Adapted, like Stanley Kubrick's more celebrated 1956 crime movie THE KILLING, from a novel by underrated thriller writer Lionel White, THE BIG CAPER is an economical, pacy minor 50s crime movie which, unfortunately, somewhat loses its grip and falls away on the home strait to deliver less than it initially promises. Trapped in an ever-increasing spiral of gambling losses, Frank (Rory Calhoun, taking a welcome break from the saddle) sells his now semi-respectable gangster boss Flood (James Gregory) the idea of bankrolling a 'big caper'. The sleepy Californian coastal town of San Felipe is home to a bank which holds the substantial payroll for a nearby army base, and appears just ripe for the pickings for a team of professional hoods. Flood stakes the plan, and, after buying up the local gas station (an ideal stakeout locale for the bank located across the street), Frank sets up home with Flood's moll Kay (Mary Costa), aiming to win the trust of the local populace based on a seemingly legitimate veneer of domestic normality. Biding their time, Frank and Kay ingratiate themselves with the local 'square' population as they await the arrival of Flood's specialist team. But when this outfit includes an alcoholic pyromaniac, an inveterate womaniser, a psychotically loyal bodyguard and a kingpin who is beginning, rightfully, to suspect that his girl wants out from her previous lifestyle, the seemingly perfect caper begins to look fatally flawed. Swift and punchy, and betraying the best of its paperback origins in swift, sharp characterisation and abrupt narrative gear changes, this benefits from a nicely embittered change-of-pace lead performance from Calhoun (who, in forsaking his cowboy boots and spurs here, suggests he would have made an effectively downbeat noir actor) and a surprising sense of well-oiled coiled-spring menace from the underrated Gregory. Although a tad schematic in its paralleling of the Eisenhower-era nuclear family with Flood's dysfunctional criminal one, and running out of steam on the way to a regrettably contrived ending which involves a Damascene conversion which doesn't quite convince (a more cynical remake would probably put that right, though), this is a diverting slice of 50s criminality which seems, like much of the quirky crime roster from this period, to have slipped off the generic radar in recent years. Worth a look, even if it can't hold a candle to Kubrick's more celebrated Lionel White adaptation from the same period.
Add a Review
-
noir guy22 April 2002
-
The Big Caper (1957)
Fabulous. Here's where having unknown talent and a plot about ordinary folk really gels into something genuine, without glitz and without the high production values that are terrific in the best crime noirs but are also so slick they become something more and also less. "The Big Caper" obviously has aspirations, beginning with the title (one of the great "Big xxx" films like "The Big Heat" and "The Big Combo" and "The Big Sleep"). And it doesn't let up, or let down.
By the end this is a heist film through and through, but the curious part is the core central part where a couple, with criminal intentions, sets up a normal seeming life in a small and unsuspecting town. But the woman of this pair is married to another man, who happens to be the mastermind of the whole affair. Things go wonderfully right for awhile, and romance blossoms as well as a clever and huge (and simple) robbery. But of course things also go wrong.
All of this is unfolded in an idealized American town, and that's part of the fun. When some of the smaller characters in the crime arrive, they are glaringly out of place. I smelled hints of sexual weirdness (including some possible S&M stuff with a strange blonde guy) and of course there's the conflict between the two leading men and the leading woman. Like Kubrick's "The Killing," a nearly contemporary heist film, this isn't about getting caught at all, but just about the inside workings of some small time thugs with a very big and bad dream. If Kubrick's film is better technically, and has some acting that rises above (several key players are terrific), this one rises up on its quieter simplicity, and on some very solid and less sensational acting.
And on a great job pulling it together. Robert Stevens did mostly television, including a whole series for Alfred Hitchcock t.v., and among his handful of feature films this is probably the best. Nicely filmed with lots of convincing (and real) night stuff, and edited tightly, it never flags. If the ending is a little too sweet, remember this isn't Kubrick after all. But good stuff. -
"The Big Caper" is a neglected noir thriller that deserves a lot more recognition...this is one of Rory Calhoun's best and most atypical roles. The pace is brisk and the acting quite good even in the minor roles. A very effective sense of threat and menace are maintained throughout, building tension, grabbing and holding the viewer's interest. Calhoun's and Costa's criminal characters' pretense of the "straight life" as a struggling young married couple in a small town is very striking as the set up to their elaborately plotted bank robbery. Gregory is appropriately frightening as the murderous kingpin. Calhoun was at his height at this time and shows that he had enough skill and screen presence to justify awarding him bigger and better roles outside of the westerns to which he was mostly relegated. This film has undeservedly been eclipsed by many others, less engaging, of the 50's.
