Another of the movies that I DVRed based on the interesting synopsis was the late 1960s crime movie Machine Gun McCain. Recently, I finally got around to watching it off the DVR to do the usual post on it here.
The movie starts off with a pre-credits establishing sequence in which a bunch of Italian Mafia types are about to pronounce death on a regional crime boss, out in the western part of the US, having heard from the soon-to-be new regional boss Charlie Adamo (Peter Falk) that the predecessor was skimming campaign money off of them. Said predecessor is summarily mowed down after dropping his kids off at school.
The credits then reveal that this is an Italian production, albeit one with an international cast, produced in English (the Italian title translates to "The Untouchables"). Adamo, having been elevated, wants to expand his power and influence, and decides that the best way to do that is to go to Las Vegas. There, he plans to buy a stake in the newly built Royal Casino. But it's actually a Mob-owned casino, so Charlie is on shaky ground trying to muscle his way in. The manager refuses to sell, so Adamo comes up with an idea to get revenge.
But Adamo is going to need help. One of his underlings is young Jack McCain, who is the son of Hank McCain (John Cassavetes), the titular McCain. The only thing is, Hank is in prison, and it's going to cost a bunch to obtain a pardon. Worse, Jack doesn't tell his father that the plan is actually being bankrolled by Adamo. That plan is to rob the casino's safe on a Saturday night, when there's bound to be a seven-figure amount of cash in the safe. Hank, who doesn't know his son very well thanks to all that time in prison, isn't all that certain that his son is up to it.
Hank is right to be worried, although the bigger issue is that they're going to be robbing from the Mob. Eventually, Charlie's superiors inform him of the Royal's Mob ownership, and the shouldn't be trying to buy a stake. Charlie wisely calls off the heist, but Jack is such a stupid SOB that he doesn't do anything about it, and Hank is so full of hubris that he thinks about going through the plan anyway. At least Hank has the smarts to realize that Jack's colleagues are out to kill them.
Hank does go to Las Vegas and pulls off the heist anyway, but obviously the Mob isn't going to let that go unchallenged, forcing Hank to go on the run together with Irene (Britt Ekland), the woman he first met after getting out of prison. Can they escape the clutches of the Mob?
Machine Gun McCain is an interesting addition to the crime and heist movie genre. I'm not certain if it's because you had an Italian production crew trying to do an English movie, or if it's because the print TCM ran isn't the Italian "original". Sources suggest that the movie has a running time of just under two hours, but the version TCM showed was in the 95-96 minute range. It's stylish enough and a nice look at the late 1960s, thanks to more than capable performances from Falk and Cassavetes. If I were going to introduce people to movies of the genre, I don't think this is the first one I'd pick, but it's definitely worth a watch.
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