The Anderson Tapes (1971)

The extent to which unauthorized and illegal bugging is practiced by Government Agencies in the USA is the subject of this crime thriller. The crime itself is not so much ingenious as audacious. But this one has a twist! Although the pre-planning sequences are somewhat slow and over-talkative, once the robbery itself gets under way, our interest is fully captured, and it is resolved in a thrillingly staged climax. Like many of director Sidney Lumet's productions, the film was made entirely in New York City. Our interest is also enhanced by some ingratiating portrayals, particularly Martin Balsom's study of a phony antique dealer. Sean Connery fills the main role adequately but with little of the distinction he brought to James Bond. However, Dyan Cannon makes an attractive female lead. Nevertheless, the whole film would benefit considerably by at least twenty minutes of deft trimming. Even some of the climactic scenes need speeding up, but most of the slow passages occur in the first half of the movie.

I expected more from this film, influenced, I guess, by my TV Guide which gave it a rating of three and a half out of four. It was directed by Sidney Lumet, who has done some fine New York City stories -- "Serpico", "The Pawnbroker" -- and the cast includes people like Sean Connery, Martin Balsam, and Christopher Walken. How could it go wrong? Well, it doesn't go wrong -- exactly. The first half, though, looks a lot like an ordinary caper movie. Connery is just out of jail and assembles and finances a handful of experts to rob an entire high-end apartment house of every valuable in every flat.Lumet and his writers have even inserted a bit of humor, largely based on Martin Balsam's gay interior decorator, and Balsam is great in the role. He's given a couple of witty lines and moues that never quite go over the top, though they approach it. Ralph Meeker as Delaney, the police captain in charge, really DOES go over the top with his machine-processed working-class New York accent. There's ironic humor, too, in the incremental revelation that three of the conspirators are being covertly watched by three independent law-enforcement agencies, none of whom know about the others: Walken because the Narcs are interested in him, the black driver because he's a Black Panther, and the mobster who is providing the money because he's -- well, he's Italian. Not that the records play any part in the story, which is all the more reason for a talented guy like Quincy Jones to have avoided all those screeching electronic noises on the sound track.But Lumet is a tragedian at heart. He ends few of his movies happily, a tendency he shares with some other directors and writers, like Roman Polanski and Stephen King. The last half of the film has the robbery crew hurrying about their business in the apartment house, not realizing the crime has already been detected, the street sealed off by police, and a Special Tactical Police Unit (or whatever it's called) is already rappelling down the side of the edifice. There is a climactic shoot out in which people are realistically killed.Lumet has directed this uncertain story with noticeable skill. He intercuts long scenes of the preparation and execution of the robbery with briefer scenes of witnesses describing that happened to them. There are also cuts to the post-crime events involving police on the street. At first we're unsure of what's going on in the background except that we notice a lot of bustle. With each cut it becomes increasingly clear that what's going on is that dead bodies are being removed and put into an ambulance, so the audience only gradually becomes aware of the fact that the ending is going to be melancholy.But in asking the viewer to make the leap from the assembly of a comic caper crew into tragedy, Lumet is asking a lot. Let me put it this way: Sean Connery is not the kind of actor who should be shot in the back and die.

"The Anderson Tapes" is a somewhat ahead-of-its-time film by Sidney Lumet. A precursor to modern heist films and a successor of early noirs, the film stars Sean Connery as an ex con who resolves to rob an entire apartment complex. "It's a dog eat dog world," he says, "and I want first bite." Much of the film lingers on surveillance tapes, electronic devices, hidden microphones and cameras. It turns out that every ex con whom Connery assembles for his team is being monitored and observed by different law enforcement departments. But because these departments are illegally wire-taping/spying and are acting entirely outside of their fields of operation, they're information isn't admissible in court. So though they all inadvertently detect or map Connery's crime, they're unable to act on their intel. The film's big irony is that all this surveillance proves useless, yet a kid with a simple two way radio is able to thwart Connery. So observation fails but two way communication takes him down.The film predates "The Conversation", predates even Nixon's nefarious wire tap dancing, and features a genre defining score by Quincy Jones. Lumet's camera-work - usually stiff and static - is also unconventionally fluid. His location work would prove influential on later crime and gangster flicks, and some of his shots here would be lifted by other directors for later heist movies. The film's sudden climax homages early Warner crime films and early noirs, but will let down modern audiences raised on cleverer endings. A young Christopher Walken co-stars.7.9/10 - This was released the same year as "The French Connection", both films updating noir, crime and heist tropes for a new era. These "updates" are more decorative than genuinely substantial. Worth one viewing.

This movie gets off to a great and unusual start and moves along at a good pace keeping the viewer well absorbed in the plot, Connery (Anderson), as always delivers, no one else really stands out in the film , Martin Balsam (Haskins), is good early on, but fades away, Dyan Cannon (Ingrid), is very sexy, but not much else! Anderson, using mob money sets about building his team, but not always from his choice. It's generally a good watch, but just as the action 'hots up' it all goes very cool, the final 15 minutes are almost pointless and kill the movie dead - such a shame - an opportunity missed! Not something you would say too often about a Director like Lumet!