INSIDE OUT

UK, 1976, 97 minutes, Colour.
Telly Savalas, Robert Culp, James Mason, Aldo Ray, Gunter Meisner.
Directed by Peter Duffell.

Inside Out is a 1970s robbery film – with the touch of the tongue-in-cheek. Three veterans from World War Two, thirty years later, band together to find gold bars hidden by the Nazis in East Germany – worth six million dollars. One of them is a German, played in usual style by James Mason. The other two are from American television, American veterans played by Telly Savalas and Robert Culp (Telly Savalas as Kojak at this time and Robert Culp in I Spy).

The film is straightforward in its presentation of the planning and the execution of the robbery. Direction is by British Peter Duffell who made a very good version of a Graham Greene novel, England Made Me. However, his main career was in television from the early 1960s to the mid-90s.

1. The meaning of the title? The quality of the film as a thriller, caper story, war background story? The international style, stars, appeal?

2. The importance of the European locations: English settings, Amsterdam. West Germany, East Germany? Colour, melodramatic situations?

3. How credible was the situation, how credible were the characters as criminals, as involved in such a far-fetched plot? Did this matter for the enjoyment of the thriller?

4. How interesting was the caper itself: the elaborate and detailed plan, the plot for getting the money, the difficulties, the confrontation of the difficulties of the prison? Interrogating Holtz, eventually getting the money, the time factor? The size of the amount of gold? The size of the greed?

5. Furben as the central control of the operation: a James Mason style villain? His role in the plan, his character and his greed over the decades. his hold over the men that he had recruited, his manipulation of them, the importance of his continued presence during the caper? A well delineated character. appropriate for this kind of story?

6. Telly Savalas and his style in the characterisation of Morgan? Criminal background, leadership role,. further recruiting for the caper? His calm attitude, participation in the plan, the plot, the action? The comparison with Sly? Amsterdam background, criminal? The type? his involvement in the plan, readiness to participate, the brains? His recruitment of Erika?

7. Pryor and his American style, gruff attitudes? Involvement in the plot? His supplying of the details of the Prison? The importance and suspense of the sequences when they tested out detection in the prison?

8. The minor helpers in the plot: Schmidt and Wells? Importance of the impersonation of Hitler, Erika and the romantic involvement, her role as a nurse, the man who supplied the costumes? The heavy involvement and the necessity of all going to plan within the appropriate time? How well delineated as characters were these minor roles?

9. The irony and cruelty of blackmailing the doctor and keeping him in the prison? The use of homosexuality for blackmail?

10. The prison sequences, the indication that there could be slip-ups, the calm in acting, the tension?

11. The elaborate getting out of Holtz? The man remaining in the prison for the twenty-four hours?

12. The importance of the Hitler charade? Melodramatic, entertaining? How could they have such a hold over Holtz? living in the past, drugs to make him respond? The success of the charade?

13. How did the plot add to the suspense with the time element to get Holtz back? The elaborate plan to get into East Germany, discover the site, the digging and the blasting. the double cross with the Russian commander, the East German agent, fighting and shooting , deaths? a way to get the gold? Was it worth it?

14. The climax with the final timing and everything going according to plan? The irony of the amoral ending?

15. Even though the film was an elaborate thriller, how did it throw light on themes of greed, reality, fantasy. achievement?