The 1973 Charley Varrick is gritty fun but not one of Don Siegel‘s best. This is because it is nigh mindless, a sometimes obtuse crime flick.

“A man, his wife and their friend stage a bloody bank robbery without realizing they are stealing from the Mob” (imdb). Thereafter the plot is not always well served. Siegel said Walter Matthau, as Charley Varrick, did not understand what was going on in CV, but it is not a hard movie to follow. You may not always like, however, where it takes you. It has some pretty colorful crooks, though, in Joe Don Baker‘s Mr. Molly and Andy Robinson‘s Harman. And it’s vigorous.