-
blanche-29 December 2021I was interested in this film not only because it is a noir, but because it costars opera star Mary Costa.
Conman Frank (Rory Calhoun) approaches a wealthy colleague (James Gregory) with an idea he has to rob a bank. It's in a town that houses the military base payments on certain days. Frank thinks this would be a cinch, but he needs backing.
Flood has an interesting idea. He sets Frank up with a gas station and arranges for Frank and his girlfriend Kay (Costa) to live in the town and establish themselves as good citizens who fit in.
It turns out that not only do Frank and Kay get along better than expected, but the gas station is turning a profit. They also are making friends. Kay confesses she envies her sister's life as a wife and mother and realizes she's been losing out. She wants to break with Flood, but Frank warns her to wait until after the robbery.
The next problem is the unsavory and unreliable people who are supposed to help on the job. One is the alcoholic pyromaniac (Robert Harris), posing as Frank's uncle, who is supposed to distract the police and firefighters by setting some fires. He can barely get around and is constantly asking for booze.
Corey Allen plays Roy, a dumb as a box of rocks muscle man who gets beaten by Flood for showing his muscles off to Kay. Paul Picerni as Harry arrives to the job with a bimbo girlfriend (Roxanne Arlen) in tow, who tries to hold up Flood for a cut of the take.
How anyone expected this group to pull off anything, and how Flood could just send Kay off to live with Rory Calhoun - well, it all seems pretty preposterous. Still, it does hold some interest, and the end is exciting.
Mary Costa was the singing Aurora in Sleeping Beauty for Disney, and had a wonderful career as an opera star. Costa and Anna Moffo set a new high bar for beautiful women in opera. After Costa retired, she worked with children in ChildHelp, and as of this writing, is still alive at 91. -
LeonLouisRicci1 June 2023By the Mid-Late-50's Film-Noir was often Seen in 2-Story Suburban Homes, as Opposed to the Streets of an Inner-City.
A Certain Aesthetic of Style is Surely Missing from the Genre that was Birthed Mostly on the "Mean-Streets" of Urban-America, Down Dark Alleys, Neon-Lit Bars, and Desperate Men and Woman Trying to Survive Among the Corruption and Decadence.
Morphing Early on, About 1950, Film-Noir Quickly Became a More Living-Room, TV-Fixated Genre Called "Police-Procedural" and were Cranked Out Steadily Over-Shadowing True-Film-Noir that Faded Fast,
By the Mid-50's and into the Early 60's, Crime Films and Heavily Dramatic Psychological Films were Often Brightly-Lit (antithesis to Noir) Sets and Sprawling Open Suburban Landscapes, and Carpeted Homes with Barb-B-Q Back-Yards.
That's where "The Big Caper" is Set.
But the Hoodlums and Gang Members are Film-Noir "Friendly".
Psychos, Nymphos, Homosexuals, Alcoholics, Pyromaniacs, Cold Blooded Killers...are Lurking About the Bright-Sun and in 2nd Bedrooms, Reeking Havoc while Waiting for the Heist to be Planned and Executed.
Rory Calhoun Leads an Eclectic Cast, but is the Only Sane Member of these Misfits, Misanthropes, and Con-Men.
He Hooks Up with the Gang-Leader's (James Gregory) Gal (Mary Costa) as a Faux Married Couple as to Not Arouse Suspicion.
There's a Bleach-Blonde-Body-Builder, who probably is Gay, that Likes to Show Off His Muscles, Switch-Blade Dogs, and Strangle any "Doll" who Might Cause Trouble.
There's an Elderly Fire-Starter that is Drowning Himself in Gin and is Ready to Blow-Up a High-School with Kids Rehearsing as a Diversion.
There's the Safe-Cracker whose All Business, who Probably Has a Ph.d ("Pass me the soup, I make my own, and step back") and is Worried about Getting to the Bus Station and getting Out of Town Fast.
Other Assorted Gunsels and Thugs are Imported in, and Before You Know it the Bank-Heist is Over and so is the Movie.
One of the Most Abrupt Endings Ever.
