The Big Caper

If you like your heist movies on the sick and twisted side...and who doesn't?...then you'll be very happy with this 1957 B offering. The writer, whose name I will not mention for fear of violating IMDB's obscenity strictures, seems to have a real talent for delineating human rodents. Maybe that's because he was HUAC's chief rat. Certainly the film is at its most watchable whenever James Gregory's sadistic mastermind, Robert H. Harris' dipso pyromaniac explosives expert (who enjoys setting fires to high schools while the kids are inside, singing "America The Beautiful") and Corey Allen's sociopathic, mentally challenged gunsel are onscreen. By contrast, the love story between Mary Costa and Rory Calhoun, with its theme of the redemptive power of the 50s suburbs, is less enjoyable. Since messers Gregory, Harris and Allen have slightly more screen time than Calhun/Costa let's give this one a generous B minus.

The Big Caper has enough interesting characters to make it worth watching. But this 50s noir caper film could have used a lot of improvement in the characters and their motives.

Rory Calhoun is a conman associate of big time crook James Gregory and Calhoun has blown the proceeds of the last score on slow horses at Del Mar. He wants to work again and has bank job lined up, a small town bank where the money for the pay of the US Marines stationed at Camp Pendleton is located.

Gregory cooks up a scheme and it's a dilly. Part of it involved Calhoun and Gregory's girl friend buying a filling station and a home and living in the town for a few months as Ward and June Cleaver clones. Mary Costa the girlfriend gets to like the lifestyle, Calhoun isn't crazy about it at all.

I can't really believe that Gregory sends Costa off to live with Calhoun and pretend to be man and wife. Is there something wrong with that picture?

The scheme however is something else. And Gregory collects around him some set of helpers. Robert Harris is an explosives guy who gets his jollies from his work and has a real drinking problem. There's muscle bound Corey Allen who has issues and is crushing out on Gregory as a father figure. Paul Picerni brings along the ultimate bimbo Roxanne Arlen and tells her just enough about the score to have to have her taken care of.

These people, especially Arlen really make The Big Caper worth looking at. The plot and the redemption of our protagonists is not especially well dramatized.

Frank Harper (Rory Calhoun) is tapped out due to bad bets at the track, so he comes to big operator Flood (James Gregory) with the idea of stealing the payroll for Camp Pendleton when it sits in the bank at San Felipe overnight. Flood reluctantly agrees to stake and organize the caper, mainly because of the size of the payroll - one million dollars.

But then Flood makes this whole thing much harder than it needs to be. He insists that his mistress Kay (Mary Costa) and Frank pose as man and wife in San Felipe for three months to get the lay of the land with Frank using Flood's front money to buy a gas station and run it. I never actually SEE them doing ANY reconnaissance. Kay seems to spend the day washing dishes and being a childless June Cleaver and Frank is busy all day fixing cars. All this does is set up a situation where the two gradually fall in love and begin to think that maybe going straight would be a good idea. But Flood is not a guy to be trifled with complications ensue. On top of that, Flood has hired more than a few psychos as accomplices. Given that you could see the trouble these guys causing from a mile away had me doubting Flood's "Mr. Big" Bonafide's.

Why couldn't Frank have bought the gas station as a single guy and done the recon by himself? I know it was the 50s, but I doubt every able-bodied single guy over 20 was immediately suspect by the middle class. And the married middle class of San Felipe are so creepy. They are like the Stepford Wives AND Husbands AND kids for that matter. Why this environment and these people would make you want to go straight and join their ranks I have no idea.

Economically shot by the producer team of William H. Pine and William C. Thomas, known as "the dollar bills" because none of their films ever lost money, the film works until the end when it ends abruptly with several bad guys still on the loose and possibly being a problem for the protagonists, who thus have an uncertain future. Not exactly its much bigger brother, the heist film The Asphalt Jungle, its spartanly shot late noir vibe made it worth sitting through in spite of the plot holes and lapses in logic.

By the Mid-Late-50's Film-Noir was often Seen in 2-Story Suburban Homes, as Opposed to the Streets of an Inner-City.

A Certain Aesthetic of Style is Surely Missing from the Genre that was Birthed Mostly on the "Mean-Streets" of Urban-America, Down Dark Alleys, Neon-Lit Bars, and Desperate Men and Woman Trying to Survive Among the Corruption and Decadence.

Morphing Early on, About 1950, Film-Noir Quickly Became a More Living-Room, TV-Fixated Genre Called "Police-Procedural" and were Cranked Out Steadily Over-Shadowing True-Film-Noir that Faded Fast,

By the Mid-50's and into the Early 60's, Crime Films and Heavily Dramatic Psychological Films were Often Brightly-Lit (antithesis to Noir) Sets and Sprawling Open Suburban Landscapes, and Carpeted Homes with Barb-B-Q Back-Yards.

That's where "The Big Caper" is Set.

But the Hoodlums and Gang Members are Film-Noir "Friendly".

Psychos, Nymphos, Homosexuals, Alcoholics, Pyromaniacs, Cold Blooded Killers...are Lurking About the Bright-Sun and in 2nd Bedrooms, Reeking Havoc while Waiting for the Heist to be Planned and Executed.

Rory Calhoun Leads an Eclectic Cast, but is the Only Sane Member of these Misfits, Misanthropes, and Con-Men.

He Hooks Up with the Gang-Leader's (James Gregory) Gal (Mary Costa) as a Faux Married Couple as to Not Arouse Suspicion.

There's a Bleach-Blonde-Body-Builder, who probably is Gay, that Likes to Show Off His Muscles, Switch-Blade Dogs, and Strangle any "Doll" who Might Cause Trouble.

There's an Elderly Fire-Starter that is Drowning Himself in Gin and is Ready to Blow-Up a High-School with Kids Rehearsing as a Diversion.

There's the Safe-Cracker whose All Business, who Probably Has a Ph.d ("Pass me the soup, I make my own, and step back") and is Worried about Getting to the Bus Station and getting Out of Town Fast.

Other Assorted Gunsels and Thugs are Imported in, and Before You Know it the Bank-Heist is Over and so is the Movie.

One of the Most Abrupt Endings Ever.

Bizarre, Fast-Paced, and Lurid.

"The Big Caper" is a neglected noir thriller that deserves a lot more recognition...this is one of Rory Calhoun's best and most atypical roles. The pace is brisk and the acting quite good even in the minor roles. A very effective sense of threat and menace are maintained throughout, building tension, grabbing and holding the viewer's interest. Calhoun's and Costa's criminal characters' pretense of the "straight life" as a struggling young married couple in a small town is very striking as the set up to their elaborately plotted bank robbery. Gregory is appropriately frightening as the murderous kingpin. Calhoun was at his height at this time and shows that he had enough skill and screen presence to justify awarding him bigger and better roles outside of the westerns to which he was mostly relegated. This film has undeservedly been eclipsed by many others, less engaging, of the 50's.