They Came to Rob Las Vegas [Las Vegas, 500 millones] **** (1968, Gary Lockwood, Elke Sommer, Jack Palance, Lee J Cobb, Jean Servais) – Classic Movie Review 6,392

The thrilling 1968 heist caper film They Came to Rob Las Vegas stars Gary Lockwood, Elke Sommer, Lee J Cobb and Jack Palance in a tale of a crime outfit planning to rob $7 million from a hi-tech truck in Las Vegas.

Director Antonio Isasi’s thoroughly entertaining and involving 1968 heist caper film They Came to Rob Las Vegas [Las Vegas, 500 millones] is based on André Lay’s 1967 novel Les Hommes De Las Vegas, in which an armed gang crime outfit plans to mount a desert attack on a hi-tech armoured truck chock full of $7 million plus worth of cash and gambling gold in Las Vegas.

It starts when Gino Vincenzo (Jean Servais) escapes from prison and plans to rob a Steve Skorsky (Lee J Cobb) security truck in an armed assault. Previously no one has ever succeeded in raiding one of Skorsky’s trucks. Gary Lockwood (as Gino’s much younger brother Tony Vincenzo) declines to join in the robbery as he thinks the plans for the raid aren’t ready and aren’t modern enough.

Later, Tony plans a new robbery, and takes a job as a dealer in a Las Vegas casino to seduce Ann Bennett (Elke Sommer) and persuade her to provide the information he needs to ambush another armed Skorsky hi-tech truck in the Nevada desert. He and his gang hide the fool-proof manned truck in an underground bunker to force the crew to come out with the gold.

Skorsky is using his trucks to move gold for the Mafia and Inspector Douglas of the US Treasury is on the case to catch him.

It is typical of its Swinging Sixties period apart from two things – the taut writing and tense direction by Spanish film director Antonio Isasi and the fact that it is a Euro production masquerading as an American movie. It is a co-production of France, Italy, Spain and West Germany, but not the US.

Sixties beautiful people Gary Lockwood (as Gino’s much younger and hipper brother Tony Vincenzo) and Elke Sommer (as Skorsky’s devious and disloyal secretary and mistress Ann Bennett) are extremely good company in the lead roles, both very well employed with lots to do, he a strong, cool anti-hero, and she a charming, beautifully attired tough cookie, while Jack Palance (as investigating Inspector Douglas of the US Treasury) and Lee J Cobb are just the right men for this sort of job, giving their usual personas a nice, intense sweaty workout. It’s quite a sweaty film actually. Well, we are in the desert most of the time.

The film is an absolute must-see for lovers of heist movies, caper films and iconic Swinging Sixties artefacts. That should be pretty much everybody, of course.

Gary Lockwood in 1962, aged 25.

The Las Vegas locations are real, with some location shooting in Las Vegas and San Francisco, but, by the magic of the movies, the Nevada desert is re-created in Spain at Cabo de Gata and Desierto de Tabernas (both in Almería, Andalucía), though there is also shooting in the studio at Estudios Balcázar, Barcelona, and Estudios Moro, Madrid. They have integrated the American and Spanish footage seamlessly.

It is a thrilling looking movie, with great Sixties artefacts, buildings, roads and cars, capturing the zeitgeist of the era. The images shot in Technicolor and Techniscope by Juan Gelpi are always very interesting and often very exciting. The score by Georges Garvarentz is another fascinating Sixties timewarp.

It has a background caper, sometimes campy tone, but it plays its far-fetched heist story commendably seriously, and backs that up by some serious bursts of mayhem, mayhem and violence in the tough-toned Euro fashion of the era. There is also a weird, rather rancid gay undertone to it, mainly from the leering, sarcastic Leroy character (Georges Géret), but also with other gang members showing an unusual interest in Gary Lockwood. The film has aged extremely well, apart from this aspect.

Elke Sommer in Las Vegas.

Also in the cast are Georges Géret, Jean Servais, Fabrizio Capucci, Roger Hanin, Gustavo Re, Daniel Martin, Maurizio Arena, Enrique Ávila, Gérard Tichy, Rubén Rojo, Jorge Rigaud, and Rossella Bergamonti.

They Came to Rob Las Vegas [Las Vegas, 500 millones] is directed by Antonio Isasi, runs 124 minutes, is made by Isasi, Capitole Films, Eichberg-Film and Franca Film, is distributed by Warner Bros-Seven Arts (US) and Warner-Pathé Distributors (UK) , is written by Antonio Isasi (screenplay), Jo Eisinger (screenplay and dialogue), Jorge Illa (screenplay) and Lluis Josep Cameròn (screenplay), based on the novel Les Hommes De Las Vegas by André Lay, shot in Technicolor and Techniscope by Juan Gelpi, produced by Nat Wachsberger (executive producer) and Antonio Isasi (producer), scored by Georges Garvarentz, and designed by Antonio Cortés and Juan Alberto Soler.

It was widely distributed by Warner Bros-Seven Arts in the US and Warner-Pathé Distributors in the UK in a cut and dubbed version.

Release dates: October 31, 1968 (Spain) and February 5, 1969 (US).

The cast

The cast are Gary Lockwood as Tony Vincenzo/ Tony Ferris, Elke Sommer as Ann Bennett, Lee J Cobb as Steve Skorsky, Jack Palance as Douglas, Jean Servais as Gino Vincenzo, Georges Géret as Leroy, Fabrizio Capucci as Cooper, Roger Hanin as The Boss, Gustavo Re as Salvatore, Daniel Martín as Merino, Maurizio Arena as Clark, Enrique Ávila as Baxter, Gérard Tichy as Klinger, Rubén Rojo as Brian, Jorge Rigaud as Chief Inspector Morton, and Rossella Bergamontias Policewoman .

Antonio Isasi

Spanish film director and producer Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi Lasa (22 March 1927 – 28 September 2017) directed 13 feature films, wrote eleven and produced eight.

He had one daughter, María Isasi, from his seven years domestic partnership with illustrious Spanish actress Marisa Paredes in the 1970s.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6,392

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