April 22, 2026

Walter Matthau’s Dark Turn — Charley Varrick (1973) | The Last of the Independents

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Show Notes
Transcript

In this episode of the Cinematic Flashback Podcast, Chuck and Matt wrap up their Crime Wave month with a deep dive into Charley Varrick (1973), directed by Don Siegel and starring Walter Matthau.

What starts as a routine small-town bank robbery quickly spirals out of control when Varrick and his crew stumble onto something far bigger than expected—mob money. From there, the film transforms into a tense cat-and-mouse game between a meticulous independent criminal and a relentless mob enforcer. The hosts break down:

Matthau’s against-type performance and why it works
Siegel’s efficient, no-nonsense directing style
The film’s place in 1970s neo-noir alongside Chinatown and other New Hollywood crime films
The concept of “the last of the independents” and what it says about crime in the 70s
Joe Don Baker’s chilling, calculated performance as Molly
How the film subtly builds a layered criminal underworld without over-explaining
Why the script plays like a “Swiss watch” that only fully clicks in the final moments

They also compare the film to The French Connection, explore its surprising connections to later filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino, and debate whether this underseen gem actually outshines The Getaway.

As always, it all comes down to the final question:

Does Charley Varrick groove through the decades… or lose its beat?

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WEBVTT

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When are they kidding us? Don't they think we can count?

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Doesn't make any sense unless unless what unless it's a drop?

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What's a drop?

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You know what dirty money is. That's the kind of

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money you can't declare on your income tax. But when

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certain people get that kind of money, what they do

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is send it out of the country to invest, and

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when it comes back it's clean. So maybe that little

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bank was a drop, a collection point. Maybe all this

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was on its way out of the country.

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Fan fantastic, we lucked.

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Out or like crapped out. It's ten to one. This

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stuff belongs to the mafia. This is gambling money, skimmed

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off the top, horror money, dope money.

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What's the difference.

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The difference is that.

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The mafia kills you, no trial, no judge, and never

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stop looking for you, not till you're dead.

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Welcome to the Cinematic Flashback Podcast. Get ready to hop

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into the wayback machine as we journey through the wild, bold,

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and unforgettable films of the nineteen seventies. Each episode, we

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break down a classic movie or a forgotten jim seeing

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how performed then and now, and wrapping things up by

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asking did it groof the decades or did it lose

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its feat? I'm your host, Chuck Bryan, and today we

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are reviewing Don Siegel's nineteen seventy three film Charlie Verrick,

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starring Walter Matthow, Jodahn Baker, John Vernon, and Andy Robinson.

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This is our second film and our crime Wave month,

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and this time we're heading to the sleepy town of

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Trace Crusades to make a little bank. Woudraw driving carefully

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behind the wheel is my accomplist, Matt Sergeant. Now, Matt,

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as we drive away from the bank, just drive naturally.

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Okay, that's funny because that clearly isn't what happened in

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the film. But I'll be honest with you, I'm surprised

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as anyone that Walter Matho could play a criminal. It

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just seemed to be against type. But I think it works.

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You know, we are in the Walter set of films

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where he was playing more action roles. So he started

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with Charlie Verrick, then he went into Pellam one, two three,

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and then he finished it up with the Laughing Policemen.

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These are just films that he put out where it

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was not the standard Walter Mathow film. I think next

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year we've got to get his last action film on

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our list, because so far I'm all about Walter Mathow.

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Okay. In our first season of The Cinematic Flashback, we

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reviewed a lot of films by many great directors, and

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in our last episode, I made a mount rushmore of

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new Hollywood film directors. I included William Friedkin, hal ashby

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Robert Aupman, and I put Sam Peckham pop there. But

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now I have to ask, does Don Siegel deserve to

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be up there? Well?

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I got to say that was a fun thought experiment

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on the last episode, and I think it's a good

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way to sort of bring in the three top that

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we like. But I got to say, after watching this film,

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I really I really like the action, I like the direction.

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I think we might just need to chisel out a

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little space on that rock.

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You're absolutely right, Or perhaps Siegel is just going to

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need his own monument Matt, who do we have talking

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to us today?

