Bank Shot

Donald E. Westlake's comic caper "Dortmunder" novels have remained elusive to Hollywood, which can never seem to find the right tone, despite numerous adaptations. The 1974 film Bank Shot, directed by dance legend and veteran choreographer Gower Champion and starring George C. Scott as master crook Walter Ballantine (the Dortmunder stand-in), is no exception. Scott is the legendary crook who breaks out of prison (in a 40-ton earthmover, no less, which makes for an inspired chase scene) to take charge of a motley crew in a haphazard heist. Taking the term “bank robbery” literally, Ballantine decides to make off with the entire bank (temporarily relocated to a mobile trailer home). Now, he just has to hide it from a statewide dragnet (led by redneck icon Clifton James) and keep his ragged gang in line while a volatile safecracker blows up everything except the safe. Never as funny as it should be, Bank Shot is more cartoonish than comic, full of clever twists that don't add up to anything—a caper comedy that spins its wheels with hyperventilating energy but winds up directionless. Scott seems ill at ease, but still maintains a straight face while everyone else furiously mugs for laughs. Joanna Cassidy is fun as the giggly heiress who funds the operation, and James is folksy as the prison warden hot on Ballantine's trail, but this is a disappointing misfire, overall. Optional. (S. Axmaker)