Am I Missing Something?

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

A Las Vegas mob boss (Martin Balsam) comes up with an ingenious way to launder money - buy a bank! He sends pal Doc Fletcher (Michael Caine) to Switzerland to buy a bank with the help of local contact Prince Gianfranco di Siracusa (Louis Jordan). Along for the ride is the kingpin's wayward son Albert (Jay Leno). Prince Siracusa has a deed for a bank (really a rundown apartment over a pizza parlor) and then things get complicated when his "cousins" (Stéphane Audran and David Warner) want Fletcher to buy in on their Iranian silver mine. Also figuring into this are a banking exec (Tom Smothers) and his ditzy wife (Cybill Shepherd). Ouch! Caine has been upfront about his taking roles for their locations (paid vacation!) and I can't think of any other reason he would have taken this. It is billed as a comedy-thriller, yet manages to never be funny or thrilling. You would think with such a cast that some sort of sparks would fly, but this nearly 2 hour flick is a bore. It doesn't help that the main plot twist doesn't kick in until 90 minutes in (even though you've guess it when it is introduced) and the tricks to swindle some buyers turns into an anti-THE STING. Lots of moments of people talking...and talking...and talking. It says something when the comic highlight is Caine accidentally dropping a breakfast egg in his lap. I lay it all firmly at the feet of director Ivan Passer, who thinks having such a capable cast can immediately pass for a top notch film. Definitely not the case. I'm sure Caine's wife thanks him though.

Michael Caine as a ambitious banker for the mafia charged with setting up a Swiss bank account to launder mob money. Soon Caine and his crew turn their attention to a secret silver mine and the film is really about the toing and froings of takeovers. Much double-dealing and subterfuge ensue but you don't really care for much of it because the director Ivan Passer keeps changing the rules. Filmed in technicolor, the movie has a washed out look and it feels like one of those friendly made for TV jobs where there are no good or bad characters. Cybil Shepherd plays younger than she is (the film is a step backwards from her role in Taxi Driver) Still she creates the only laugh in the film when she interrupts her square uptight husband on a phone call. The ensemble cast includes Joss Ackland, Jay Leno, Louis Jordan, Stephane Audran, Charles Gray, David Warner, Tom Smothers and Martin Balsalm.

... turns out to be silver laundering. That's what this maybe overly cerebral movie is about. Most of the protagonists try to give their criminal actions a whiff of legality by diverting the flow of money to Switzerland. It was an item then as it is now. Almost all the action is set in Switzerland, in the Italian speaking part south of the Alps, to be exact. And Switzerland is basically boring (i.e. no shots fired, no bloodletting, no moans or shrieks in the night). Nonetheless, the movie has some beautiful scenes. The way the freshly arrived crooks find out that their bank's offices is above a crummy pizza parlor, for example. Or the visit in the shady count's empty palazzo. The count takes one of the elegant, anorexic chairs and smashes it to the ground to stoke the fire. (Then he hands a chair to Caine. He should have smashed it likewise, to the dismay of the Count - what are you doing? - who meant that one to be sat on. Instead Caine just sits down - a missed opportunity!!) Also very good is the scene in the small private plane which runs into some serious turbulence, with the Count very scared an Caine not scared at all, taking the opportunity to clarify options and attitudes. Louis Jourdan, who plays the Count, is a mayor asset to the movie. Cibyll Shepherd is in one of her better parts here (interesting wardrobe and make-up) and also has a few really good scenes. Overall this movie is worth watching.

It's a good crime picture with a star-packed cast. The plot is very engaging and not much complicated but also a clever one, which is a big advantage because you never get bored while watching it. Ivan Passer who directed the movie was amongst the leading directors of the new wave in Czechoslovakia in the early 60s but this picture is entirely different. Anyway, it's good in its genre and definitely well acted with the required *twinkle* in the eye from Michael Caine. The locations are very attractive as well as music. It's a very pleasant movie to watch in the evening. I recommend it not only to Michael Caine fans.