Bizarre, Fast-Paced, and Lurid. -
AlsExGal28 October 2023Frank Harper (Rory Calhoun) is tapped out due to bad bets at the track, so he comes to big operator Flood (James Gregory) with the idea of stealing the payroll for Camp Pendleton when it sits in the bank at San Felipe overnight. Flood reluctantly agrees to stake and organize the caper, mainly because of the size of the payroll - one million dollars.
But then Flood makes this whole thing much harder than it needs to be. He insists that his mistress Kay (Mary Costa) and Frank pose as man and wife in San Felipe for three months to get the lay of the land with Frank using Flood's front money to buy a gas station and run it. I never actually SEE them doing ANY reconnaissance. Kay seems to spend the day washing dishes and being a childless June Cleaver and Frank is busy all day fixing cars. All this does is set up a situation where the two gradually fall in love and begin to think that maybe going straight would be a good idea. But Flood is not a guy to be trifled with complications ensue. On top of that, Flood has hired more than a few psychos as accomplices. Given that you could see the trouble these guys causing from a mile away had me doubting Flood's "Mr. Big" Bonafide's.
Why couldn't Frank have bought the gas station as a single guy and done the recon by himself? I know it was the 50s, but I doubt every able-bodied single guy over 20 was immediately suspect by the middle class. And the married middle class of San Felipe are so creepy. They are like the Stepford Wives AND Husbands AND kids for that matter. Why this environment and these people would make you want to go straight and join their ranks I have no idea.
Economically shot by the producer team of William H. Pine and William C. Thomas, known as "the dollar bills" because none of their films ever lost money, the film works until the end when it ends abruptly with several bad guys still on the loose and possibly being a problem for the protagonists, who thus have an uncertain future. Not exactly its much bigger brother, the heist film The Asphalt Jungle, its spartanly shot late noir vibe made it worth sitting through in spite of the plot holes and lapses in logic. -
dougdoepke6 September 2015A heist gang is assembled from character types to knock over a million-dollar bank. But first, the gang must establish credentials in town by pretending that two of their number are a married couple that buy a gas station. But will the diverse types be able to carry out the scheme, especially in the midst of an all-American community.
Well-made thick ear. Despite the title, the heist part is pretty ordinary. The movie's real appeal is in colorful characters and human interest. Robert H. Harris has to be the biggest bundle of pathetic sweat in movie annals. When he isn't setting off diversionary explosions, he's in near orgasmic delight over the fires he sets. It's a thankless role, he brings off to the proverbial T. Then there's Corey Allen's demented hipster Roy, and a long way from his commanding role in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). With his blond crew-cut, I almost didn't recognize him. But in my view, the movie really belongs to James Gregory's mastermind, Flood. He brings real authority to the role, making much of the movie more credible than it is. No wonder he had a long run on TV.
The various little conflicts make up most of the story, and except for some cheap sets, they're compelling enough to hold interest. However, suspense doesn't really kick in until the final 20-minutes, while some threads are left hanging; that is, unless I missed something. Anyway, Calhoun and Costa make an attractive couple, with a good look at that 50's suburban ritual, the backyard bar-be-cue. And despite a couple of plot stretches, the production remains on the whole an entertaining little package. -
This is one of those intriguing caper films that deals 90% with the build up to it and shows how capers fail simply because of the people they let become involved. There's the mastermind (Rory Calhoun), the big money man (James Gregory), his mistress (Mary Costello), not to mention an alcoholic pyromaniac and a psychotic young man that would as soon stab a cute dog to death let alone strangle a woman who rejected him. To get the caper off the ground, Calhoun and Costello posed as a married couple who move into the community where they intend to rob a bank of a million-dollar account but first established themselves as a respectable business owner and his new wife. becoming friendly with local law enforcement and others in the neighborhood gives Calhoun and Costello a friendly reputation, but things go awry as the drunken pyro gets out of control, the crazy young man turns homicidal, and Gregory discovers that Costello is two-timing him.
This moves at the perfect pace to set up each of the characters and each one of them has interesting tidbits about them revealed which makes for intriguing drama as well as a thrilling film nor. usually films that spend so much time on a setup and Abdul, but that is not the case here at all. There are enough important details implemented to provide great psychological drama, and the conflict between everybody involved in the caper build to where you know they'll most likely end up destroying each other. Corey Allen is one of the screen's most memorable crazies, gentle at one moment, then malevolently homicidal the next. Roxanne Arlen adds demention as a stereotypical dizzy blonde.