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Today we have a review from listener Jason called twenty four.

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Jason gave us five stars, thank you very much, and wrote, quote,

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there are tons of podcasts covering movies of the eighties

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and nineties, which is why I so love Chuck and

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Matt going deep on films of the seventies. The hosts

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are enjoyable to listen to, with great insight background in trivia.

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This is definitely a must listen. Five stars. Wow, that

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was nice to hear, but you know what, we be

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better to hear your own review. If you like what

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you hear, or you have thoughts on how we present

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or what we present, or some even some comments or

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some insight that we don't know, please leave a comment

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and we might just read it on the air.

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Jason, thank you for the review. Now. Jason has been

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a supporter of the Cinematic Flashback and has his own

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little podcast called the Surely you Can't Be Serious Podcasts

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and both Jason indeed joined us last summer on our

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Jaws episode, and tonight I am sporting a Surely you

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Cannot Be Serious podcast t shirt, So I'm going to

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give you guys a little shout out. Go to their

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merch shop. They got some good stuff over there.

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Yeah, and you guys in the podcast possibly can't see

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the T shirt, but I can see it, and it

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is really nice. It's got great bright colors. And I

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had no idea that Cinematic flashkit back was having a

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merch purchase, I would have put my order in as well. Hey, Chuck,

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when when we look at our page stats, it's cool

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to see where in the world people are listening to

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our podcast. Oh yeah, yeah, it's cool. Today we want

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to give a shout out to our listeners in New Zealand,

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particularly in the Wellington region, Hawkes Bay and Auckland. We

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would love to hear from you guys, whoever you are

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out there, maybe a review or a comment. Tell us

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about your home and how you found out about our

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little cast.

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Wow, that is just it's hard to believe that people

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all over the world are actually listening to the two

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of us wax poetic about seventies cinema.

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Yeah, it makes me want to raise my game a

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little bit.

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We might need to. Hey, today we are reviewing Charlie

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Verrick and I'm hoping we're introducing a new film to

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a lot of listeners today because the first time I

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ever heard about Charlie Verrick was from the Facebook group

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Cinema of the Seventies. Matt. If you have ever asked

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yourself where does Chuck actually come up with these movies

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to watch? It comes from this group, or it comes

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from another group called can You Still dig It? Seventies Movies?

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And I get so many ideas from them, and I

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highly recommend both groups. And best of all, they have

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excellent moderation. Groups without good moderation become obnoxious. These are

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really well done. I think this was your first time

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watching Arlie Verrick? Am I right?

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It was? For sure? Not sure I had how I

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missed this back in the day, but I'm glad I

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got to watch it recently.

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Charlie Verrick is one of those films that a lot

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of seventies film buffs. Remember, if you had to put

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it into a category, you could call it something like,

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you know, American neo noir, kind of like Chinatown, which

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sits in that same lane. And since this is a

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genre I happen to enjoy, We've got two more coming

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up later in the season. Arthur Penn's Night Moves from

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nineteen seventy five starring Gene Hackman, and we're going to

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pair that with Robert Altmans The Long Goodbye from nineteen

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seventy three with Elliott Gould. I'm hoping both of these

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will be at least somewhat new to you.

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They're one hundred percent new to me. I haven't seen

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either one of those films, but I really look forward

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to seeing them.

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Let's take a dive into Charlie Verrick's origin story. Okay,

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check it out. Like a lot of films, it started

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out as a book, passed through the hands of two

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different producers, and eventually made its way to this and

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the history between those two producers, that's the kind of

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Hollywood drama you really couldn't invent. Those producers were Walter

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Wanger and Jennings Lane.

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Now.

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Wanger previously worked with Don Siegel on a film called

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Riot in Cell Block eleven and again two years later

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on a film called Invasion of the Body Snatchers. So

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Siegel was Walter's choice when he purchased the rights to

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John Reese's book The Looters, which would eventually become Charlie Verrick,

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but Siegel wasn't available. From nineteen sixty seven to nineteen

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seventy four, Siegel released nine films Strangers on the Run,

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Coogan's Bluff, Madigan, Death of a Fighter, Two Mules for

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Sister Sarah, The Beguiled, Dirty Harry, Charlie Verrick, and The

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Black Windmill. The only year a Don Siegel film was

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not released during that run was nineteen seventy two.

