Assault on a Queen

I don't know if there's an actor/performer who was so effortlessly cool as Frank Sinatra. On-stage as a performer, his cool factor is unquestionable.  As an actor, he started off in the 1950s with more serious roles that allowed him to show what a talented actor he was, and then in the 1960s starting making more fan friendly movies like his Rat Pack flicks.  It was this part of his career that reminds me of John Wayne's later career. Both men did movies that appealed to them, and screw anyone who didn't enjoy them.  Going in, you can probably figure out the ending before the movie starts.

That's exactly what 1966's Assault on a Queen felt like to me. A heist movie with a handful of other elements thrown in, this felt like a rehash of other better movies while still maintaining some level of interest and entertainment.  Sinatra would only make a handful of more movies after 1966, and this clearly isn't his best acting performance.  Some reviews complain that he's sleepwalking through the part, and it's hard to prove otherwise.  Laid back and playing a variation on many characters he played in his career, Sinatra is as always still very watchable.  The movie is average in every way with a ludicrous heist involved, but that's part of the fun.  Just how stupidly entertaining can it get?

Operating a small fishing boat with his partner and drinking buddy, Linc (Errol John), former submarine officer Mark Brittain (Sinatra) is content to take tourists out fishing so he has enough money for food and booze (not necessarily in that order). Hard up for money though, Mark signs on with a mysterious couple, Vic Rossiter (Tony Franciosa) and Rosa Lucchesi (Italian beauty Virna Lisi), who are looking for sunken treasure in the Caribbean. During a dive, Mark doesn't find buried treasure, instead stumbling across a sunken WWII German sub.  One of Vic's partners, a former U-boat commander, Eric (Alf Kjellin), comes up with a crazy idea.  What if they were able to raise the sunken ship which seems to be in good condition, and use it as a pirating vessel? Vic has the perfect target, the Queen Mary and its on-board safe that almost certainly has millions of dollars and gold bars.  It seems ridiculous, but could it somehow work?

I fancy myself a fan of heist movies, and like to think I know a few things here and there about them, but the premise here is beyond ridiculous.  A WWII German sub that's been sitting on the bottom of the ocean for 20 years is not only going to be raised to the surface, but then outfitted and rehabbed so it can be taken on the open sea and pull a con job on a huge ocean liner packed with tourists?  I couldn't help but get a chuckle out of the premise.  That's what you're going with?  Working off a Rod Serling screenplay, director Jack Donahue certainly has some guts. I'll give credit when it's due though. Donahue, Serling, and the cast commit to this ridiculous story and take it seriously.  It's never campy, never a spoof of heist movies.  If it had gone that direction, the movie would have gone downhill quickly.

The movie is limited by an obvious lack of any sort of budget.  Any of the diving scenes are clearly not Sinatra with some awful uses of a stunt double with a fuller head of hair stepping in for him.  Any scenes on the sub that contain a close-up of any of the principals is a green screen shot filmed on a set/stage somewhere, and then cut to look like they're sailing the high seas.  The whole movie has that look of being an indoors movie, like the cast and crew never saw the light of day during filming.  Any outdoor shots are second unit shots with no recognizable faces involved.  Low budget doesn't necessarily mean bad, but the effort here is severely hampered by lack of funds.

Here we are again, a motley crew of thieves and specialists working together to pull off the impossible job.  Yes, it's a men (and a woman) on a mission movie. Sinatra is Sinatra in the lead, a part that gives little background information other than his sole interest in the mission seems tied to winning Lisi's hand.  Italian beauty Virna Lisi is quite the looker and is given any number of excuses to be in slinky, tight-fitting outfits.  I've never heard a mangling of English quite as nice sounding as Lisi's attempt.  Franciosa is a bright spot, trying his best to make the most of the material.  I can't think of Franciosa as anything but a smooth, suave baddie, and he's solid here in that part.  Kjellin is the wild card, we're not always sure of his intentions, with Richard Conte playing Tony, his weaselly mechanic. John gets a couple chances to shine in a solid supporting part.

So while the heist premise is ridiculous, you can't help but wonder how they'll actually attempt to pull this job off.  The heist execution makes up for a slow-moving first hour-plus because we have a general sense of how this plan will work, but nothing in detail.  Not surprisingly, it doesn't go as planned, forcing Mark, Vic, Eric and the team to improvise.  As a movie overall, it lacks a certain energy -- thanks to a dull but still underused musical score -- and any feeling of urgency of getting somewhere interesting.  Worthwhile mostly because of the cast, for die hard heist fans only.

Assault on a Queen <--- opening titles (1966): **/****

Netflix review #13: Across 110th Street

As the times were changing in the late 60s and early 70s, one part of popular culture that took full advantage was the movie industry. Directors got to attack issues and present them to the viewers. Drugs, sex, racism, Vietnam, all ripe for the picking. I finished a cop/blaxploitation movie today called Across 110th Street which was a perfect example of what a procedural cop movie can be when it gets everything just right.

In a dreary, rundown Harlem apartment, two white mobsters and three black mobsters are counting the week's take when someone knocks at the door. It's two black cops, or so they think. It's a robbery and when one of the hoods goes for a gun it turns into a massacre as all five men are killed and during the getaway, two cops are killed. The trio of robbers, including the getaway driver, escape with over $300,000 in mob money and it doesn't sit well. The question is who will get to these men first? The cops looking for justice and to put these men behind bars or the mafiosos looking for revenge.

Made in 1972, the movie has a dark, gritty look to it similar to The French Connection, another cop movie that has a similar sinister tone about the world. 110th Street was filmed in New York, and the movie greatly benefits from it. The whole thing feels real, like you're there with the NY detectives walking the streets looking for information. With the filming locations, nothing seems forced, and the story just flows along.

The big name here is Anthony Quinn as Captain Matelli, a veteran NY detective who's seen people at their worse and always gets the job done, even if his methods aren't exactly popular. Yaphet Kotto is a strong counter to Quinn as Lt. Pope, the younger officer assigned to lead the case because of his race. Pope tries to do things by the book because he believes in doing right and to a certain extent, he doesn't know better. The escalating confrontations between Maldetti and Pope provide much of the movie's tension when it comes to racism, but it's just the start.

Joining the supporting cast is Tony Franciosa as Nick D'Salvio, the mafia enforcer given the task of bringing in the three robbers. A gray-haired Franciosa is just the right amount of driven to do his job and then the opposite, slightly crazy and a huge racist. Paul Benjamin (later of Escape from Alcatraz) plays Jim Harris, one of the robbers and the most 3-D of them. Harris is an ex-con with epilepsy trying to make ends meet with his wife when he stumbles upon this mafia bank and tries to knock it off. It's a credit to Benjamin that his character is sympathetic. He's a murderer and a robber, but at the same time you feel for him. Ed Bernard and Antonio Fargas (Starsky and Hutch's Huggy Bear) round out the trio of robbers.

With so many strong performances, the movie never slows down. Each scene has a different character on screen, and the interactions feel natural throughout. Everyone has their motivation whether it be for revenge, doing your job, or even loyalty and survival. It builds to a moving ending on several different levels, especially the final shot which is reminiscent of the ending of The Defiant Ones with Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis. You can see it here, but obviously there's MASSIVE SPOILERS if you haven't seen the movie.

The DVD is a good purchase. The movie is in widescreen presentation that is grainy but it works for the tone and theme of the film. Don't get me wrong though, it's grainy but still a very watchable movie. Special features is just a trailer that highlights the opening robbery. Don't miss this one, a cop movie tied up in a blaxploitation story that produces an underappreciated semi-classic from the early 1970s.

Across 110th Street (1972): *** 1/2 /****