As for the three leads, Calhoun under plays his character's seedy nature, and Costello adds on a dimension of conscience as Gregory's gal pal. Gregory, so memorably sinister as the evil politician husband of Angela Lansbury in "The Manchurian Candidate", is commanding in a role that could have been cliched and colorless. The screenplay, direction, editing and photography are all first-rate, and a wonderfully dramatic score sets everything emotionally in tone. There's no let up on this one. It will keep you enthralled throughout. -
planktonrules28 October 2013I just finished watching "The Big Caper" and thought it among the best film noir pictures I have seen--and I've seen a lot. Because it was so good, I am shocked that its current rating on IMDb is quite mediocre. Believe me, it's well worth your time.
The film begins with Frank (Rory Calhoun) approaching Flood (James Gregory) with a plan to knock over a bank. But, it's no ordinary bank--it will have a million dollars for the payroll of the nearby military base. The plan, however, is NOT to just walk in and steal the money--it's much more subtle. Frank and Kay (Mary Costa) will first go to this small town and open a business. Then, after four months of fitting in, they'll launch the caper.
There are LOTS of glitches along the way. The biggest one is that after four months of playing house, Frank and Kay find they actually are enjoying their fake married life. The business is going very well and they like the community. For the first time, they like being normal. But, normal is NOT what the rest of the gang turns out to be. They are among the sickest group of misfits I've ever seen--far sicker than the usual noir baddies. Frank's phony uncle is actually a psycho who loves blowing up and burning things...and he's also an unpredictable alcoholic and complete sociopath. Flood's other recruits aren't much better--but you'll just have to see this motley group for yourself to believe it. Where does it all go? As I said, you just have to see it for yourself.
The biggest pluses of this film are the character development as well as the assorted group of sick freaks. Frank and Kay's transformation through the course of the film is believable and the sickies are terrifying. In addition, the film is quite taut and exciting. Rarely have criminals seemed so evil during this era than in "The Big Caper". Believe me, they make folks from other contemporary films like "The Asphalt Jungle", "DOA" and "The Killers" seem like pussycats! Well worth your time. -
peru1-595-6301063 May 2013Not too bad for this type B noirish thriller (except the criminals don't get away with it darn it--but this is 1957--no body got away with any thing.)
The plot: Frank (Rory Calhoun) enlists Flood (James Gregory) to help him steal 1 million dollars that is deposited every payday in a small town bank near Camp Pendleton for the military payroll. The plan is to have Kay-Flood's girlfriend (Mary Costa) pretend to be married to Frank and go to the small town where the bank is located 6 months before the heist and blend into the local community by buying a gas station and a house (far too nice and expensive for a tiny gas station owner by the way)---Hollywood never had much reality in these type of details.
Somehow by living there this will make the caper work I guess by supplying a safe house where no one will think to look for the money---because neither Kay nor Frank are critical to the robbery itself.
It is OK to pass some time since you know in the beginning this caper will fail and there is nothing particularly suspenseful about any of it. It is competently acted and filmed...gets a 5 or 6.
RECOMMEND -
bkoganbing2 November 2016The Big Caper has enough interesting characters to make it worth watching. But this 50s noir caper film could have used a lot of improvement in the characters and their motives.
Rory Calhoun is a conman associate of big time crook James Gregory and Calhoun has blown the proceeds of the last score on slow horses at Del Mar. He wants to work again and has bank job lined up, a small town bank where the money for the pay of the US Marines stationed at Camp Pendleton is located.
Gregory cooks up a scheme and it's a dilly. Part of it involved Calhoun and Gregory's girl friend buying a filling station and a home and living in the town for a few months as Ward and June Cleaver clones. Mary Costa the girlfriend gets to like the lifestyle, Calhoun isn't crazy about it at all.
I can't really believe that Gregory sends Costa off to live with Calhoun and pretend to be man and wife. Is there something wrong with that picture?
The scheme however is something else. And Gregory collects around him some set of helpers. Robert Harris is an explosives guy who gets his jollies from his work and has a real drinking problem. There's muscle bound Corey Allen who has issues and is crushing out on Gregory as a father figure. Paul Picerni brings along the ultimate bimbo Roxanne Arlen and tells her just enough about the score to have to have her taken care of.
