# Charley Varrick

Charley Varrick (a.k.a.The Last of the Independents and Kill Charley Varrick) is a 1973 American neo-noir crime film directed by Don Siegel and starring Walter Matthau, Andrew Robinson, Joe Don Baker and John Vernon. Charley Varrick is based on the novel The Looters by John H. Reese, and is the first of four consecutive films in which Matthau appeared that were not comedies (although his role in Earthquake is comedic).

## Plot

Charley Varrick is a crop duster and former stunt pilot with knowledge about explosives. He, his wife, and two others, Al and Harman, rob a bank in rural New Mexico. Al and Charley's wife are killed when the crime turns violent. Having gotten away to a distant trailer park, Charley and Harman discover that the heist netted more than three-quarters of a million dollars. When a news outlet reports that less than $2,000 was stolen, Charley correctly concludes that the bank was being used to launder illicit Mafia cash.
Charley tells Harman that the mob will never stop looking for the money, and that their best chance of staying safe is to live their normal lives for the next few years, doing nothing that draws attention to them. Harman tells Charley, however, that he intends to be a spendthrift with his share of the loot. Although mourning his wife's death, Charley takes steps to get away. He hides the money and arranges to get passports for him and Harman.
Meanwhile, a Reno-based gangster named Boyle hires a sadistic contract murderer, "Molly", to find the stolen cash and make an example of the robbers. Molly's search leads him to Harman. While Charley is hiding outside of the trailer, Molly torments Harman in an attempt to learn about the money, and beats him to death. Boyle secretly meets with the bank manager, Harold Young. He tells Young that his Mafia superiors will suspect that the robbery was an inside job because it occurred during the brief period when the money was on site. He suggests that Young will be tortured to learn the extent of his involvement. Terrified, Young ends his life.
Charley flies his crop-dusting biplane to Reno and contacts Boyle's secretary. She warns Charley not to trust her boss, and they spend the night together. Charley phones Boyle and offers to return the stolen money. He arranges a meeting the next morning at a remote junkyard, and tells Boyle to be there. Molly is with Boyle at the time and comes up with a plan of his own.
Charley lands his plane at the junkyard and, in an effort to fool observers, acts overjoyed and hugs a confounded Boyle. Watching from a distance, Molly assumes that Boyle and Charley have been working together.
Molly runs down Boyle with his car, killing him. Molly chases Charley's plane with his car and damages it so that it will not be able to fly. Charley deliberately flips the plane upside down, a stunt that he used to do in his barnstorming days.
Apparently trapped in the wreckage, Charley tells Molly that the money is in the trunk of a nearby car. Molly opens the trunk but sees Harman's body and the bank satchels. A moment later, the trunk explodes, killing Molly. Charley frees himself. He throws a wad of $100 bills on the flames of the burning car, gets into another car, and drives away.

## Cast

* Walter Matthau as Charley Varrick
* Andy Robinson as Harman Sullivan
* Joe Don Baker as Molly
* John Vernon as Maynard Boyle
* Sheree North as Jewell Everett
* Felicia Farr as Sybil Fort
* Norman Fell as Garfinkle
* Woodrow Parfrey as Harold Young
* William Schallert as Sheriff Horton
* Jacqueline Scott as Nadine
* Benson Fong as Honest John
* Marjorie Bennett as Mrs. Taft
* Tom Tully as Tom
* Kathleen O'Malley as Jessie
* Albert Popwell as Randolph Percy
* Bob Steele as Bank Guard (uncredited)
* Don Siegel as Murphy
* Joe Conforte as himself
* James Nolan as Clerk

## Production

Director Don Siegel wanted Varrick's company's motto, "Last of the Independents", to be the title of the film. The motto appears on the film poster and briefly as a subtitle in the film trailer.
When the hit man Molly arrives at Jewell's photo studio and introduces himself, Jewell sarcastically replies, "Yeah, I didn't figure you for Clint Eastwood". The role of Varrick was written specifically for Eastwood, who ultimately turned it down, reportedly because Eastwood decided the character had no redeeming features.
Matthau was also reported to have been unimpressed by the film, and Siegel later claimed that Matthau hurt the film's box-office performance by publicly stating that he neither liked the film nor understood what it was about. Matthau sent Siegel a note that said, "I have seen it three times, and am of slightly better than average intelligence (IQ 120) but I still don't quite understand what's going on. Is there a device we can use to explain to people what they're seeing?"
Varrick's aircraft is a converted Boeing PT-17 Stearman Kaydet (N53039) crop-duster flown by Hollywood aerial pilot Frank Tallman. The modified crop-duster belonged to a California agricultural spraying business. This same aircraft crashed in Oakdale, California, on December 31, 1976, killing the pilot, who was crop-dusting. The plane's wing caught an electric wire and crashed.

