The Outfit

[Fletch F. Fletch]

This is an underrated crime film in need of a proper DVD release. Every once in awhile I catch this on TV late at night (TCM has even shown it once or twice) and end up watching it from beginning to end.

It's a no-nonsense adaptation of one or Richard Stark's Parker novels (very loose adaptation apparently) with Robert Duvall playing a professional thief who gets out of prison and finds out that his brother has been killed by the mob (or the Outfit if you will) and that he and his partner, played by Joe Don Baker (along with Charley Varrick his best role) are next. So, they hook up and take down the syndicate in methodical fashion.

Duvall is so good in this one. His performance is reminiscent of Lee Marvin's in The Killers -- completely ruthless and all business. The way he deals with various mobster flunkies on the way to take out the boss man (played very effectively by Robert Ryan) is chillingly efficient (smashing a glass into the face of one guy, shooting a poker player through the hand, etc.) and I bet Tarantino is a fan of this movie as he certainly seems to be vamping off the vibe of this movie (and others) in films like Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, etc.

The film also features some truly memorable tough guy dialogue: "You shouldn't use a girl's arm for an ashtray," is one that always sticks in my mind. The ending is a little upbeat compared to the rest of the grim tone of the movie and apparently the TV version ends on a much more downbeat note. Definitely worth checking out if you're into neo-noir/'70s crime films.

[jesus the mexican boi]

And for those of you Parker fans keeping score, there's a brand new Parker book from Richard Stark just out: ASK THE PARROT. After the last Parker adventure, in which Parker appeared cornered without recourse, I'm damned curious to see how he got out of that one.

[domino harvey]

LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY CONTENTS

• Brand new restoration from the original 35mm camera negative by Arrow Films
• High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation with original and alternate ending options available via seamless branching
• Original lossless mono audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Brand new audio commentary by critic & author Jedidiah Ayres and film critic Mike White of The Projection Booth Podcast
• The Man With the Getaway Face, a brand new appreciation of author Donald E. Westlake (aka Richard Stark) by Westlake expert Levi Stahl
• Paths Not Taken, a brand new appreciation of the film by critic Walter Chaw
• Tapping into the Outsider, a brand new featurette on The Outfit and the Parker novels by Alissa Marmol-Cernat and Shay Dennis, creators of Tough Business: A Parker Site
• Archival interview with filmmaker Walter Hill on director John Flynn
• Theatrical trailer
• Image galleries
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella
• Collectors’ booklet with new writing by critics Chris D, Glenn Kenny, and Priscilla Page”

[domino harvey]

Saw this a couple years ago, it’s alright. I guess it’s more visible lately because QT wrote about it in his book. My biggest takeaway is that Robert Ryan looks a hundred years old in it. Keep the WA DVD-R upgrades coming!

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

I saw this one back in like 2012 and have seen it a few times since. It's no masterpiece, but really do enjoy it quite a bit. Plus three great actors from Kubrick's The Killing: Elisha Cook Jr., Marie Windsor, and Timothy Carey. John Flynn is a fascinating director and like domino, can only assume this is getting released because of Tarantino's love of this film.

[Mr Sausage]

The source novel is actually a direct sequel to the one adapted into Point Blank and Payback. The titular Outfit are still upset over Parker killing their men and taking back his money, so they find him in hiding and send an assassin. His response is to give all his pals and contacts in the criminal world the greenlight to hit Outfit operations, since apparently every good criminal has at least one Outfit operation pre-cased as a kind of dream score they normally wouldn’t dare touch. Parker then takes advantage of the chaos. It’s a fun crime novel, better than its predecessor, The Hunter. I haven’t seen the movie, but it’s too bad people are mostly ho hum about it. I like Robert Duvall a lot, but he never struck me as a mean, hard-edged bastard like Parker. And while I get the logic of keeping the plot focussed on Duvall, it’s too bad it loses the book’s second-act collection of various clever heists pulled off by the different crews. That part was a lot of fun.

[beamish14]

John Flynn was definitely an interesting filmmaker whose career trajectory wasn’t too dissimilar to J. Lee Thompson’s and Richard Fleischer’s, as he gradually transitioned from prestige films to somewhat highbrow studio genre films and then finally schlock.

[therewillbeblus]

I just happened to have this out from the lib already, so the announcement motivated me to watch it today. It's fine, I guess.. very economical but in service of a void for any meaning. I didn't care about any of the characters or action or motivations, because they weren't properly established or built upon. The movie just.. moves, but without the alluring style or investment of Point Blank. Perhaps if the technique was interesting beyond its economy, there'd be something there to latch onto, but not even the big-name actors bring flavorful screen presence to inspire deeper engagement. I don't get the hype. It's a banal crime movie.

[diamonds]

I quite like the film, and recall Flynn's mise-en-scène striking me as an unusually successful and natural extension of the classic film noir look onto '70s color stock. Lots of wide lenses, slightly off-kilter angels (nothing as extravagant as, say, The Third Man, but just enough) that really work to emphasize tight spaces: tiny offices, cramped kitchens, dimly-lit staircases. In many scenes it looks like minimal additional lighting was used, if any, and Flynn is unafraid to let his characters slip in and out of visibility. I don't remember much in the way of plot specifics, but the film lives in my memory as a terse progression of dingy rooms and claustrophobic, difficult-to-maneuver-in spaces, interspersed with a handful of more breathable rural interludes. While it isn't as innovative as Point Blank (what is?), it's never pastiche or formalist, and it serves the genre well enough to make it (for me) an exemplary "neo"-noir.

As the above suggests, it's a great showcase for cinematographer Bruce Surtees, working outside his more polished Siegel/Eastwood collaborations on what looks (at least on the copy I saw) like a smaller budget—more raw and fast. This may reveal something about my taste or lack thereof, but I've never quite understood why Surtees does not enjoy a reputation comparable to Gordon Willis among cinematographers of that era. For this viewer, he is equally worthy of the "Prince of Darkness" moniker.

Can't speak for anyone who doesn't find Joe Don Baker a great screen presence, and the combination of him and Duvall works very well for me. The aforementioned gray Robert Ryan and a surprise Marie Windsor(!!) as a barkeep are just icing on the cake.

(Also, there's an old thread on the film with two posts, in case it qualifies for a merge here. Interesting to see Fletch F. Fletch intuited the Tarantino connection all the way back in 2006!)

[yoloswegmaster]

• Brand new restoration from the original 35mm camera negative by Arrow Films

I wonder if the state of the negative is that bad where they couldn't release it on 4K or if there was simply not enough time to prep a 4K release?

[Finch]

I watched the film two months ago on Tubi because I love Rolling Thunder but little of The Outfit stuck with me outside of Joe Don Baker and the cameo from Marie Windsor. And I think the music was by Jerry Fielding? For something that usually ticks a lot of boxes for me, I was disappointed by how the film as a whole didn't leave more of an impression on me.

[DRW.mov]

This movie is fun if not exactly the unsung masterpiece many are hoping (and QT is claiming) but I'll definitely double dip for the new restoration and extras. Hoping Arrow can do similar work the MUCH BETTER underseen Westlake/Stark adaptation, THE SPLIT from 1968 starring Jim Brown and Diahann Carroll with Warren Oates, Borgnine, Donald Sutherland, and a young Gene Hackman. The Split is a perfect lean, mean Parker adaptation with a stellar cast and Jim Brown makes for an ideal Parker. It's also owned by WB so finger's crossed.