These people, especially Arlen really make The Big Caper worth looking at. The plot and the redemption of our protagonists is not especially well dramatized. -
zardoz-134 June 2012Rory Calhoun swaps his horse for a car in director Robert Stevens' taut little heist thriller "The Big Caper" with Mary Costa and James Gregory. If this slickly done melodrama is predictable, you have to remember that when it came out, nobody could get away with a crime. Although the robbers aren't able to get away with a cool million in bank notes, they manage to execute the crime. "The Big Caper" is memorable chiefly because of its gallery of warped rogues, right down to the amoral protagonist who finds the right gal and decides to quit the racket. Stevens and scenarist Martin Berkeley never let the action go slack as the thieves lay out the project. Unfortunately, the trust among the thieves erodes quickly after a gin-swilling explosives experts is recruited into their ranks. Meanwhile, Flood (James Gregory) grows suspicious about the relationship between Frank Harper (Rory Calhoun) and his girlfriend Kay who have settled in town of San Felipe, California, as a couple who operate a gas station. Zimmer drives the wedge in deep between Flood and Harper because Harper doesn't like him hitting the bottle. Things grown complicated because the thieves want something to distract the authorities while they steal a million-dollar payroll intended for the Marines at Camp Pendleton. When the gang isn't slowing deteriorating, Harper grows compassionate with his neighbors. Ultimately, he turns against Flood when he learns that Zimmer plans to plant the explosives for the distraction at the local high school. The catch is that when Zimmer plants the explosives, the school is filled with kids practicing a play. The abrupt ending is the worst thing about this superbly acted drama.
-
SnoopyStyle15 October 2023Frank Harper (Rory Calhoun) lost at the horses and needs to pay back Flood (James Gregory). He suggests stealing a million dollars and gets Flood to stake the caper. There is a small bank near a military base which holds a lot of the payroll. Kay (Mary Costa) is Flood's girlfriend. She plays Frank's husband as they buy a gas station. The group starts getting recruited.
This is not so much a fun caper movie. It is a lot of romantic melodrama, underhanded double-cross, and unreliable relationships. It is an interesting crime noir although I don't like these characters. It's fine for the most part. -
BILLYBOY-1019 October 2010This is a 1.5 hour train wreck. Scene one we know RC (star Rory Calhoun) is determined to rob a bank so we immediately know happily ever after ain't gonna happen. He enlists an old ex-con pal to plan the caper.Normally you would blow into town unknown, pull off the job and split but instead RC buys a gas station and a house, befriends the the community, joins the Country Club to get everyone to know an love him and his fake wife for six months and THEN pull off the bank job and stick around for another month and then split town. Brilliant plan, right? I don't see it that way myself but his old pal is a criminal master mind so what do I know? Half the flick revolves around the fake life of our fake schmaltzy couple until the various characters involved in the caper show up in town to plan and carry out the caper....and boy, do I mean Characters with a capital "C". First the pyromaniac gin addicted torch man, the spooky masochistic body builder looney toon, a floozy dame whose name is Doll, the businesslike safe cracker and a harmless watch-out. As this gang of idiots play out the train wreck really takes place and naturally ends in the inevitable pile up with our rehabilitated fake couple promising to hook up no matter what. The End. Nice old DeSoto's tho.
-
mossgrymk29 October 2023If you like your heist movies on the sick and twisted side...and who doesn't?...then you'll be very happy with this 1957 B offering. The writer, whose name I will not mention for fear of violating IMDB's obscenity strictures, seems to have a real talent for delineating human rodents. Maybe that's because he was HUAC's chief rat. Certainly the film is at its most watchable whenever James Gregory's sadistic mastermind, Robert H. Harris' dipso pyromaniac explosives expert (who enjoys setting fires to high schools while the kids are inside, singing "America The Beautiful") and Corey Allen's sociopathic, mentally challenged gunsel are onscreen. By contrast, the love story between Mary Costa and Rory Calhoun, with its theme of the redemptive power of the 50s suburbs, is less enjoyable. Since messers Gregory, Harris and Allen have slightly more screen time than Calhun/Costa let's give this one a generous B minus.
