Word: friedkins
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...film never takes off. At the end the robbers are led, one by one, past cheering crowds outside the courtroom. It's staged curtain call for the men who gave us the Brink's legend, but the movie doesn't do that legend justice. Like the thieves, Friedkin comes very close to pulling The Brink's Job off, but he bungles the timing...
...blame must be with Friedkin, since the cast couldn't be better. The Brink's gang is played by a bunch of lovable actors who delight in the roles of these bumbling underdogs. Heading the group is Peter Falk as the mastermind--if you can call him that--of this near-perfect heist. His criminal genius is somewhat in doubt, since the movie opens with one of his novice efforts, the burglary of a sausage factory. After much tool-dropping and other displays of incompetence, the job ends with Falk hiding in a room full of chickens, only...
...start. With the happy jazz of the '40s playing in the background, Friedkin sets out on a non-stop, all-out, giggly trip down bum's row. Unfortunately, the movie seems to have borrowed its sense of humor from the '40s as well, with no attempt to update it. Every old gag in the book makes its way into the film. Safes fall out of windows and just miss unsuspecting pedestrians, people keep bumping into each other, the odd-tasting pot of beef stew turns out to have a shoe in it. These tired routines would be forgivable if Friedkin...
...Warren Oates appears as a half-crazed demolition expert whose plans to blow up the Brink's safe with a bazooka stun the rest of the gang into disbelief. But he's not on for long, and things quickly return to their former speed. The cast tries hard, but Friedkin's stodginess dooms them...
...robbery itself does not come off so well. The repetive humor kills any suspense, and even Falk can't save it--his antics are inspired but predictable. Friedkin tries to enliven the end of the film by dragging in J. Edgar Hoover for a little fun. But Hoover comes off as the same old commie-hating tyrant everyone has seen before. Friedkin fails to embellish this stock figure in any way. It isn't terribly original and it's not funny to boot...