### Locations

Director Don Siegel filmed several of his movies in northern Nevada, including Charley Varrick, The Shootist and Jinxed! Charley Varrick was set in New Mexico but was filmed primarily in two small Nevada towns, Dayton and Genoa. Both towns lay a claim to being the oldest towns in the state. The opening bank robbery exterior scenes were filmed in Genoa, at the old Douglas County court house. The sheriff's chase of Varrick and his gang was filmed nearby on Genoa Lane and Nevada State Route 207.
The interior bank scenes were filmed in Minden. The trailer park scenes were filmed in Dayton by US Route 50 at the trailer park, located near the Red Hawk Casino, which closed in 2008, and the Carson River, at the corner of Hart and Louie Streets. The photographer's studio and gun store scenes were filmed in Gardnerville. The crop-duster flight scenes at the film's conclusion were filmed at the now-closed City Auto Wrecking, east of Sparks, near Lockwood Nevada, by Canyon Way Road. The Reno filming locations included a Chinese restaurant formerly located at 538 South Virginia Street and the condominium where Varrick meets Miss Fort at Arlington Towers condominiums, 100 N. Arlington Avenue.

## Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 82% from 28 reviews with the consensus: "With Walter Matthau adding hangdog soul to Don Siegel's propulsive direction, Charley Varrick is a crime thriller that really scores."
   "The 'normal' world—the terrain Seigel usually works in— is depicted by him as not at all normal…the characters are counterpoised against an environment which is as deranged as they are. The straight world is as phony, dishonest and evil as the criminal's, without the one qualification which may be an improvement on the normal: they [the criminals] are honest about their lawlessness…"—Biographer Judith M. Kass in Don Seigel: The Hollywood Professionals, Vol. 4 (1975)
Although critically very well received, the film underperformed at the box office but still turned out to be a modest hit. Reviewer Paul Tatara describes Charley Varrick as "intelligent, commercial filmmaking at its finest. They rarely make them like this anymore."
Vincent Canby, in his review for The New York Times, considered Charley Varrick as both an action film and a mystery:
   An intelligent action melodrama is probably one of the most difficult kinds of film to make. Intelligence in this case has nothing to do with being literate, poetic, or even reasonable. It has to do with movement, suspense, and sudden changes in fortune that are plausible enough to entertain without challenging you to question basic premises. If you start asking whether such-and-such could really have happened, or if so-and-so would have acted in a certain way, the action film falls apart.
John Simon at New York magazine said that Charley Varrick is one of the more accomplished specimens of the gangster genre.
While not strictly a "remake", 2 Guns (2013) has many of its film elements lifted from Charley Varrick.

## Awards

Matthau won the 1974 British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards for Best Actor in Charley Varrick. In addition, Frank Morriss was nominated for the 1974 British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards for Best Editing.

## Home media

Charley Varrick was released as a Region 1 DVD with no extras on December 28, 2004. On February 14, 2008, the film was released as a Region 2 DVD in Europe in widescreen with some special features. Both DVD versions are uncut. On March 19, 2015, the film was released as a Region-B locked Blu-ray in Germany. This edition includes a 72-minute documentary on the making of the film, titled "Last of the Independents: Don Siegel and the Making of Charley Varrick".
On November 12, 2019, the film was released in a Region-A locked Blu-ray by Kino Lorber with an exclusive new 4K remaster. This edition includes the "Last of the Independents" documentary, "Refracted Personae", a new video essay with critic Howard S Berger, an archival episode of Trailers from Hell, and a new audio commentary with critic Toby Roan.

## Cultural impact

According to Rory Gallagher's long-time bassist Gerry McAvoy, in his book Riding Shotgun: 35 Years on the Road with Rory Gallagher and 'Nine Below Zero', Gallagher's 1978 song "Last of the Independents" was inspired by Charley Varrick. The "Last of The Independents" logo appears in the film on the back of the Varrick company's jumpsuits and on his truck.