Plot
Charley Varrick is a crop duster and former stunt pilot with knowledge about explosives. He, his wife, and two others, Al and Harman, rob a bank in rural New Mexico. Al and Charley's wife are killed when the crime turns violent. Having got away to a distant trailer park, Charley and Harman discover the heist netted more than three-quarters of a million dollars. When a news outlet reports that less than $2,000 was stolen, Charley correctly concludes the bank was being used to launder illicit Mafia cash.
Charley tells Harman the mob will never stop looking for the money and the robbers, and their best chance of staying safe is to live their normal lives for the next few years and not do anything that draws attention to them. Harman tells Charley he intends to live it up with his share of the loot. Although in mourning over his wife's death, Charley takes steps to get away. He hides all the money and arranges to get passports for him and Harman to leave the country.
Meanwhile, a Reno-based gangster named Boyle hires a sadistic contract murderer, "Molly", to find the stolen cash and make an example of the robbers. Molly's search leads him to Harman. While Charley is outside the trailer hiding, Molly tortures Harman to find out about the money and then beats him to death. Boyle meets secretly with the bank manager, Harold Young. He tells Young that his Mafia superiors will suspect the robbery was an inside job because it occurred during the brief period when the money was on site. He suggests Young will be tortured to find out the extent of his involvement. Terrified, Young commits suicide soon after.
Charley flies his crop-dusting biplane to Reno and contacts Boyle's secretary. She warns Charley not to trust her boss, and they spend the night together. Charley phones Boyle and offers to return the stolen money. He arranges a meeting the next morning at a remote junkyard and tells Boyle to come alone. Molly is with Boyle at the time, and comes up with a plan of his own. Charley lands his plane at the junkyard and, acting overjoyed, hugs a confounded Boyle. Watching from a distance, Molly assumes that Boyle and Charley were working together. Molly runs Boyle down with his car, killing him. Molly in his car then chases Charley in his plane, and damages it so it will not be able to fly. Charley deliberately flips the plane upside down, a stunt he used to do in his barnstorming days. Apparently trapped in the wreckage, Charley tells Molly the money is in the trunk of a nearby car. Molly opens the trunk and sees Harman's body and the bank satchels. A moment later the trunk explodes, killing Molly. Charley releases himself. He throws a wad of hundred-dollar bills onto the flames of the burning car, then gets into another car and drives away.
Production
Director Don Siegel wanted Varrick's company's motto, "Last of the Independents", to be the title of the film. The motto appears on the film poster and briefly as a subtitle in the film trailer.
When the hit man Molly arrives at Jewell's photo studio and introduces himself, Jewell sarcastically replies, "Yeah, I didn't figure you for Clint Eastwood". The role of Varrick was written for Eastwood, who turned it down, reportedly because he could not find any redeeming features in the character. Matthau was also reported to have been unimpressed by the film, and Siegel later claimed that Matthau hurt the film's box-office by publicly stating that he neither liked the film nor understood what it was about. Matthau sent Siegel a note that said, "I have seen it three times, and am of slightly better than average intelligence (IQ 120) but I still don't quite understand what's going on. Is there a device we can use to explain to people what they're seeing?" [1]
Varrick's aircraft is a converted Boeing PT-17 Stearman Kaydet (N53039) crop-duster flown by Hollywood aerial pilot Frank Tallman. The modified crop-duster belonged to a California agricultural spraying business. This same aircraft crashed in Oakdale, California on December 31, 1976, killing the pilot, who was crop dusting. The plane's wing caught an electric wire and crashed. [2]
Locations
Director Don Siegel filmed several of his movies in northern Nevada, including Charley Varrick, The Shootist and Jinxed! Charley Varrick was set in New Mexico, but was filmed primarily in two small Nevada towns, Dayton and Genoa. Both towns lay a claim to being the oldest towns in the state. The opening bank robbery exterior scenes were filmed in Genoa, at the old Douglas County court house. The sheriff's chase of Varrick and his gang was filmed nearby on Genoa Lane, and on Nevada State Route 207.
