Review of The Great Bank Hoax

The plot of "The Great Bank Hoax" should be the stuff of a good movie, yet it doesn't work very well here. A first-rate cast was assembled for this film, but it doesn't seem to have life. Some of the performances are sub-par for the talent – especially Burgess Meredith and Richard Basehart. Ned Beatty was fine in his role, but Paul Sand just seemed like a wet noodle throughout. The movie is supposed to be a comedy but there's so little in it to tickle one's funny bone. One suspects that this film was intended to be a satire. But satire requires a very good and tight script that includes clever dialog and some funny lines. Without that, this film flops as satire.

The screenplay just isn't very good – it has holes, but mostly it doesn't seem to have much life. With the clever idea for this story there should have been some witty lines in places. And, it suffers from weak direction. Some scenes just seem to drag on. If Meredith and Basehart weren't up to it physically, this is something that Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau would have done very well. Or, perhaps James Garner and someone. Arthur Godfrey has two of the best lines – about the only ones that may get a smile.

I can't recommend this film even for Meredith fans. I think they would be disappointed in the whole production. Meredith has a very good role that should have had some of the Meredith snap in it.