We've seen this film many times before--a villain double crosses his partners one by one and ultimately meets his deserved demise. What doesn't work here is that we are expected to be sympathetic toward the Kirk Douglas character who is the most unrepentant antihero I can think of.
Sure, Douglas plays him at the height of his career, when his charm, looks and charisma were legendary, but even though he plays him upbeat and humorous, the weight of his treachery upsets any balance that might have us liking the guy.
Conversely, the score is typical upbeat Western fare of that era, and would sound quite at home on an old episode of Bonanza. We're assailed with swelling harmonica riffs, followed by the bright orchestrals that are a hallmark of that period. When the final body count is tallied, it becomes very clear that a score like this doesn't belong in a movie like this.
What does work well in this film is the performances of the secondary figures who make up an almost who's who of great 1970s character actors. Not an ensemble piece, but hardly a face goes by (including some extras) that you don't recognize. There's an old lifer played by Burgess Meridith, a turnkey played by Alan Hale ("Skipper" from Gilligan's Island), Hume Cronyn and that Carl Reiner lookalike John Randolph play a couple of con men, and even one background character is played by the great Jack Elam.
In one entertaining vignette, Burgess Meridith hams it up as very reluctant recipient of a much needed bath. Apparently he hasn't taken off his union suit in thirty-five years. However, such light moments are offset by dark ones; later on in the film during the jailbreak, Meridith's character gut shoots Hale's character, despite the fact that two seem to be old chums.
The ending of this movie is anticlimactic--its a foregone conclusion that Douglas'character will pay, but its more an act of serendipity than the expected confrontation between he and his pursuer, a prison warden played by Henry Fonda. The "moral" of the story, that even a stand up fellow like Fonda can be lured by greed seems tacked on.
Sadly, had this film been shot with the same actors, but by a director like Sergio Leone who would matched the tone of the movie (particularly the score) to the darkness of the movie's content, it might have worked. As it stands, it is flawed and it fails.
Sure, Douglas plays him at the height of his career, when his charm, looks and charisma were legendary, but even though he plays him upbeat and humorous, the weight of his treachery upsets any balance that might have us liking the guy.
Conversely, the score is typical upbeat Western fare of that era, and would sound quite at home on an old episode of Bonanza. We're assailed with swelling harmonica riffs, followed by the bright orchestrals that are a hallmark of that period. When the final body count is tallied, it becomes very clear that a score like this doesn't belong in a movie like this.
What does work well in this film is the performances of the secondary figures who make up an almost who's who of great 1970s character actors. Not an ensemble piece, but hardly a face goes by (including some extras) that you don't recognize. There's an old lifer played by Burgess Meridith, a turnkey played by Alan Hale ("Skipper" from Gilligan's Island), Hume Cronyn and that Carl Reiner lookalike John Randolph play a couple of con men, and even one background character is played by the great Jack Elam.
In one entertaining vignette, Burgess Meridith hams it up as very reluctant recipient of a much needed bath. Apparently he hasn't taken off his union suit in thirty-five years. However, such light moments are offset by dark ones; later on in the film during the jailbreak, Meridith's character gut shoots Hale's character, despite the fact that two seem to be old chums.
The ending of this movie is anticlimactic--its a foregone conclusion that Douglas'character will pay, but its more an act of serendipity than the expected confrontation between he and his pursuer, a prison warden played by Henry Fonda. The "moral" of the story, that even a stand up fellow like Fonda can be lured by greed seems tacked on.
Sadly, had this film been shot with the same actors, but by a director like Sergio Leone who would matched the tone of the movie (particularly the score) to the darkness of the movie's content, it might have worked. As it stands, it is flawed and it fails.