The interior bank scenes were filmed in Minden. The trailer park scenes were filmed in Dayton by Hwy 50, at the trailer park, located near the Red Hawk Casino, which was closed in 2008, and the Carson River, at the corner of Hart and Louie Streets. The photographer's studio and gun store scenes were filmed in Gardnerville. The crop duster flight scenes at the conclusion were filmed at the now-closed City Auto Wrecking east of Sparks, near Lockwood Nevada, by Canyon Way Road. The Reno, Nevada filming locations included the Chinese restaurant scenes, filmed at 538 South Virginia Street, and the Arlington Towers condominium building at 100 N. Arlington Avenue. This condo tower is where Varrick meets Miss Fort. [3]
Reception
“The ‘normal’ world—the terrain Seigel usually works in— is depicted by him as not at all normal…the characters are counterpoised against an environment which is as deranged as they are. The straight world is as phony, dishonest and evil as the criminal’s, without the one qualification which may be an improvement on the normal: they [the criminals] are honest about their lawlessness…”—Biographer Judith M. Kass in Don Seigel: The Hollywood Professionals, Vol. 4 (1975) [4]
Although very well received critically, it was a disappointment at the box office. Reviewer Paul Tatara described Charley Varrick as "intelligent, commercial filmmaking at its finest. They rarely make them like this anymore." [5]
Vincent Canby in his review for The New York Times considered Charley Varrick as both an action film and a mystery:
An intelligent action melodrama is probably one of the most difficult kinds of film to make. Intelligence in this case has nothing to do with being literate, poetic, or even reasonable. It has to do with movement, suspense, and sudden changes in fortune that are plausible enough to entertain without challenging you to question basic premises. If you start asking whether such-and-such could really have happened, or if so-and-so would have acted in a certain way, the action film falls apart. [6]
John Simon said Charley Varrick was one of the more accomplished specimens of the gangster genre. [7]
While not strictly a "remake", 2 Guns (2013) has many of its film elements lifted from Charley Varrick. [8]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 82% from 28 reviews with the consensus: "With Walter Matthau adding hangdog soul to Don Siegel's propulsive direction, Charley Varrick is a crime thriller that really scores." [9]
Charley Varrick was released as a Region 1 DVD with no extras on December 28, 2004. On February 14, 2008, the film was released as a Region 2 DVD in Europe in widescreen with some special features. Both DVD versions are uncut. [12] On March 19, 2015, the film was released in a Region B locked Blu-ray in Germany. This edition included a 72 minutes documentary on the making of the film, "Last of the Independents: Don Siegel and the Making of Charley Varrick." On November 12, 2019, the film was released in a Region A locked Blu-ray by Kino Lorber with an exclusive new 4K remaster. This edition includes the "Last of the Independents" documentary, "Refracted Personae", a new video essay with critic Howard S Berger, an archival episode of Trailers from Hell, and a new audio commentary with critic Toby Roan.
Donald Siegel was an American film director and producer.
Walter Matthau was an American screen and stage actor, known for his "hangdog face" and for playing world-weary characters. He starred in 10 films alongside his real-life friend Jack Lemmon, including The Odd Couple (1968) and Grumpy Old Men (1993). The New York Times called this "one of Hollywood's most successful pairings". Among other accolades, he was an Academy Award, a two-time BAFTA Award, and two-time Tony Award winner.
Gardnerville is an unincorporated town in Douglas County, Nevada, adjacent to the county seat of Minden. The population was 6,211 at the 2020 census.
The Killers is a 1964 American neo noir crime film. Written by Gene L. Coon and directed by Don Siegel, it is the second Hollywood adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's 1927 short story of the same name, following the 1946 version. There is also a 1956 Russian version directed by Andrei Tarkovsky.
The Big Steal is a 1949 American black-and-white film noir reteaming Out of the Past stars Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer. The film was directed by Don Siegel, based on the short story "The Road to Carmichael's" by Richard Wormser.
