(There are Spoilers) Fast pace and hard hitting robbery caper involving the newly opened Royal Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
With the West Coast mob boss Charlie Adamo, Peter Falk, determined to get a piece of the action at the hotel that the manager Abe Silverman Steffen Zacharias, cut him out of he has, by paying off the right people, convicted armed robber Hank McCain, John Cassavetes, sprung from San Quentin. All this after McCain served just twelve years of his 25 to life sentence. Unknown to McCain Adamo has his foolish and bumbling 20 year old son Jack,Pierlugi Apa, masterminding the robbery of the Royal with his two equally incompetent partners Barcly & Cudo, Cludio Biava & James Morrison.
It just happens that the Royal is secretly owned by the New York crime syndicate whom Boss Adamo is working for! By the time Adamo finds that out he, in order to save his hide, calls off the robbery. McCain feeling that he's out of the loop, in the planing of the robbery, and unknown to New York Mafia boss Don Savaltore and his #1 man Don DeMarco, Salvo Randone & Gabriele Ferzetti, decides to pull it off anyway together with his new found love and gun moll Irene Tucker, Britt Ekland. It's Irene whom the sex-staved-after 12 years without a women's company- McCain picked up, and later married, at a San Francisco nightclub.
The action is hot and heavy with McCain going on his own, after Jack together with his two henchmen were rubbed out, to rob the Royal Hotel of it's weekly take of some two million dollars. The robbery goes according to plan with McCain taking off with the cash together with Irene. The mob finds out who McCain is by beating it out of Adamo's right-hand man Duke Mazzanga, Luigi Pistilli. This has both McCain and Irene, with their photo's made available to the public, on the run for their lives before the mob can get a hold of them.
In the end McCain gets a bit nostalgic by tracking down his wife Rosemary Scott, Gena Rowland, who was convicted together with him for armed robbery some 12 years ago. This sets off fireworks between Rosemary and Irene, who's younger and more attractive, over their man handsome but a bit unstable Hank McCain. This also leads, by Irene later getting captured by the mob, to the mob to not only find Rosemary but McCain himself.
***SPOILERS***Great acting by John Cassavetes Peter Falk & Co. makes the film a lot better then it really is. The ending has just the right touch in showing what happens when one tries to stiff the mob and thinks he, or she, is going to get away with it. McCain who should have know better learned that fact the hard way and in the end he ended up paying for it with his life!
With the West Coast mob boss Charlie Adamo, Peter Falk, determined to get a piece of the action at the hotel that the manager Abe Silverman Steffen Zacharias, cut him out of he has, by paying off the right people, convicted armed robber Hank McCain, John Cassavetes, sprung from San Quentin. All this after McCain served just twelve years of his 25 to life sentence. Unknown to McCain Adamo has his foolish and bumbling 20 year old son Jack,Pierlugi Apa, masterminding the robbery of the Royal with his two equally incompetent partners Barcly & Cudo, Cludio Biava & James Morrison.
It just happens that the Royal is secretly owned by the New York crime syndicate whom Boss Adamo is working for! By the time Adamo finds that out he, in order to save his hide, calls off the robbery. McCain feeling that he's out of the loop, in the planing of the robbery, and unknown to New York Mafia boss Don Savaltore and his #1 man Don DeMarco, Salvo Randone & Gabriele Ferzetti, decides to pull it off anyway together with his new found love and gun moll Irene Tucker, Britt Ekland. It's Irene whom the sex-staved-after 12 years without a women's company- McCain picked up, and later married, at a San Francisco nightclub.
The action is hot and heavy with McCain going on his own, after Jack together with his two henchmen were rubbed out, to rob the Royal Hotel of it's weekly take of some two million dollars. The robbery goes according to plan with McCain taking off with the cash together with Irene. The mob finds out who McCain is by beating it out of Adamo's right-hand man Duke Mazzanga, Luigi Pistilli. This has both McCain and Irene, with their photo's made available to the public, on the run for their lives before the mob can get a hold of them.
In the end McCain gets a bit nostalgic by tracking down his wife Rosemary Scott, Gena Rowland, who was convicted together with him for armed robbery some 12 years ago. This sets off fireworks between Rosemary and Irene, who's younger and more attractive, over their man handsome but a bit unstable Hank McCain. This also leads, by Irene later getting captured by the mob, to the mob to not only find Rosemary but McCain himself.
***SPOILERS***Great acting by John Cassavetes Peter Falk & Co. makes the film a lot better then it really is. The ending has just the right touch in showing what happens when one tries to stiff the mob and thinks he, or she, is going to get away with it. McCain who should have know better learned that fact the hard way and in the end he ended up paying for it with his life!