(SOME SPOILERS) Effective low budget crime flick with Walter Matthau, Jack Martin, both staring as well and directing.
Escaping form being extradited at the airport Jack Martin gunned down two lawmen and goes into hiding in a downtown hotel. Getting his priorities in order Martin devises a plan to rob the local bank using the excuse to the police that he's doing a movie about a bank robbery and the bank president is staring in it. The cops just stand outside the bank, hoping to be in Martin's movie, and watch Martin pull off the robbery not realizing that it's the real thing.
Mob kingpin Earl Dawson, Bruce MacFarland, is outraged that the bank robbery was pulled off without him having anything to do with it as well as not getting a percentage of the loot. Dawson is also mad that the robbery took place in his mob controlled territory and he'll be blamed for something that he had nothing to do with.
Finding that Martin is at the racetrack laundering the stolen money Dawson has two of his hoodlums track him down but Martin outsmarts them and ends up blowing the two away. it's also during this time Martin got to know and become very friendly Carol, Carol Grace, a local librarian whom he met when he was running from the police.
Figurings out that if you can't beat him let him join your organization Dawson sends Martin a peace feeler and offers him to join his mob with just his second in command Adolph, Garry Walberg, being the only person, besides himself, who gives Martin orders. Martin quickly becomes a sensation in the world of crime pulling off a string of daring robberies that result in millions of dollars going into the coffers of the Dawson Mob. Martins masterpiece being the rip off of the impregnable Meadow Lark Country Club. It's there where the biggest bookie operation in the state the Gordon Bookmaker Syndicate works out of.
Getting together a number of Dawson's men, including Adolph, Martin pulls off the Meadow Lark caper but only himself and Adolph survives the shoot-out with the police at a highway road block. Back home with Carol Martin is told by her that she's leaving him if he doesn't quit his life of crime and the Dawson Mob. Agreeing with Carol Martin decides to tell Dawson that he's through with him and is going to retire together with Carol to Mexico.
Mad as hell at Martin for quiting on him Dawson later tells Adolph to rat him out to the FBI and see to it that he never makes it across the border. Adolph who owes his life to Matin, for saving him from getting shot and killed by the highway cops, has second thoughts about ratting him out to the feds. After tipping off the FBI about his, and Carol's planned escape, Adolph calls Martin and tells him that his former boss Earl Dawson had tried to double-cross him. With Carol driving to Mexico Martin tells her that he'll meet her there the next day but what he really intends to do is to pay Dawson a surprise visit.
A bit tongue in cheek with Mattau being more funny then serious in the film as he's almost invisible, he doesn't even bother to ware a disguise, in his many criminal exploits that he commits in the film. Matthau, or Jack Martin, goes on robbing banks and gunning down policemen all throughout the movie yet he seems to be almost unrecognizable, despite his wanted photo plastered all over the newspapers and on the TV news shows, to the police and people in town who don't even bother to give him a second look in the movie!
Escaping form being extradited at the airport Jack Martin gunned down two lawmen and goes into hiding in a downtown hotel. Getting his priorities in order Martin devises a plan to rob the local bank using the excuse to the police that he's doing a movie about a bank robbery and the bank president is staring in it. The cops just stand outside the bank, hoping to be in Martin's movie, and watch Martin pull off the robbery not realizing that it's the real thing.
Mob kingpin Earl Dawson, Bruce MacFarland, is outraged that the bank robbery was pulled off without him having anything to do with it as well as not getting a percentage of the loot. Dawson is also mad that the robbery took place in his mob controlled territory and he'll be blamed for something that he had nothing to do with.
Finding that Martin is at the racetrack laundering the stolen money Dawson has two of his hoodlums track him down but Martin outsmarts them and ends up blowing the two away. it's also during this time Martin got to know and become very friendly Carol, Carol Grace, a local librarian whom he met when he was running from the police.
Figurings out that if you can't beat him let him join your organization Dawson sends Martin a peace feeler and offers him to join his mob with just his second in command Adolph, Garry Walberg, being the only person, besides himself, who gives Martin orders. Martin quickly becomes a sensation in the world of crime pulling off a string of daring robberies that result in millions of dollars going into the coffers of the Dawson Mob. Martins masterpiece being the rip off of the impregnable Meadow Lark Country Club. It's there where the biggest bookie operation in the state the Gordon Bookmaker Syndicate works out of.
Getting together a number of Dawson's men, including Adolph, Martin pulls off the Meadow Lark caper but only himself and Adolph survives the shoot-out with the police at a highway road block. Back home with Carol Martin is told by her that she's leaving him if he doesn't quit his life of crime and the Dawson Mob. Agreeing with Carol Martin decides to tell Dawson that he's through with him and is going to retire together with Carol to Mexico.
Mad as hell at Martin for quiting on him Dawson later tells Adolph to rat him out to the FBI and see to it that he never makes it across the border. Adolph who owes his life to Matin, for saving him from getting shot and killed by the highway cops, has second thoughts about ratting him out to the feds. After tipping off the FBI about his, and Carol's planned escape, Adolph calls Martin and tells him that his former boss Earl Dawson had tried to double-cross him. With Carol driving to Mexico Martin tells her that he'll meet her there the next day but what he really intends to do is to pay Dawson a surprise visit.
A bit tongue in cheek with Mattau being more funny then serious in the film as he's almost invisible, he doesn't even bother to ware a disguise, in his many criminal exploits that he commits in the film. Matthau, or Jack Martin, goes on robbing banks and gunning down policemen all throughout the movie yet he seems to be almost unrecognizable, despite his wanted photo plastered all over the newspapers and on the TV news shows, to the police and people in town who don't even bother to give him a second look in the movie!