A quartet of Vietnam vets stage a bold bank robbery, posing as guys starting up a toy company. They make their escape across L.A. rooftops, but in the end, only Murdock (Bo Svenson, "The Inglorious Bastards") is able to make a clean getaway. Still, in order to do this, he dumps his share of the loot into a mailbox. Now, he has to wait for an opportunity to retrieve his ill-gotten gains before the mailman makes his late night pick-up at a quarter to midnight.
The hitch is that two people have witnessed his desperate act. Eccentric but gorgeous artist Mary Jane (Cybill Shepherd, 'Moonlighting') watched from her nearby apartment window, and a lowlife bartender / pusher, Graff (Michael C. Gwynne, "Payday") just happened to be on the scene at the time. Graffs' knowledge spells trouble, because he puts two and two together and figures to profit nicely, but Mary Jane, despite being a pain in the ass, mostly just wants some excitement in her life. She's not about to rat out Murdock.
John Melson ("Battle of the Bulge") and James Edward Grant ("Sands of Iwo Jima") concocted this sadly overlooked and under-appreciated 70s heist comedy-thriller. (As of this writing, there's only one other review at IMDb.) It's so fresh and funny, not to mention intriguing, that it really holds your attention. Add to that capable direction by solid journeyman director Paul Wendkos ("The Mephisto Waltz"), a peppy soundtrack written by top composer Lalo Schifrin ("Dirty Harry"), and excellent use of a select few locations, and you have the ingredients for good entertainment. The action all takes place within 24 hours, so there is also a very effective story momentum.
Bo and Cybill are terrific leads, and do work together quite well. Often, a lot of what Bo does is to react to other characters, and he's consistently amusing. Cybill has rarely been as appealing as she is here. They're literally surrounded by familiar faces: Tom Atkins ("Halloween III: Season of the Witch") as a cop, Sorrell Booke ('The Dukes of Hazzard') as a bank manager, Gerrit Graham ("Used Cars") and Jeff Goldblum ("The Fly" '86) as swaggering punks, Vic Tayback ('Alice') and Robert Ito ('Quincy M.E.') as mobsters, John Quade ("The Last Hard Men") as their henchman, Kim Richards (the "Witch Mountain" movies) as a bratty young girl, Deidre Hall ('Days of Our Lives') as a massage parlour worker, and Charles Lampkin ("Five") as a mailman.
Overall, engaging material that keeps its grip and rarely offers a let-up until its ridiculous, but priceless, twist ending.
Eight out of 10.
