THE HOT ROCK is a diamond, sought in repeated attempts by four bungling crooks. No-one likes to be robbed, but everybody enjoys watching jobs pulled off in the movies, especially if they like the perpetrators. This light-hearted 1972 heist item offered some comic caper relief from the year’s plethora of serious crime flicks, yet while critics were bemused, they were also puzzled that the film didn’t go over big with audiences. Two popular stars (Robert Redford and George Segal), a capable, then-hip director in Peter Yates (Robbery, Bullitt) and a script by William Goldman (Harper, Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid), from the novel by Donald E. Westlake. Cogerson lists a gross of $10,600,000, not hot for a price tag of $4,985,000. *

Paroled professional thief ‘John Dortmunder’ (Redford) joins his nebbish brother-in-law, locksmith ‘Andy Kelp’ (Segal), wild getaway driver ‘Stan Murch’ (Ron Leibman) and laid back explosives man ‘Allan Greenberg’ (Paul Sand) to scoop a gem from the Brooklyn Museum. The stone will go back to the African nation (made up, per movie logic) from which it was taken, the boys will get a payoff for their work. But they blow it, not once, but several times. Is this going to have a happy ending, or another ironic ‘there-goes-the-loot’ finish?

Since it’s established early on that it’s lightweight and the perps are amiable, tragedy is ruled out, so suspense is relayed through how the various attempts are carried out (and screwed up). It was/is passably amusing as a time-filler, and today one segment has an unintended ring of sadness: a helicopter run over Manhattan shows the World Trade Center under construction. Ironically, this review is being written on September 11, 2023, 22 years after the demolition that simultaneously blasted societies forward and backward. A better memory for this observer is recalling seeing this (on a double-bill with another crime lark, Fuzz), fifty years ago—-yeesh.

Rewatched five decades later, it’s pretty slight stuff. As the straight man of the group, Redford deftly underplays, and deadpan Sand is fine. Segal’s trying too hard (and there’s zip for buddy-vibe with Redford) and Leibman favors obnoxious shouting; he’s in the wrong movie. Not all that hot to start with, lukewarm today.

Oscar nominated for Film Editing. With Zero Mostel (in check for a change), Moses Gunn (doing a Roscoe Lee Browne ‘cultured threat’ impression), William Redfield, Topo Swope (Dorothy McGuire’s daughter; pretty, with none of her mom’s acting talent), Graham Jarvis, Harry Bellaver and Christopher Guest (his first billed part). Quincy Jones did the jazzy score. 105 minutes.

* Westlake would use the Dortmunder character in 13 more novels and 11 short stories.

Peter Yates: “all around me I was finding that people were making nothing but films about violence, sex and drugs … Everything was a downer. I wanted to do an upper … The point of this film is not that the characters are criminals, but that they are likable, and that they, like many people, plan things all their lives and never have it work out.”

Though this underperformed, Redford drew a big hit that same year with Jeremiah Johnson.