-
glenaobrien16 January 2024In this solid heist film, two criminals (played by Rory Calhoun and Mary Costa) plot a bank job by moving into a quiet California town and posing as husband and wife, winning the confidence of the townsfolk. The problem is the rest of the gang are unbelievably inept in every way and things begin to really unravel when the big night arrives.
Costa makes a great femme fatale and I'm surprised she didn't make more films. She was the voice part in Disney's Cinderella (1950) and had a small role in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) but has done little else. Calhoun is also excellent as the brains behind the plan who begins to have second thoughts after he develops a conscience. By then, however he has to deal with gang boss Flood (James Gregory) who isn't in the mood for pulling the plug on the caper. Corey Allen (who played Buzz in 1955's Rebel without a Cause) is good as the hyped- up psychopath who is under Flood's twisted control. Robert H Harris is the alcoholic arsonist Zimmer, whose dependence on the bottle and mania for starting fires makes him a loose cannon who needs constant management. I mean, these guys are just born to lose.
An effective morality take, this gritty noir has all the right elements, and in spite of its seedy elements is really celebrating the capacity of small town life to win over even the hardest of criminal hearts. -
lor_18 April 2024Rory Calhoun stars in a different sort of role for the handsome hero -caught up in a crime caper that -guess what- goes awry. The United Artists picture may lack the style of "Rififi" or the big-budget Clooney films, but its interesting characters make for an entertaining ride.
Rory has a great get-rich-quick heist in mind - grab the weekly payroll sent for an army base that is kept at a small local bank. He goes to an old colleague, cool (but slippery) James Gregory to put together the team to pull off the caper, and the guys he hires are a colorful lot.
Chief scene stealer is Robert H. Harris, a guy who looks crooked at first glance, constantly getting drunk on gin yet oddly in charge of explosives! Throw in the fact that he's a pyromaniac and you have just the right guy to mess up a mission. (Harris was a frequent actor in the live TV series "Suspense", piloted by this movie's director Robert Stevens.) A young Corey Allen (later to become a top TV director) has an even showier role, a little hard to pigeon hole, but basically Gregory's all-purpose helper. These two roles bring in a certain sleaze factor, familiar from low-budget movies but definitely down market for a major studio (UA) release.
The pitfalls of crime are well-demonstrated, and a central motif of Rory and Gregory's girl (my in-joke reference for the day) Mary Costa posing for months as man and wife anticipates some classic movies using that shtick, like the Inger Stevens TV movie "The Borgia Stick".
Recommended for many reasons, but I'm seriously tired of every crime film (it seems) being tagged a "film noir" for marketing purposes. This is not a noir at all, and despite the false advertising, there's no femme fatale in the cast. -
myriamlenys30 June 2023As a title, "The Big Caper" sounds quite jolly. However, the movie is not a comedy. Rather it is a crime movie of the pulpier variety, about a gang planning a major bank heist. Things go wrong during the preparation stage and by the time the actual date arrives, various gang members are at each other's throats, spurred on by emotions such as distrust, anger and revenge. Matters aren't helped along by the fact that several gang members are twisted weirdos.
Now "The Big Caper" is not a masterpiece. Many of the plot developments can be spotted from far away, let's say from the planet Mars. Moreover, the movie doesn't believe in subtlety. One of the sequences, for instance, involves a degenerate, alcoholic pyromaniac / explosives expert trying to bring down a school building. The school is full of adorable children singing "America the beautiful"... The ending feels rushed, as if the writers had grown tired of their project.
On the other hand the movie can be watched with pleasure by viewers willing to take a walk on the pulpier side of the street. The movie also features an interesting inversion of the usual tropes about formerly honest citizens succumbing to the lure of gold. Here the opposite happens, since two of the main characters - both of them louche grifters - begin to long for a life of law-abiding probity. So it's not greed that seduces them away from the gang, it's a hankering for honest work, decent neighbors and innocent family get-togethers.
On a final note : "The Big Caper" features the ugliest man's shirt since the invention of cinema. Sensitive viewers may want to arm themselves with a flask of brandy or a dose of smelling salts. -
jameselliot-116 January 2021This is a neglected crime film that is worthy of a Turner Classics Noir showing but ignored by noir critics and writers. It starts off as a humdrum heist film but by 30 minutes in, it goes crazy with a sado-masochistic, homoerotic episode and from then on, the criminal weirdness is nonstop. A very good cast makes it special.
