hot rock gloria

For those who rarely dig deeper into cinema history than BuzzFeed best-of lists, 1972's The Hot Rock will be a revelation. How did a heist film starring Robert Redford, based on a novel by the legendary Donald Westlake - with a screenplay by the equally legendary William Goldman - not crack anyone's top ten?! This caper comedy is long overdue for rediscovery, staging not one but four heists as our team of semi-pros attempt to steal - then recover - a precious African diamond.

Redford plays recently un-incarcerated thief Dortmunder, the brains behind a four-man operation hired by an African diplomat to liberate the ceremonial stone from its display case in a New York museum. But with each step forward, the plan takes one step back as the stone falls into the wrong hands time and time again, forcing the team to elaborately break into a prison, police station and bank vault to track down their missing property.

The audience isn't privy to the planning; the real thrill is watching things go wrong. So The Hot Rock plays up the ridiculousness of each enjoyable new plot twist, with director Peter Yates comically juggling one heist after another. Redford, in his acting prime here, plays the straight man to co-star George Segal's bumbling but ambitious brother-in-law. The end result is just as witty and clever as the Ocean's 11 franchise without all the hype.

Twilight Time's 3000-copy limited edition Blu-ray looks fantastic throughout and includes an isolated music track (featuring Quincy Jones' jazzy score), audio commentary, trailer and liner notes.

It's too bad John Cassavetes, whose successful career as an actor supported his less successful career as a director, never took on another action film. Because Gloria (1980), his gangster moll-on-the-run flick, starring wife Gena Rowlands, exhibits a natural feel for shoot-em-ups. Even if Cassavetes is working in a genre he feels beneath him (which I suspect he is), there's a visceral honesty at work behind his relentless story of a woman well-past her prime who winds up protecting a young boy from mob assassins.

Against her better judgment, Gloria agrees to hide her neighbor's 6-year-old son as hitmen are closing in. But the ledger in his possession could incriminate a powerful mafia kingpin, so the pair desperately searches for a way out of the city. With their exit blocked at every turn, Gloria must use her street smarts - and old mob connections - to make a stand.

A bit rough around the edges, but all the better for it, Gloria is first and foremost an acting showcase for Gena Rowlands. Her tough but tender act never feels phony; she looks equally comfortable carrying a purse or a .45 magnum. And Cassavetes stages the action scenes like an old pro, making every street corner seem like an ambush waiting to happen, each shoot out something spectacular. Gloria captures that special '70s New York vibe that, thank God, will be forever immortalized on film. The dialogue can be a bit hokey and child actor John Adames, who never appeared in another movie, is cute but not all that convincing. But Gloria is a film in which actions speak much louder than words.

Twilight Time's 3000-copy limited edition looks so good you'd never believe it was a forty year-old film. Extras include an isolated score track, trailer and liner notes.