They Came to Rob Las Vegas

Well, this crime heist film is excellent in terms of plot, scheme, itself adapted from a French prolific novelist: Andre Lay, who wrote more than one hundred of crime flicks: half of them being domestic thrillers, involving husband, wife and her lover triangle, complex but brilliant "perfect" murder plots in the James Hadley Chase style; and the other half of Andre Lay's books being like this one, very unlikely heist or escape adventure stories taking place in the desert, jungle, very gritty and dark stories from which only a very very few - two actually - were adapted for the screen. The book from this film is the very best of Andre Lay and this is an excellent thing that it was adapted this way, it could have been far worse. I love this late sixties atmosphere, music, photography, cast. The late sixties provided tremendous heist movies, even from the Italian - in co production most of the time - film industry. Remember GRAND SLAM, about a heist in Rio De Janeiro. I have always loved heist films, but only for the fifties, sixties and a bit of seventies. Forget the garbage OCEAN'S ELEVEN (2001) endless rip-offs.... Hundreds of them. There were a few though not bad, including 2010 ARMORED, which the plot and scheme were not so far from this one. The only flaw is that it is too long, the subplot with Jack Palance trying to nail Lee J Cobb, this subplot could have easily been avoided, only focusing on the gangsters. Period. The end of the novel was better, far better. The heist scene is terrific. It reminded me the armored truck heist sequence in LE PACHA.

Steve Skorsky (Lee J. Cobb) has a fleet of specially-designed impenetrable armored trucks. Blackjack dealer Tony Ferris (Gary Lockwood) and his girlfriend Ann Bennett (Elke Sommer) work their scam stealing from the casino. She works for the transport company while he's tracking the scheduled shipment from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. They and their fellow criminals plan to take down one of the trucks. Douglas (Jack Palance) is a Treasury agent.

The gang needs fewer members and the other members need more screen time. An Oceans movie would have fun with each member of the gang. In this one, only Tony and Ann are interesting and given enough screen time. The truck looks a little silly but I'm willing to live with that. I get the idea of a 60's futurist vehicle. The same goes for the Skorsky headquarters. They are basically robbing a Winnebago dressed up with some pretend cladding. The other issue about the heist is the desert location. I hoped for a high speed road chase. This is less compelling. It really needs a high speed car chase to inject kinetic energy. The heist gets a bit static after the underground hideout. This is a fine caper flick but it's not the best.

This gets a 4 for some great set decor and Vegas-in-the-60's pastiche. It's filled with cliché Euro-perceptions about American culture and organized crime, suffers from ponderous dramatics, over-posed (and under- talented) character actors, and underdeveloped leads with phantom motivation. Somehow I get the feeling the director dropped a couple of pallets of footage on some half-suspecting, chain-smoking Spanish editor, then got too tied up making a film centered on his new fascination with forklifts to be available to sort out the mess.

It's the same thing that happens when a European chef tries to make chili or barbecue sauce. It tastes strangely like beef Bourgignon or Bolognese.

A great European co-production , though mostly Spanish . Being Shot in San Francisco and Los Angeles and Splugues De Llobregrat , Barcelona , and Almeria. It deals with a big hold up carried out by a motley group . It contains International and Big name stars thanks to Warner Bros . The bunch hijacks and robs an armored lorry carrying a casino cash , a huge amount of money about seven million dollars , in route between between Las Vegas and Los Angeles.They touched the raw Vegas nerve with the wildest heist in history. The expert team challenged the syndicate boys in their own backyard.

A Spanish superproduction dealing with the wildest freak-out in Vegas history , including all-star-cast about a spectacular robbing on an armored truck . Being based on a novel titled The men of Las Vegas written by French author called Andre Lay , and being exhibited within a year of the book was published. The main cast is top-notch with the most famous actors by the time as Gary Lockwood, Jack Palance, Lee J Cobb and Elke Sommer . Support cast is pretty good , plenty of familiar Spanish faces as Gustavo Re , Enrique Ávila, Daniel Martín , Fernando Hilbeck , Jorge Rigaud , Ruben Rojo , Luis Barboo, Antonio Casas , Carlos Ballesteros, among others.And brief intervention from Roger Hanin , Georges Geret and Jean Servais.

Colorful cinematography by Juan Gelpi , shot on gorgeous locations , though the Nevada desert was actually shot in desert of Tabernas, Andalucia, where during the sixties and seventies had been filmed lots of Spaghetti Paella Westerns.Evocative and catching musical score by George Garvarentz in the sixties style . The motion picture was professionally directed by Antonio Isasi Isasmendi. Recently deceased Antonio was a craftsman who made a lot of successful films.As he directed El Perro ,Un Verano Para Matar , Monstruos Del Terror , Mask Scaramouche and his greatest hit was Istanbul 65. He directed great International stars as Karl Malden , Olivia Hussey , Jack Palance, Jason Miller , Lea Massari , Gary Lockwood ,and Lee J Cobb

Love the red 1966 Chevy Covair COSA covertible in the desert. Later we see it parked in front of the courthouse where they call it a 1964- I don't think so. . Thus film does give a pretty good ' snapshot ' of the Las Vegas and Los Angeles of the late sixties. Elke is super good and has to submit the routes on computer punch cards! It has a lot of gadgets and taoe recodte3 and video screens presaging the future. That Gary Lockwood would go on to be the co star of one of the seminal futuristic films of all time - only to be killed by a computer , HAL, I. 2001 : A Space Odyssey, is also interesting.