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That's an amazing run. Is that that's like seven years

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nine film Holmes. That's crazy. And if listeners have seen

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Death of a Gunfighter they might remember that it was

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credited to Alan Smithy. Did you know that Alan Smithy

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is a pseudonym that was used by directors who wished

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to disown a project. It was first created by the

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Director's Guild of America in nineteen sixty eight for Don

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Siegel and Death of a Gunfighter.

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Now, I did not know that. There's actually a page

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on Wikipedia with all of the films that have been

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accredited to Alan Smithy, and there was one entry that

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surprised me, and that was Meet Joe Black, Because Meet

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Joe Black was a big film. It was really good

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and it was directed by Martin Brest who made Beverly

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Hills Cop, Midnight Run and Sent of a Woman. Had

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the airline version of the film credited to Alan Smithy

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because it cut out an entire subplot of the film

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and he said, Nope, that is not my film.

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Meet Joe Black puld a special place for me as

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well because it stars Marsha gay Harden and Marcia gay

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Harden is the sister of my sister in law. What, yeah, no, way,

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I have held her oscar? What she let me hold

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her oscar? Well, that's amazing.

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I'm learning all sorts of new things about Matt Sargent.

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Yes, and my very large extended family.

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Well listen, if in your extended family she ever wants

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to make a little promo about us, will we will

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send her some of our merchandise T shirt sponsored by

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the Shirley You Can't Be Serious podcast. Well, she's very busy, surprisingly,

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I would imagine.

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So yeah.

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But getting back to Charlie. Verrick Wanger passed away in

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November of nineteen sixty eight, and the film rights to

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The Looters ended up Universal with producer Jennings Lane. Now

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Lane produced many of the non Irwin Allen disaster films,

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including Earthquake.

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That was filmed in sends around. I was thinking that

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that was originally naughty films.

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Oh my yes, but that application would have been interesting

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in case our listeners have never heard of since around

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it was an augmentation to the conventional soundtrack, and in

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the case of Earthquake, it was activated during the earthquake scenes.

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It was so effective that the resulting rumble could be

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felt as well as heard by the audience. Unfortunately, it

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could also be heard in other auditoriums, and Man's Chinese

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Theater even installed netting to catch any plaster that might

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come loose and fall on their patrons. Jennings Lane started

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off as an actor's agent, and this is back in

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the fifties, and one of his clients was Joan Bennett,

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who at the time happened to be married to Wanger.

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Wanger was so sure that Lane and his wife were

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having an affair, and in a fit of jealousy, Wanger

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shot Lane in the groin. Yes, Wanger shot Lane in

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the wang, but in all seriousness he missed any reproductive parts,

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as Lane's sun is able to testify too.

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Like you said, a tale that could only be told

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in Hollywood.

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Without a doubt. Are we ready to dive into Charlie Verrick?

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I think we should.

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Okay, let's do it, but we need to step away

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for a quick break. We'll be right back. It's antimatic

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flash back you've seen Charlie Verreck.

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I'm interesting know, mister Derek, last of the Independence.

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If you want to die for somebody else's money.

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Half a million could be Harold young Trace.

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Cruis's bank manager is estimated that the band has escaped

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with less than two thousand dollars. Let's tend to one.

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This step belongs to the mafia. This is gambling money

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skimmed off the top. The mafia kills you, no trial,

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no judge, and never stop looking for you, not till

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you're dead. I'd rather have ten fbis after me, one

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man against the mafia.

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Dang this a little bank a million miles from nowhere

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gets hit by four professionals that they're gonna take that strange.

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Why couldn't it be just a coincident?

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Because they don't believe in coincidence.

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Prop dusters don't wave. Got to put that thing away fast.

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But we're going to get out. I only ever get

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out of New Mexico.