-
michaelRokeefe29 November 2012Robert Stevens directs this crime drama; almost the perfect crime. Frank Harper(Rory Calhoun), a con man down on his luck and flat broke, goes to a long time crime boss named Flood(James Gregory)to ask for set up money for the perfect crime. It takes some convincing, but Frank knows for sure that a small-town bank regularly has the near by Marine base's payroll deposited. Flood figures that if he sends his girlfriend Kay(Mary Costa)with Harper to set up house as a new couple to the community they could prepare for the caper without suspicion. Calhoun comes across real cool. Costa is convincing as a pretty woman that needs affection and the chance for a real life. Planning out the heist is interesting. Other players include: Robert Harris, Paul Picerni, Roxanne Arlen and Ray Teal.
-
atlasmb15 October 2023Rory Calhoun stars as Frank Harper, who joins with a cadre of criminals to bring off a complex heist scheme. This melodrama includes a gang of scenery-chewing hoodlums who are very entertaining even if they undercut the gravitas of the drama. At the head of the group is Flood (James Gregory), who brings his girlfriend into the plot to provide cover. Complications ensue when she becomes disenchanted with the status quo and the plan de guerre.
When the day of the big caper comes, the film becomes a thriller, complete with close calls, countdown clocks, and unforeseen complications. The noir aspects of the film help to ratchet up the tension. The jazzy score may intrude, but in the final scenes it works well.
Mary Costa plays the girlfriend, Kay, and is the best part of the film. She gives a strong performance as a woman who struggles with her part in it all, then has to decide where her life is going. -
evanston_dad28 December 2023A tawdry little noir about a group of crooks planning a bank heist.
Rory Calhoun and Mary Costa pose as husband and wife and move into a house in the suburbs in a ruse to establish themselves as part of the community. I never completely understood why that was necessary to their scheme, but it gives plenty of juicy opportunities for criminal weirdos to come and stay with them, putting "The Big Caper" in the noir sub-genre of big city underworld invading idyllic 1950s suburbia. And this particular cross section of big city underworld is as bizarre as they come. Perhaps the strangest character in the film is that of Roy, a bleach blonde muscle head who gets whipped with a belt by the crime boss when he misbehaves and who has psycho tendencies.
This is the kind of noir I like: cheap and lurid.
Grade: A. -
(1957) The Big Caper CRIME DRAMA/ THRILLER
Adapted from the novel by Lionel White, with Frank Harper (Rory Calhoun) arriving to see his friend, Flood (James Gregory) relaxing by the pool with his girlfriend, Kay (Mary Costa) attempting to convince him to join him to another heist job. Frank pleads with him because he is flat broke, and because he has no money while his friend Flood still has plenty of it. Both have the people to do it as the bank has a million dollars. At the beginning, they buy a gas station near the bank they are planning to rob, with both Kay and Frank posing as husband and wife while assembling the gang together. And of course, things are going accordingly until of course, Flood's girlfriend Kay begins to fall for Frank creating a kind of a rift.
I liked the ending of "The Big Caper" which is better than what we are accustomed in seeing during heist movies made during this era when they are either all captured or killed. -
TheFearmakers24 March 2024By late 1950's Film Noir, the kind of beatnik jazz listened to by the criminals also provides the soundtrack, whether it's source music (played deliberately from a radio within the movie) or part of the overall score...
And the crooks are a lot stranger and eccentric, especially in THE BIG CAPER where Rory Calhoun works for James Gregory, whose boss-moll Mary Costa's planted with Calhoun to pose as a bland married couple in the suburbs... waiting to pounce on a bank job that's particularly lucrative for carrying money to deliver to the marine's Camp Pendleton in Southern California... but without the beachy establishing exterior since most of CAPER takes place indoors...
As the best scenes have the offbeat ensemble being introduced, from an average-looking, overweight, middle-age arsonist getting turned-on by fire, to REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE bully Corey Allen as a literally jazz-absorbed, blond-haired twenty-something with a kind of homoerotic penchant for punishment, especially from James Gregory as Flood: a name spouted over one-hundred times since, leading the heist that was Calhoun's idea, he's all anyone really talks about...
As the problem with this otherwise unique noir is two-fold: there's no heated chemistry between the boss's girl and Calhoun for their predictable hookup (and rushed guilt trip) to matter, and not enough tension leading to the titular CAPER -- that ultimately goes in one jazzy ear and out the other.