$ (1972)
Grade: 69
"$" had a marketing problem: no one knew how to pronounce the title. Later, the film was retitled "Dollars", then "The Heist" for foreign distribution, but the damage had already been done. Which is a pity: while derivative (the film's story had been lifted from 1970's "Perfect Friday") the film has many entertaining scenes.
Warren Beatty stars as a bank security officer who is in cahoots with childlike prostitute Goldie Hawn. Their scheme is to empty the safe deposit boxes of three criminals, all of whom are customers of both Hawn and Beatty's bank. Beatty's character is likeable but over his head (as usual). After looting the boxes during a phony bomb threat, his victims (gregarious Army sergeant Scott Brady, raspy-voiced drug runner Arthur Brauss, and Vegas casino embezzler Robert Webber) discover the crime and in a lengthy chase attempt to corner Beatty and recover the ill-gotten money. The film is set in Hamburg, (West) Germany, and Gert Frobe plays Beatty's elderly, gullible bank boss.
"$" is for adults only. There is much female nudity, and Brauss gets tortured with a switchblade. But those with proper stomachs will enjoy the humor, whether it comes from Hawn getting chased around her apartment by her johns, or Beatty playing 'hero' in a bank vault all the while robbing it. There is much tension as well, which climaxes with Beatty stumbling around a frozen lake with Brauss' car bearing down on him.
Quincy Jones is credited with the driving score, and Little Richard sings the often reprised theme song ("Money Money Money"). Beatty and Hawn were an item at the time of filming, and would be re-united in the 1974 film "Shampoo".
kollers@mpsi.net http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html
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