$ (film)

$
Original film poster
Directed by	Richard Brooks
Produced by	M.J. Frankovich
Written by	Richard Brooks
Starring	Warren Beatty Goldie Hawn Gert Fröbe Robert Webber Scott Brady
Music by	Quincy Jones Featuring Don Elliott Voices With performances by Little Richard Roberta Flack Doug Kershaw
Cinematography	Petrus R. Schlömp
Editing by	George Grenville
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	December 17, 1971
Running time	121 min.
Country	USA
Language	English

$, also known as Dollars and in the UK as The Heist, is a 1971 American caper film starring Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn, and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The movie was written and directed by Richard Brooks and produced by M.J. Frankovich. The supporting cast includes Gert Fröbe, Robert Webber and Scott Brady. The film was partly shot in Hamburg, Germany, which forms the primary location of the film.

The film's title appears in the opening credits only in the form of a giant character, as would be used in a sign, being transported by a crane.

Plot

Set in Hamburg, West Germany, several criminals use safe deposit boxes in a German bank to store large amounts of illicit cash. These include a Las Vegas mobster as well as a ruthless drug smuggler known as the Candy Man and a crooked U.S. Army sergeant and his partner, who conspire on a big heroin and LSD smuggling score. Joe Collins (Beatty), an American bank security consultant, has been spying on them and makes mysterious preparations to steal their money with the help of Dawn Divine (Hawn), a hooker with a heart of gold.

Joe has Dawn phone in a bomb threat to the bank president, Mr. Kessel, to create a diversion. Joe locks himself inside the bank vault with a gold bar normally displayed in the lobby to supposedly save it. The bank is closed and evacuated while Joe uses duplicate keys to empty the criminals' three safe deposit boxes into to Dawn's box. (It is implied that Joe had secretly copied the criminals' keys while they were with Dawn.) Despite the fact that Kessel insists on burning through the wall to rescue Joe instead of waiting for the time lock to open, Joe succeeds in the heist and is hailed as a hero for "preventing" the robbery of the gold bar.

The next day, the criminals each discover that their boxes are empty and they cannot complete their schemes or go to the police. The Las Vegas mobster flees the country while the others search Dawn Divine's apartment—as she was their common link—and find clues that connect her to Joe. But Joe is tipped off and hurriedly sends Dawn to the train station with a suitcase packed with her take—$765,000—promising to meet her later.

Dawn gives the Sarge's partner the slip at the train station while the Candy Man and the Sarge chase Joe across the rail yard and through the Elbe Tunnel. Joe escapes on a car carrier truck, lugging his suitcase, but the Candy Man and the Sarge follow and catch up in the morning at a frozen lake, where the Candy Man crashes a car through the ice and drowns.

Joe escapes again by hopping a train, but during the night the Sarge catches up to him—only to find that Joe's suitcase contains nothing but a bottle of champagne and wads of newspaper. They conclude that Dawn double-crossed Joe by repacking the suitcases while he was getting the car, and they plan to go after her together. But, on drinking the champagne, the Sarge instantly goes into violent convulsions and falls down dead. The bottle was one of three that the Candy Man had filled with a solution of concentrated LSD to sneak them through customs earlier in the film.

An epilog shows Dawn in a sunny climate in the USA, driving a gleaming new yellow Corvette, and then cuddling in bed with an unseen someone. Joe's bomber jacket hangs on the coat rack as she explains that she was certain the criminals wouldn't kill him and leave themselves with no way to get the money.

Cast

• Warren Beatty as Joe Collins
• Goldie Hawn as Dawn Divine
• Gert Fröbe as Mr. Kessel
• Robert Webber as Attorney
• Scott Brady as Sarge
• Arthur Brauss as Candy Man
• Robert Stiles as Major
• Wolfgang Kieling as Granich
• Bob Herron as Bodyguard (as Robert Herron)
• Christiane Maybach as Helga
• Hans Hutter as Karl
• Monica Stender as Berta
• Horst Hesslein as Bruno
• Wolfgang Kuhlman as Furcoat
• Klaus Schichan as Knifeman

Soundtrack

The soundtrack to the film was composed by Quincy Jones, with performances by Little Richard, Roberta Flack and Doug Kershaw, in addition to featuring the Don Elliot Voices throughout the score.

Filming

The Kunsthalle in Hamburg. The part used in "$" as the bank is actually on the other side of this building, Galerie der Gegenwart, which houses the modern collection.

Much of the film was shot in Hamburg, West Germany in January and February 1971. Other filming locations included Malibu, California and Sweden.

The building depicted as the exterior of the bank was really the Kunsthalle, Hamburg's principal museum of art. The route followed in the chase scenes realistically takes the viewer through many of the city's unique locales.

Release and reception

The premiere of the film was on December 15, 1971 and it was released across cinema in the United States on December 17, 1971. It was released in Austria and West Germany on February 17, 1972, in Denmark on March 10, and in Sweden on March 27, 1972

Hawn and Beatty

The response to the film by critics was received generally positively with many critics believing that the film was under-rated at the time of release. American film critic Roger Ebert, on reviewing the film on December 30, 1971, gave it a positive review. He described the film as having a "premise that has a beautiful simplicity to it" despite having numerous twists and turns that resembles typical heist films, yet described it as a "slick and breakneck caper movie that runs like a well-oiled thrill".^[1]

He praised the performance of Beatty, describing him as "the best con man in movies, certainly since Clark Gable died. He is filled with deals, angles, things he has to pull you over in a corner to whisper. He can make you rich tomorrow, and himself, too, one of these days. And he has an unusual kind narcissism — unusual for an actor. He isn't narcissistic about himself, but about his style; he's in love with conning people".^[1] Ebert approved of his on-screen chemistry and unique relationship with Goldie Hawn describing them as "weirdly interesting together"^[1] and the way they successfully moved together and interacted throughout the film. He also approved in the dynamic nature of the script and directing by Robert Brooks stating that "Brooks never stops to explain anything, never lingers over a plot, never bores us with lectures and explanations. Instead, all his characters plunge ahead, obsessed with greed."^[1]

A Channel 4 review of the film in the UK gave it 4/5, who, like Ebert, noted the pace of the directing and script by Brooks, describing it as "cutting more rapidly than usual, he kept the action moving fairly entertainingly for most of the movie, with includes a long and spectacular car chase".^[2] However, unlike Ebert, critic Christopher Null believed the following of the film tired after the first hour, remarking that, "Beatty and Hawn carry this fun little heist/comedy picture for the first hour, but then the whole affair gets a little tiring".^[3] He did, however, rate the film 3.5/5.

DVD release

The film was released on DVD in 2008,^[4] concurrently with the CD re-release of the film's soundtrack, which had previously been released on CD in 2001.^[5]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Ebert, Roger (December 30, 1971). "$ (Dollars)". Chicago Sun-Times. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19711230/REVIEWS/112300301/1023. Retrieved September 2, 2008. 
2. ^ "Dollars Review". Channel 4. http://www.channel4.com/film/reviews/film.jsp?id=102867. Retrieved September 2, 2008. 
3. ^ Null, Christopher (2005). "$". Filmcritic.com. http://www.filmcritic.com/misc/emporium.nsf/reviews/$. Retrieved September 2, 2008. 
4. ^ Dollar$ DVD release history; www.amazon.com.
5. ^ Dollar$ Soundtrack release history; www.allmusic.com.

External links

• $ (film) at the Internet Movie Database
• $ at AllRovi
• $ at Rotten Tomatoes