Review of The Great Bank Hoax

"The Great Bank Hoax" is an engaging comedy meant to be a Watergate-inspired "fable". It even has one of its characters utter the phrase "I'm not a crook!" more than once! The big wigs at a small town bank discover an embezzlement, which is poorly timed to say the least, as there are auditors on the way to the bank. So these gentlemen cover their tracks with a staged robbery, which only leads to other complications, especially as the embezzler, who never intended to keep the money anyway, still suffers from a guilty conscience. In fact, as has been pointed out, he's actually the most conscientious person in the story! The story does make the salient point that any person, even one of reasonable moral fibre, can yield to temptation or corruption - even the local reverend (Michael Murphy) lets his greed get the better of him! Writer / director Joseph Jacoby's movie is quite likable, and has some endearingly silly moments; it's really rather light hearted, never ever getting too serious. It starts off well, capturing the feel of small town America and getting down to business pretty quickly. The main draw of the movie is seeing a top notch cast, including old pros Richard Basehart and Burgess Meredith, at work. They, along with Ned Beatty as the controller, have a fine chemistry, with Meredith coming off the best, in a typically fun performance. Paul Sand is appealing as the guilt ridden chief clerk / embezzler, and TV and radio host Arthur Godfrey is good in a rather small role; the female co-stars, Charlene Dallas and Constance Forslund, are incredibly sexy, especially Ms. Dallas, and as we can see, their characters are absolutely no innocents, either. The pacing is relaxed, but things do still nicely lead up to a delicious resolution, and it's all enhanced by Arthur B. Rubinstein's funny comedy score. An enjoyable diversion. Seven out of 10.