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Dollars aka $
Goldie Hawn, Warren Beatty, Gert Frobe
Directed by Richard Brooks
Columbia 1971
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2008
120 minutes
Now available on DVD, Dollars / $ is one of those movies you do not mind watching if you come across it on TV on a rainy Sunday. It is not much more than that. This crime caper starring Goldie Hawn and Warren Beatty is a bit too long and too convoluted for its own good. If you are a big Hawn or Beatty fan, you might enjoy Dollars a bit more.
Warren Beatty plays security consultant Joe Collins who is planning a great heist at the very bank he has been sent to work for. Goldie Hawn plays Dawn Divine, a bubbly, charming, and not that bright call-girl who is Collins’ accomplice. Gert Frobe, who played Goldfinger in the Bond movie and Sergeant Kaffekane in The Longest Day, plays the bank manager.
Collins’ plan is brilliantly simple. He is also pretty sure no one will cry wolf as he is targeting only three safety deposit boxes in the German bank’s vault. These boxes are owned by a German drug dealer, and American captain getting rich from shady deals, and a Vegas mob guy. Who is going to tell on him: When was the last time a crook went complaining to the cops?
Dollars aka $ is on the long side at 120 minutes. Too much is explained, the strippers in the strip club get too much attention, and many scenes involving the three deposit box holding criminals seem to be padding for an already thin story.
Director Richard Brooks has a tin ear for comedy as this is supposed to be a comic crime caper. The few funny scenes, such as Goldie Hawn playing fireman and fire extinguisher for the Vegas mob guy, go on after they were funny.
He is also not much for lighting so there are quite a few very dark scenes.
Dollars gets more interesting once the crooks realize their loot is gone. The ensuing chase scene is pretty good and, again, overly long.
The movie has a decent soundtrack by Quincy Jones and a couple of original tunes by Little Richard.
The Dollars or $ DVD is part of Sony’s Martini Movies collection so the disc features a martini recipe – not a very good one if you ask me. Bonus materials include a short on How to play leading man and another on How to pull off a heist: Nothing particularly interesting.