| Charley Varrick | 
| Actors: Joe Don Baker, Marjorie Bennett, Charlie Briggs, Colby Chester, Rudy Diaz
Studio: Universal Studios
Category: DVD
List Price: $9.99
Buy New: $4.38
You Save: $5.61 (56%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (65 reviews)
Sales Rank: 7647
Format: Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 111 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.1 x 0.6
MPN: MCAD26203D
ISBN: 1417026863
UPC: 025192620324
EAN: 9781417026869
ASIN: B0003JANSW
Release Date: December 28, 2004
Theatrical Release Date: 1973
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Description
Charley Varrick is a small-time crook who outfoxes the Mob in this fast-paced offbeat thriller directed by Don Siegel. Academy Award winner Walter Matthau stars in a rare dramatic role, along with the powerful Joe Don Baker, as a tough Mafia hitman. Charley robs small banks with small payrolls. That keeps him out of trouble until he stumbles onto the Mob's secret stash. The chase is on as the Big Boys go after the "Last of the Independents." It's a heart-pounding ride that builds to a fiery airborne climax as Charley makes his last desperate run for the Mexican border and safety.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 60 more reviews...
 Walter Matthau's Charley Varrick is a bank robber to bet on. But avoid Joe Don Baker's Molly October 31, 2008
Says the man looking at the business card, "'Charley Varrick, Last of the Independents.' I like that. Has a ring of finality." The man is Molly, a mob enforcer for special projects. You don't want to let him into your trailer. Charley Varrick will meet him when the small-time robbery Charley sets up at the Tres Cruces branch of Western Fidelity Bank goes really, really wrong.
Varrick (Walter Matthau) expected to clear maybe $20,000 or $30,000 from the heist. Instead, his wife, Nadine, waiting in the getaway car, shoots two cops, gets shot herself, and one of Charley's two associates gets killed. Charley, finally back at the trailer park and now a widow, is left with young, dumb Harmon Sullivan (Andrew Robinson) and exactly $765,118 in two big bags. When a newscast reports that the bank manager says only $2,000 was stolen, Charley wishes he'd stayed with stunt flying and crop dusting. The bank was mob controlled and all that cash was about to be sent out of the country for a good washing. Charley knows the cops are after him; now he knows the mob will be, too. They'll want their money back. Just as important, they're going to want to set an example.
Charley Varrick, for all its length (nearly two hours) and for all the queasiness of a ragged Walter Matthau boxing the compass on a round bed with a well-built mob babe, is one fine movie. The plot is so ingenious, the script so smart, the direction so tight, that all the cast members, as good as they are, could be replaced except for Matthau and Joe Don Baker as Molly and not a beat would be skipped.
Charley Varrick the movie comes down to a contest between Charley's sly-like-a-fox, laconic ingenuity and Molly's brutally direct approach to making love, repossessing a car or solving problems. Molly is a big man with a bland face, a nice smile, and who has serious anti-social issues. He smiles, but expect the worst from him if you're a black, a woman, in a wheelchair or the object of his contract. Walter Matthau, with his sagging face, con man personality and his shrewdness, is the heart of the movie, but Joe Don Baker makes you flinch with dreadful anticipation every time Molly comes on screen. Without these two powerful actors, Charley Varrick would have been a clever, amusing heist-and-chase movie. With the two of them, Charley Varrick is a classic.
Charley Varrick, along with The Laughing Policeman (1973) and Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) make up a sort of crime trifecta for Matthau. The Laughing Policeman is a good story although, in my opinion, it hasn't aged well. Pelham is just about as hard-edged as it was when it was released. Just as Charley Varrick benefits immensely from Joe Don Baker's Molly, Pelham benefits from Robert Shaw's utterly ruthless and dominating villain, code-named Blue.
Keep an eye out for William Schallert who plays Sheriff Bill Horton. I've always liked Schallert. He usually played smart and honorable guys, sometimes judges or doctors or just friends. He played a good friend of Walter Matthau's small town lawyer, Harmon Cobb, in the well-made TV mystery drama, Incident (1990). Cobb defends a German prisoner of war against a murder charge during WWII. It's an effective, tidy teleplay.
Many have commented on the nature of Universal's DVD release. It evidently was a cheap, get-it-out-the-door effort. The color transfer is not all that good. The wide-screen presentation is evidently chopped down from a pan-and-scan version, and if you're not careful when you buy this thing you'll wind up with the pan and scan. Charley Varrick needs a first class DVD release.
 Widescreen version October 29, 2008
A few days ago this movie was published in the UK in widescreen with very good picture quality. And it is region free!
Still no widescreen release? What a pity for a great movie. October 25, 2008
This is one of my favorite Matthau flicks of all time. It was among several 70 action/dramas me made at that time that to me are very overlooked- "Pelham 1-2-3" and "Laughing Policeman" among the best. But full screen only? I'd give this movie 4 stars otherwise. It's a very well written and directed movie with lots of suspense and drama. And the key players- Mathau, Joe Don Baker and John Vernon play great roles. You'll also recognize Andrew Robinson, who played Scorpio, the vile serial killer in "Dirty Harry." "Varrick" is a great movie, betrayed by a pitiful DVD release. Still, if it comes on your TV package, watch it. The cat and mouse between Mathau (bank robber/crop duster) and Baker (Mafia hitman) is excellent. And the look of the film is perfect for its 70s setting. If only...
 DVD Charlie Varrick October 2, 2008
You sent me a DVD sone 1, and as I live in Norway, I can not use it!!!!!
Kindly send only sone 2 DVDs to Norway in the future.
I could not return it either, because I did not find out that it was sone 1 until I tried to play it.
Best regards
Jan
A great drama. Well Written June 12, 2008
THis is one of the few dramatic roles I've seen Walter Matthau in, and he was brilliant. Matthau is a small time bank robber who gets in over his head, at least for a time. You'll love the ending. Great movie.
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