Two Mules for Sister Sara is a 1970 American-Mexican Western film in Panavision directed by Don Siegel and starring Shirley MacLaine and Clint Eastwood set during the French intervention in Mexico (1861–1867). The film was to have been the first in a five-year exclusive association between Universal Pictures and Sanen Productions of Mexico. It was the second of five collaborations between Siegel and Eastwood, following Coogan's Bluff (1968). The collaboration continued with The Beguiled and Dirty Harry and finally Escape from Alcatraz (1979).
Madigan is a 1968 American neo-noir crime drama thriller film directed by Don Siegel and starring Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda and Inger Stevens.
Coogan's Bluff is a 1968 American crime thriller film directed and produced by Don Siegel. It stars Clint Eastwood, Susan Clark, Don Stroud, Tisha Sterling, Betty Field and Lee J. Cobb. The film marks the first of five collaborations between Siegel and Eastwood, which continued with Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970), The Beguiled (1971), Dirty Harry (1971) and Escape from Alcatraz (1979).
Sydney Woodrow Parfrey was an American film and television actor from the 1950s to the early 1980s. He is often remembered as "one of TV's great slimeball villains".
Private Hell 36 is a 1954 American crime film noir directed by Don Siegel starring Ida Lupino, Steve Cochran, Howard Duff, Dean Jagger and Dorothy Malone.
Hell Is for Heroes is a 1962 American war film directed by Don Siegel and starring Steve McQueen. It tells the story of a squad of U.S. soldiers from the 95th Infantry Division who, in the fall of 1944, must hold off an entire German company for approximately 48 hours along the Siegfried Line until reinforcements reach them.
Riot in Cell Block 11 is a 1954 American film noir crime film directed by Don Siegel and starring Neville Brand, Emile Meyer, Frank Faylen, Leo Gordon and Robert Osterloh. Director Quentin Tarantino called it "the best prison film ever made."
The Verdict is a 1946 American film noir mystery drama film directed by Don Siegel and written by Peter Milne, loosely based on Israel Zangwill's 1892 novel The Big Bow Mystery. It stars Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre in one of their nine film pairings, as well as Joan Lorring and George Coulouris. The Verdict was Siegel's first full-length feature film.
Felicia Farr is an American former actress and model
Photo-Finish is the seventh studio album and ninth album overall by Irish musician Rory Gallagher, released in 1978. It marked a turning point in Gallagher's career. Most of the songs on Photo-Finish were initially recorded on what was to be an earlier album, but Gallagher was unhappy with the recordings. He fired the drummer and keyboardist from his current band and replaced only the drummer changing the band to a power trio as his original bands had been.
Baby Face Nelson is a 1957 American film noir crime film based on the real-life 1930s gangster, directed by Don Siegel, co-written by Daniel Mainwaring—who also wrote the screenplay for Siegel's 1956 sci-fi thriller Invasion of the Body Snatchers—and starring Mickey Rooney, Carolyn Jones, Cedric Hardwicke, Leo Gordon as Dillinger, Anthony Caruso, Jack Elam, John Hoyt and Elisha Cook Jr.
Marjorie Bennett was an Australian actress who worked mainly in the United Kingdom and the United States. She began her acting career during the silent film era.
The Duel at Silver Creek is a 1952 American Western film directed by Don Siegel; his first film in the Western genre. It starred Stephen McNally, Audie Murphy and Faith Domergue. It was the first time Murphy had appeared in a film where he played a character who was good throughout the movie. The working titles of the film were Claim Jumpers and Hair Trigger Kid.
China Venture is a 1953 American adventure war film directed by Don Siegel and starring Edmond O'Brien, Barry Sullivan and Jocelyn Brando. It was produced and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The plot concerns an American patrol sent into South China during World War II to rescue an important prisoner held by Chinese guerrillas.
Stranger on the Run is a 1967 American made-for-television Western film directed by Don Siegel and starring Henry Fonda, Anne Baxter and Michael Parks. In some countries it premiered in cinemas.
