Charley Varrick

I didn’t really want to go to work. I made a credit card payment. I worked an extra hour on my shift because one of the women left because of an emergency. I had a late lunch of a bean burrito and a salad. I listened to the first inning of the World Series game. Once the Royals gave up that two-run home run, it seemed hopeless for them. I gave a lecture and looked forward to my day off. I finished watching the second season of “Portlandia.” I then watched “Charley Varrick.” It was directed by Don Siegel, so I had to imagine what the movie would be like with Clint Eastwood. The actual star was Walter Matthau. He and his gang knock off a small-town band in New Mexico and discover that they’ve stolen Mob money. Charley knows that the only way to escape with his life is to make everyone think he’s dead. His scheme is pretty clever but proceeds too smoothly. The suspense is in seeing if he can pull it off. I wondered what he was going to do half the time. I found it hard to picture Walter Matthau in any kind of a crime movie after “The Fortune Cookie” and “The Odd Couple.” He’s not a physical guy. His disguise didn’t hide who he was. I wondered why half the cops in the state weren’t knocking at his door immediately. One of his partners was Andy Robinson, famous for being the killer in “Dirty Harry.” He plays nearly the same type of man here, a lowlife criminal who seems to be passing time before he meets some violent end. He’s convincing. I can say at least that much about him. Joe Don Baker is the Mafia hitman. He was effective because I was scared of him. He had the persistence of the Terminator. What was he ever in besides “Walking Tall.” I kept thinking that there was no way I could ever be a criminal, because I couldn’t deal with other criminals. I would be constantly afraid of getting my throat slit. You can’t trust anyone, since you always fear they’ll all try to leave you, taking all the money. Don Siegel knew how to direct action scenes. The bank robbery sequence was pretty exciting. I found it kind of surprising that a woman would shoot someone right in the head. A woman also drove the getaway car. The police seemed dumb, letting Charley go without asking him more questions. Charley knew what he was doing all along. It could have been interesting if his thinking was full of flaws. The final scene involves a plane and a car. It wasn’t quite like the Iranian army chasing after Ben Affleck’s plane in “Argo.” The crop dusting plane brought to mind “North By Northwest,” of course. Don Siegel directed the original “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” in 1956. His films of the 1970s were “Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970), “The Beguiled” (1971), “Dirty Harry” (1971), “Charley Varrick” (1973), “The Black Windmill” (1974), “The Shootist” (1976), “Telefon” (1977), and “Escape from Alcatraz” (1979). His last movie was “Jinxed!” in 1982. He died of cancer on April 20, 1991 at age 78. Walter Matthau was already past 50 at the time of “Charley Varrick,” and he’d already suffered a heart attack, but he doesn’t seem like an old man in the movie. His character is lively enough to have sex with a younger woman played by Felicia Farr, who was Jack Lemmon’s wife in real life. I never ran into Walter Matthau on the beach to talk about “Pirates,” as one of my friends did years ago. Lalo Schifrin composed the score. He is known for “Mission: Impossible” and “Cool Hand Luke.” He was born in Argentina. He is still alive and is 82 years old. I read that Ray Davies of The Kinks has said that “Charley Varrick” was his favorite movie. It does have an intriguing quality to it. Thinking back on movies like “Charley Varrick” and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” I appreciate Don Siegel more than I did years ago. I’m not sure if Clint Eastwood ever made a movie that compares with the best of Don Siegel. Siegel’s last movie was released 32 years ago today. Apparently, Bette Midler and Ken Wahl fought during the production, and Siegel and Midler didn’t like working with each other, either. Sam Peckinpah directed some of the film. Schifrin composed the score, but the studio rejected it. I think that my favorite Don Siegel film will always be “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” I liked Walter Matthau best in “The Odd Couple.” “Charley Varrick” was largely filmed in Nevada. It reminded me of times of “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot.” I could stand to see it again someday. I liked the feeling of the movie, and how it drew you in. I stayed up to watch Barbra Streisand on Jimmy Fallon’s show. She hadn’t done talk shows in many years. She was promoting a new album. I wished she could have sung a song like “Don’t Rain on My Parade” or “The Way We Were.” Barbra Streisand is now 72 years old. I didn’t see the sports highlights, but a 7-1 score in the first game of the World Series had to be discouraging to the fans of the Royals. How do you figure out how to win one day after a loss like that? A couple of radio DJs this morning talked about a man in the stands who was wearing orange. This led me to wonder whatever happened to Rainbow Man. I read that his name is Rollen Frederick Stewart, and he is 70 years old now and is in prison on kidnapping charges. What is a person who is supposedly a born-again Christian doing kidnapping anyone? He won’t be eligible for parole for a while. Some of the people who died on October 22 include Paul Cézanne (1906), Cleavon Little (1992), and Soupy Sales (2009). Today is a birthday for Jeff Goldblum (61), Catherine Deneuve (71), Derek Jacobi (76), and Christopher Lloyd (76). According to the Brandon Brooks Rewind radio segment for October 22, the Supremes’ “The Supremes A’ Go-Go” became the first Number One album by an all-female group in 1966. In 1969, Paul McCartney publicly denied the rumors that he was dead. In 1992, Cleavon Little, star of “Blazing Saddles” died of colorectal cancer at age 53.