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I feel that in my gut. I want to.

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Fence off some money, hot burning up.

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What do you want?

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I'm sorry to mean to scary you. This doesn't mean

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I won't throw you right out that window if I

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have to sooner. Lady, you're gonna tell me everything you know,

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so why not stay?

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Several great deal of pains?

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Charles Verrik. When Charlie Verreck runs out of dumb luck,

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he always has genius to fall back on.

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Welcome Back. We are in our non spoiler section, so

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let's dive into the production details. Charlie Verick was released

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on October nineteenth, nineteen seventy three, with a runtime of

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one hundred and eleven minutes. It was produced and distributed

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by Universal Pictures. Charlie Verick is not currently streaming on TV,

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but it can be easily rented. It has an eighty

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two percent on Rotten Tomatoes and I found this interesting

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an eighty three percent audience rating, and that audience rating

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is comprised of over twenty five hundred reviews. Don Siegel directed.

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The script was written by Siegeal veterans Dean Reisner and

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Howard Rodman, who also worked on Dirty Harry. Michael C.

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Butler was Seagal's godson and also the cinematographer on this film.

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Butler is best known for his work on The Cannonball Run,

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Jaws two, and Telefon. Music was composed by Leilo Schiffrin,

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another Seagull regular. And the curious thing about this score

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is that it was never released. I reached out to

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friend of the show and soundtrack genius Wayne White had

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If anyone knows anything about this, he will and Wayne

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came through. Besides just having some cues on a compilation,

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Wayne believes that the tapes were actually lost for that score,

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which is a real pity because it's a good soundtrack.

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The film also goes by the title Killed Charlie Verrick

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in foreign distributions.

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I have to say that I think I like the

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title kill Charlie Verreck better than just Charlie Verick.

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Yeah, it played in other markets that way as well.

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I think that would have been a better name, and

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I'll bet it would have gotten a more people would

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have seen it. I think that's my personal opinion.

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This movie was highly influential on Quentin Tarantino. I have

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no doubt there's some lines in this movie that are

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emulated in other Tarantino films. Oh, for sure, we have

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the movie Kill Bill Killed Charlie Verick. Hey maybe maybe not. Yeah.

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We have a really good cast and one of them

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is one of my all time favorites. Let's talk about him.

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Walter Mathow is in the role as Charlie Verick. Verick

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is a crop duster and a former stunt pilot. He

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along with his wife Nadine, becomes skilled small time bank robbers.

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They pull off heists at small banks, the heist of

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the Western Fidelity. It goes terribly wrong. We last talked

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about Walter Mathow in Pelham one, two three, Last Summer.

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That film, along with Charlie Verick and The Laughing Policeman,

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are his three action films of the seventies. Incidentally, his

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son Charlie Mathow can be seen in Face Cruis's twice,

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once in the opening credits, trying to saddle a donkey,

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and then the kid with the black hair who tells

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the shit the lightcense plate number of the Yellow Continental

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but gets it wrong.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Incidentally, Don Siegel's two daughters appeared in the opening credits

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as well, establishing the normalness of Trace Crusis. His youngest

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daughter is the little girl who's playing with the sprinkler.

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Her older sister is shown cutting the grass. Two of

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his sons also make an appearance in the credits, but

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they are mixed in with other actors.

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Yeah. I thought that the opening of the film. I

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think what was happening is that they had got the

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cameras out there and they loaded it up with film

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and they were just taking test shots, making sure the

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cameras everything worked. And so they said, hey, we can

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go ahead and film the opening sequence for the titles.

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They were already a day ahead of schedule.

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Yeah.

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No, and I like it when they do that kind

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of thing, and it did establish that this was a tiny,

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sleepy town. Do you want to talk about Joe Don Baker.

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Yeah, Jodn Baker plays Mollie, and Molly is the muscle

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and he works for what we're going to get into that. Yeah,

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let's just say that he is an independent contract who

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was hunting down the people who just roped the Trace

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Cruses bank. Yeah. Just the previous year he co starred

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in Sam Peckhampau's Junior Bonner, starring Steve McQueen. But in

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nineteen seventy three he had a film that was only

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meant to be played at drive ins. But as we

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say today, that movie went viral and it got a

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wide release. The film is, of course Walking Tall. It

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was very good timing to have Jodn Baker in your film.

