The Split (1968)

Director:

Gordon Flemyng

Writers:

Donald E. Westlake (novel)
Robert Sabaroff (screenplay)

Release Date:

4 November 1968 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

"Crime is our business."

Plot:

Thieves fall out when over a half million dollars goes missing after the daring and carefully planned...

Plot Keywords:

Football Game | Coliseum | Los Angeles | Detective | Hostage

Cast

Jim Brown	...	McClain
Diahann Carroll	...	Ellen 'Ellie' Kennedy
Ernest Borgnine	...	Bert Clinger
Julie Harris	...	Gladys
Gene Hackman	...	Detective Lt. Walter Brill
Jack Klugman	...	Harry Kifka
Warren Oates	...	Marty Gough
James Whitmore	...	Herb Sutro
Donald Sutherland	...	Dave Negli
Joyce Jameson	...	Jenifer
Harry Hickox	...	Detective
Jackie Joseph	...	Jackie
Warren Vanders	...	Mason

Also Known As:

Bullen - Wie lange wollt ihr leben? (West Germany) [de]
Die ganz große Kasse (West Germany) [de]
El reparto (Spain) [es]
För helvete, Mac! (Sweden) [sv]
I sei della grande rapina (Italy) [it]
Le crime, c'est notre business (France) [fr]
Razdor (Serbia) [sr]
Saalis (Finland) [fi]

Runtime:

USA:91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:18 | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved | USA:R

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

This film was the very first theatrical release to receive an R rating from the then-new MPAA's film rating system.

Quotes:

Dave Negli: Listen, Marty, the last man I killed I did it for $5000. For $85,000 I'd kill you 17 times.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Jim Brown: All American (2002) (TV)

Soundtrack:

A Good Woman's Love

Twisty yarn.

Near the beginning of this film, there is a fistfight, but it's not exciting because we don't know why the two men are fighting. A little later, there is a car chase, but it's not exciting either, because we don't know who's chasing whom or why. Later still, we find out the answers to those questions, but two potentially good action scenes have been wasted. And then the movie turns into a standard heist flick....thankfully only for a while. The focus here is not on the actual heist, but more on the aftermath. And it's there that the movie finally goes in unexpected directions.

There is, for example, the bizarre scene in which a man gets off on shooting someone with a machine-gun. There is the memorable image of a white sheet that gradually "absorbs" the blood of the body that's underneath it, and red spots start appearing on it. And there some neat plot twists along the way, mostly involving a character (I won't say which) that enters the picture when you least expect him to.

If the whole movie was as good as its final 30 minutes, I'd give it one more star, but for now this gets a ** rating.