul. "Articles: 'Charley Varrick' (1973)." Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved: December 1, 2015.
  6. ↑ Canby, Vincent. "Movie Review: 'Charley Varrick' (1973)." The New York Times, October 20, 1973.
  7. ↑ Simon, John (1982). Reverse Angle: A Decade of American Film. Crown Publishers Inc. p. 129. ISBN 9780517544716.
  8. ↑ Bierly, Mandy. "'2 Guns': Bill Paxton explains how he became one of summer's best scene-stealers." Entertainment Weekly, August 2, 2014. Retrieved: December 1, 2015.
  9. ↑ "Charley Varrick". Rotten Tomatoes.
  10. ↑ "Film | Actor in 1974". BAFTA. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  11. ↑ "Awards: 'Charley Varrick' (1973)." IMDb. Retrieved: December 1, 2015.
  12. ↑ Erickson, Glenn. "Review: 'Charley Varrick'." DVD Savant, February 6, 2005. Retrieved: December 1, 2015.
  13. ↑ McAvoy and Chrisp 2005
  14. ↑ "The last of the Independents." rorygallagher.com. Retrieved: December 1, 2015.

Sources

  • Kass, Judith M. (1975). Don Seigel: The Hollywood Professionals, Volume 4 (1975 ed.). New York: Tanvity Press. p. 207. ISBN 0-498-01665-X.* Davies, Ray. X-Ray: The Unauthorized Autobiography. New York: The Overlook Press, 1995. ISBN 978-0-8795-1664-2.
  • McAvoy, Gerry with Pete Chrisp. Riding Shotgun: 35 Years on the Road with Rory Gallagher and 'Nine Below Zero'. Maidstone, Kent, UK: SPG Triumph, 2005. ISBN 978-0-9550-3200-4.
  • Siegel, Don. A Siegel Film: An Autobiography. New York: Faber & Faber, 1996. ISBN 978-0-5711-6270-3.


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