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And I will say that I think he did a

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great job. He didn't play it over the top. He

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just played a highly competent contractor doing his work.

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He's very cordial, he was very friendly until he's not.

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Yeah yeah, but he's also exceptionally efficient, and he wasn't

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just I kind of think of in the No Country

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for Old Men, heavy paid, oh yeah, paid by havy

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ar Bardem, where he basically just kills everybody. I mean,

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he's super efficient, he's a terrible he's like a force

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of nature. But he he flips a coin and everybody dies.

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Joe Don Baker's Molly, it's like surgical. He goes in,

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he gets the info, he does what he needs to do.

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I think that was more chilling than having this sort

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of unhinged lunatic Oh yeah, no, it was over the top.

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I love No Country froll men, don't get me wrong,

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but that was just a little.

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Much for me. Also done by the Cohen Brothers.

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I believe, yes, yes, exactly. I want to do John

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Vernon because he hear me laugh, because he hadn't changed

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very much. John Vernon plays Maynard Boyle. He's the president

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of the Western Fidelity Bank, and obviously we learn in

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the movie he's kind of involved with a bank that

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gets robbed. In Trace Crusis. But the funny thing about

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John Vernon is he plays the mayor in Dirty Harry.

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But of course he's probably much more known as Dean

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Warmer from Animal House. And whenever I see his face,

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I just laugh about Double Secret probation. And I mean

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that role for him was iconic.

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And if you didn't know anything about John Vernon, go

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and take a look at his IMDb page, because a

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lot and star in Canada, right, he made his profession

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in Canada before working in American television and movies. He

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was good, He was good. We have another alumni of

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Dirty Harry, another friendly face Andy Robinson, is Harmon Sullivan.

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Sullivan was the only other survivor of the Trace Cruses

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bank robbery, and he's an accomplice of Charlie Verrick. The

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last time we saw him was he played Scorpio and

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Don Siegel's Dirty Harry film.

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I feel like when these guys get on set, they're like.

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Hey, how you doing it in six months? Let me

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ask you this question. Originally they approached Clint Eastwood to

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play the role of Charlie Verrick and he turned it down.

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Was that a fortunate turn down? That's a funny thought.

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It would have been a completely different movie. I think

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Walter math asked, goofy, you're right. Look kind of sets

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that I mean really works in this movie. Because of

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what this movie is, we don't want to give it

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one any spoilers, but I think Clint Ease would have

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would have would have tipped you off too early, too soon, right,

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he's too hard. The reason that Clint Eastwood did not

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want to take it was because he did not like

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the overall character of Charlie Arrick.

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You will talk about that. We can see that. I mean,

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but well, he's a rising star. But yeah, he's a

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rising star. But he also played Derry Harry basically used everybody,

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so I don't know about that.

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Alicia Farr played Sybil Fort. Now simple Fort was the

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executive assistant to Maynard Boyle, and the only reason why

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I really am highlighting her was because she just happened

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to be married to Walter Matthow's good buddy, Jack Lemon.

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And so it's kind of funny to me that there's

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a scene where Walter Mathow's character is in a very

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round bed with Felicia Farr's character.

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I believe the quote is boxing the compass. I think

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that's what it was. It's funny that you bring up

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Jack Lemon and Walter Mathow because one of my dad's

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favorite movies of all time was Grumpy Old Men. Oh yeah, great,

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just so much fun. But she was great in that

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she was funny, but she was also she's his executive assistant.

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But there's a picture, a signed picture, a signed picture

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John Vernon of Maynard Boyle on her bedside. So I mean, honestly,

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if you're having an affair with some of you give

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them a signed picture of you.

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It was like an autograph picture.

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Major.

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Well, that was really weird. That was weird.

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It was funny.

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I want to talk about Scharie North, and she plays

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Juel Evert, who was Albuquerque's go to forger. There's a

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