The Anderson Tapes **** (1971, Sean Connery, Dyan Cannon, Martin Balsam, Christopher Walken, Alan King, Ralph Meeker, Val Avery) – Classic Movie Review 571

Sean Connery, with hair!, is on riveting form as ex-convict Duke Anderson, who is under surveillance in New York City after serving 10 years for safe-breaking. He visits his old girlfriend Ingrid (Dyan Cannon) and conceives a plan to burgle her entire 5th Avenue Dakota Building on fashionable Upper East Side during Labour Day weekend when most apartments will be unoccupied.

Unaware that Mafia boss Pat Angelo (Alan King) is being bugged by tax agents, he seeks financial backing from him. Anderson recruits an oddball wild bunch to help in the robbery, but the price of Angelo’s help is that Anderson must take along one of the Mafia’s redundant gunmen and liquidate him during the robbery.

What Anderson doesn’t know is that his every move is being recorded on audio and video tape.

The tension  mounts to breaking point in this absolutely nailbiting surveillance and robbery thriller, bizarrely anticipating the Watergate break-in. The movie, a serious-minded caper, is extremely tautly and atmospherically directed by Sidney Lumet. There are lovely performances throughout the ensemble, as the rest of the cast are uniformly as good as Connery.

Quincy Jones’s lively, jazzy score and cinematographer Arthur Ornitz’s startling camerawork are major assets; the anti-gay stereotype jokes surrounding Martin Balsam’s fussy antique dealer character Tommy Askins are a big minus.

Frank R Pierson’s screenplay, based on Lawrence Sanders’s novel, is a model of intelligent thriller movie screenwriting. He could teach a course.

With not too much to do, maybe 15 minutes on screen, but enjoying some good lines (‘Hey Duke, it’s late, I’m turnin’ into a pumpkin), Christopher Walken was making his third film, playing The Kid. Ah, those were the days! He looks like a kid, too, though he was already 28. However, he makes quite an impression.

Jerry Lewis influenced Walken to make show business his career. At the age of 10, he met Lewis on The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950), where Lewis and Dean Martin were guest hosts. Walken was an extra on the show and was in a skit with Lewis. He says he has never turned down a role.

He was named after his mother’s favourite actor, Ronald Colman, but adopted the name Christopher when a friend told him the name suited him better than Ronnie. Walken danced with Judy Garland at Liza Minnelli’s 16th birthday party in 1962.

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Film Review 571 derekwinnert.com