Dog Day Afternoon ***** (1975, Al Pacino, John Cazale, Chris Sarandon, Lance Henriksen, Charles Durning, Carol Kane, Sully Boyar) – Classic Film Review 1189

Director Sidney Lumet’s 1975 classic Dog Day Afternoon is a complex, adult and exhilarating crime thriller based on a then recent real-life event, the robbery of the Chase Manhattan Bank in Gravesend, Brooklyn, by John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Naturale, on August 22 1972. Pauline Kael called it ‘one of the best New York movies ever made’.

Al Pacino stars in one of his iconic roles as bisexual first-time crook Sonny Wortzik, a mixed-up New Yorker who teams up with his buddy Sal Naturale (John Cazale) to do a bank job to solve his cash, wife and boyfriend problems. Mostly he wants to steal enough money for his male lover to undergo a sex change operation. But Sonny and Sal’s heist at the fictitious First Brooklyn Savings Bank goes wrong when Sonny finds that there is nothing much to steal as most of the cash has been picked up for the day.

Sonny and Sal take the bank staff as hostages and plan to try to escape. But Sonny then gets an unexpected phone call from the police captain Sergeant Moretti (Charles Durning), who tells him the bank is surrounded by the city’s police force. Sonny bargains with Moretti, demanding safe escort to the airport and a plane out of the country in return for the bank employees’ safety. Sonny and Sal end up becoming media celebrities as The Boys in the Bank.

Pacino’s stupendous Oscar-nominated three-dimensional performance is brilliantly edgy, electric and touching. It is one of his best ever. It is backed up by extraordinary star support performances from Cazale and Chris Sarandon as his would-be sex-change lover, Leon Shermer. All three actors manage against the odds to make these pathetic, dangerous characters sympathetic.

That is largely what gives the film its anti-establishment tone that was very much in keeping with the times. The outsiders are the heroes, even if they are basically deluded, dangerous bank robbers. Durning is excellent as the police sergeant who originally negotiates with Sonny, but, sympathetic though his character is too, there is no doubt that he is not the film’s hero.

Susan Peretz plays Sonny’s wife, James Broderick is the FBI agent who replaces Moretti in negotiations, Lance Henriksen is an FBI agent/driver, Sully Boyar is the bank manager, Penelope Allen the head teller and Carol Kane is bank teller Jenny ‘The Squirrel’.

Director Lumet, re-teaming with Pacino after Serpico, delivers a sizzlingly red-hot thriller, with a taut pace, a tense atmosphere, a doomy mood and, best of all, loving attention paid to all the intricate, quirky details of character, place (Brooklyn) and the sweaty summer heat. The title refers to the ‘sultry dog days of summer’.

Dog Day Afternoon is a visceral experience that wisely takes you on the ride and leaves aside any questions of what it is all supposed to be about until the movie is over and you can think about it later.

Pacino and Cazale play brothers Michael and Fredo Corleone in The Godfather: Part II (1974). There is a small role for Dominic Chianese, Johnny Ola in The Godfather: Part II and Uncle Junior in TV’s The Sopranos.

Frank Pierson won the Oscar for the 1976 Best Original Screenplay, even though it was inspired by P F Kluge and Thomas Moore’s article The Boys in the Bank, which tells a similar story. Pierson was not present at the awards ceremony. Presenter Gore Vidal accepted the award on his behalf.

This is the legend on the posters: ‘The robbery should have taken 10 minutes. 4 hours later, the bank was like a circus sideshow. 8 hours later, it was the hottest thing on live TV. 12 hours later, it was all history. And it’s all true.’

Also in the cast are Charles Durning, Sully Boyar, James Broderick, Chris Sarandon, Carol Kane, Lance Henriksen, Penny Allen, Beulah Garrick, Sandra Kazan, Marcia Jean Kurtz, Amy Levitt, John Marriott, Estelle Omens, Dick Anthony Williams, Philip Charles MacKenzie, Gary Springer, Carmine Foresta, Floyd Levine, Dominic Chianese, Marcia Haufrecht, Judith Malina, Susan Peretz, William Bogert, Ron Cummins, Jay Gerber, Chu Chu Malave, Lionel Pina, James Bulleit, Robert Costanzo and Todd Everett.

Dog Day Afternoon is directed by Sidney Lumet, runs 130 minutes is made by Artists Entertainment Complex, is released by Warner Bros, is written by Frank Pierson, inspired by P F Kluge and Thomas Moore’s article The Boys in the Bank, is shot by Victor J Kemper, is produced by Martin Bregman, Martin Elfland nd Robert Greenhut, and is designed by Charles Bailey.

Oscar-nominated Lumet died on April 9 2011, aged 86. After five Oscar nominations, he never did win.

RIP producer Martin Bregman, who died on 16 June 2018, aged 92.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1189

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