Bank security expert Joe Collins and call girl Dawn Divine plot to rob three safety deposit boxes containing $1.5 million in cash belonging to three very different criminals from a high-tech... Read allBank security expert Joe Collins and call girl Dawn Divine plot to rob three safety deposit boxes containing $1.5 million in cash belonging to three very different criminals from a high-tech security bank in Hamburg, Germany.Bank security expert Joe Collins and call girl Dawn Divine plot to rob three safety deposit boxes containing $1.5 million in cash belonging to three very different criminals from a high-tech security bank in Hamburg, Germany.
- Awards
- 1 nomination
- Bodyguard
- (as Robert Herron)
- Knifeman
- (as Klaus Tschichan)
- $ Stripper
- (as Francoise Blanc)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaActress Goldie Hawn has said of this movie: "It smelled like a hit. Warren [Beatty] and I in Germany, plotting a robbery from a bank, with me as a hooker. Richard Brooks directing. But it didn't work." Moreover, Hawn has also said of her characterization in this film: "It was a total bust," she said. "I didn't like my character or what I did with her. It was a totally unthought [sic] out, unconscious performance. I can't even look at the picture."
- GoofsIn a televised interview, Mr. Kessel speaks of Joe's carrying "the gold bars" to safety, when in fact there was only one bar.
- Quotes
Mr. Kessel: [seeing Miss Devine's heavily-loaded grocery bag] Ahhhh, Fraulein! Soooo much to eat for such a little girl
Dawn Divine: [giggling] I have no willpower!
- Crazy creditsThe title (that is, the original title "$") appears only in the form of a giant character, as would be used in a sign, being transported by a crane while the other opening credits are displayed in the usual way.
- ConnectionsReferenced in The Dukes of Hazzard: Dukescam Scam (1982)
Collins works for a bank in Hamburg, Germany that is on the cutting edge of technological security. Among other things, the bank has - get this! - a 24-hour closed-circuit camera inside its safe, the better to monitor would-be evil-doers. Much is made of this awesome camera. Kind of makes one pine for the days when security cameras were a new thing.
At any rate, Collins and Divine have picked out three nefarious marks - a corrupt sergeant (Scott Brady), a Vegas mobster (Robert Webber), and a drug dealer (Arthur Brauss) - each of whom has deposited dirty money into a safe-deposit box in the bank. These boxes are much as they are today, although the bank employees very pointedly do not get to see what is in them; privacy, you see, is a big selling point for the bank wishing to attract more and more foreign interests.
The plan is to move the monies from the three boxes to Divine's own safety box. Plenty of planning goes into this, and it culminates with a wonderfully tense scene in which Joe, trapped in the safe, attempts the exchange. It's only a matter of time, though, before the various baddies discover what's happened, and there's a long, long chase scene - mostly on foot! - that eats up a chunk of film near the end of the movie.
Hawn is at her giggly, risqué best (this would be during her Laugh-In days), and Beatty stays true to type as the Man with the Plan, the cool cat. I particularly enjoyed how anxious Hawn's Divine is at her own role in the heist - for a phone call she must make, she has her lines written out longhand, and yet she still can only whisper them to the bank's manager, played by Gert Frobe (Auric Goldfinger).
The ending felt like it was lacking something, perhaps some panache or some cohesion. It's almost as if someone woke up in postproduction and realized there was no actual climax and then hastily wrote one in. In fact, after reading a synopsis on IMDb, I wondered if I'd seen the same ending - interestingly, the IMDb synopsis made even less sense than the one I saw.
Finally, there's the issue of the editing and/or direction - the former was too choppy, the latter too rapid. When your movie features an intricate plan, maybe it's best not to rush through every step, forcing your viewers to keep up. Even when we could keep up, it seemed as if some plot elements were missing entirely, leading to many questions left unanswered.
- dfranzen70
- Mar 17, 2015
- Permalink
- How long is $?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- Dollars
- Filming locations
- Alter Elbtunnel, St. Pauli, Hamburg-Mitte, Hamburg, Germany(the underground car tunnel)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $4,400,000