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With: Sean Connery, Dyan Cannon, Martin Balsam, Ralph Meeker, Alan King, Dick Anthony Williams, Val Avery, Garrett Morris, Stan Gottlieb, Christopher Walken, Conrad Bain, Margaret Hamilton, Anthony Holland, Scott Jacoby, Judith Lowry, Meg Myles, Norman Rose, Max Showalter, Janet Ward, Paul Benjamin, Richard Shull, John Call
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Written by: Frank R. Pierson, based on a novel by Lawrence Sanders
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Directed by: Sidney Lumet
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MPAA Rating: GP
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Running Time: 99
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Date: 06/17/1971
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The Anderson Tapes (1971)
Caper Trail
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
Sidney Lumet's nifty crime thriller The Anderson Tapes, which was released on Blu-ray July 25, 2023, weirdly holds up quite well today. Its themes of surveillance and spying — surely a novelty back in 1971 — have become intensely relevant, and the main character's band of robbers is a surprisingly diverse group, including Black characters and a LGBTQ+ character.
Sean Connery plays Duke Anderson (cool name!), a master thief who is released from prison after a ten-year stint. He reconnects with a girlfriend, Ingrid (Dyan Cannon), and decides to rob the luxury apartment building where she lives. He assembles his crew, which includes The Kid (Christopher Walken), a fix-it man and safe-cracker, gay antiques dealer Haskins (Martin Balsam), whose job is to assess the value of things before bothering to steal them, Spencer (Dick Anthony Williams) and Jimmy (Paul Benjamin) are the muscle, and the alcoholic, homeless "Pop" (Stan Gottlieb) stands in as a fake concierge.
To fund the caper, Duke calls in a favor with the mafia, and the condition is that he bring the psychopath "Socks" (Val Avery) along on the job, where he is to be "accidentally" rubbed out. Lumet takes his time with the robbery, and while it's not as intricate as, say, Rififi, it's pretty suspenseful. There are a lot of details here — screenwriter Frank R. Pierson (Dog Day Afternoon) adapted a novel by Lawrence Sanders — and plenty of opportunity for things to go wrong. But the thing that goes the most wrong is the least expected.
The movie has an amazing cast, including Ralph Meeker (Mike Hammer in Kiss Me Deadly), Alan King, Conrad Bain (Diff'rent Strokes), John Call (Santa Claus in Santa Claus Conquers the Martians), Garrett Morris (Saturday Night Live), as well as Margaret Hamilton (The Wizard of Oz) in her final film. (It was also Walken's first film.) One major drawback is watching the abuse Cannon's character is forced to take; it's an underwritten and rather thoughtless role.
Kino Lorber's excellent Blu-ray includes a terrific commentary track by my esteemed colleague Glenn Kenny, and a batch of trailers. Recommended.
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