THEY CAME TO ROB LAS VEGAS (500 MILLONES)

Spain, 1968, 124 minutes, Colour.
Gary Lockwood, Elke Sommer, Lee J. Cobb, Gene Servais, Jack Palance, Roger Hanin.
Directed by Antonio Isasi- Isasmendi.

They Came to Rob Las Vegas is, as the title indicates, a caper film set in the desert gambling city. However, the plot is much more complicated. Gary Lockwood’s Tony is planning to rob a van and get half a million dollars. In the meantime, Lee J. Cobb’s Skorsky, a truck company manager, launders money for the Mafia. In the meantime, the police are closing in on both groups.

The film is exciting, flamboyant, presenting Las Vegas in its vividness. It is also interesting in its portrait of the interactions and double crosses.

Lee J. Cobb is very good as Skorsky. Gary Lockwood had made an impact in the same year as being one of the astronauts in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The film was directed by Antonio Isasi who began directing and writing films at the age of twenty-three in 1950 and continued for almost another forty years.

1. The significance and tone of the title? The original title was Las Vegas 500, Millones. Was this a better title? Audience expectations from the title and the robbery style of film?

2. Was this a good example of the robbery genre? Audience expectations of this kind of film? The fact that there were, so many in the sixties? Its impact then and now?

3. The point of view of the film, a continental look at America and American crime? How was it different from an American look?

4. The atmosphere of Las Vegas? The city, gambling, money, the types of personalities there? A city in the desert? The isolation of the desert? The colour location photography?

5. How well did the film establish the atmosphere of crime? The robbery atmosphere? The people involved, the evil, violence and greed? Audience response to the people involved?

6. The importance of the theme of vengeance, Tony and his reaction to his brother's death, the sense of family, the vindictive planning for the robbery, Tony's ordeal in undergoing the attempt at robbery? The futility of his laughter at the end? What had been achieved?

7. How interesting was the plan and its detail? The long attention of the film to the details? The importance of the use of the desert? How well was it used? The trench and the camouflage? The elaborate machinery for the robbery? The functioning and malfunctioning of the machinery etc.? The human element?

8. Was Tony's character well developed? Or was he a standard character? His relationship with Anne and her information? Using her? What kind of person was Anne in her relationship to Skorsky? The relationship between Anne and Tony?

9. Skorsky as a typical criminal? His business, Mafia dealings? Brutality towards Anne? His evil attitudes?

10. The portrayal of Douglas and the agents? Police work and relentlessness? The agent inside the van?

11. How well drawn were the personalities of Tony's team? The presentation of the tensions and the infighting? Cooper and his plotting?

12. How well did the film draw towards a convergence of all the people involved? The atmosphere for a kind of explosion? The presentation of the actual explosion and its destruction of the wealth?

13. Was this anything more than a routine robbery thriller? If not, was it good as such?