The Anderson Tapes

Infobox Film | name = The Anderson Tapes


image_size = 200px
caption = original movie poster
director = Sidney Lumet
producer = Robert Weitman
writer = Frank Pierson
starring = Sean Connery
Dyan Cannon
Martin Balsam
music = Quincy Jones
cinematography =Arthur J. Ornitz
editing =Joanne Burke
distributor = Columbia Pictures
released = 1971
runtime = 95 min.
language =
budget =
imdb_id = 0066767

The Anderson Tapes is a 1971 crime film. It was directed by Sidney Lumet and stars Sean Connery, Martin Balsam and Dyan Cannon. The screenplay was written by Frank Pierson, based upon a best-selling 1970 novel of the same name by Lawrence Sanders. The film is distinctively scored by Quincy Jones.

It was the first major motion picture for actor Christopher Walken, who appears as "The Kid."

Revolving around a bold robbery, the film addresses the influence of surveillance on modern times, as well as the lack of co-ordination between government agencies.

A remake has been announced [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381881/] .

Plot Synopsis

Burglar John "Duke" Anderson is released after ten years in jail. He renews his relationship with his old girlfriend, Ingrid. She lives in a high-class apartment block (1 East 91st Street) in New York and Anderson, almost instantly, decides to burglarize the entire building in a single sweep — filling a furniture van with the proceeds. He gains financing from a nostalgic Mafiosi boss and gathers his four-man crew. Also included is an old ex-con drunk, "Pop", whom Anderson met in jail, and who is to play concierge while the real one is bound and gagged in the cellar.

Less welcoming is a man the Mafia foists onto Anderson: the thuggish "Socks". "Socks" is a psychopath who has become a liability to the mob and, as part of the deal, Anderson must kill him in the course of the robbery. Anderson is not keen on this since the operation is complicated enough, but is forced to go along.

However Anderson has entered a world of pervasive surveillance — the agents, cameras, bugs, and tracking devices of numerous public and private agencies see almost the entire operation from the earliest planning to the execution. As Anderson advances the scheme he moves from the surveillance of one group to another as locations or individuals change. These include a private detective hired to eavesdrop on Anderson's girlfriend who is also the mistress of a wealthy man; the BNDD who are checking over a released drug dealer; the FBI investigating Black activists; and the IRS which is after the mob boss who is financing the operation.

Yet, because the various federal, state and city agencies doing the surveillance are all after different things, none of them are able to "connect the dots" and anticipate the robbery.

The robbery proceeds over a Labor Day weekend. The crew cut phones and alarms and move up through the building, gathering the residents as they go and robbing each apartment.

(The scenes of the residents being seized, and in some cases assaulted, are shown in contrast to them giving statements to the police after the robbery, which appears to indicate that it succeeded.)

However, the son of two of the residents is a paraplegic and asthmatic who is left behind in his air-conditioned room. Using his amateur radio equipment, he calls up other radio amateurs, based in Hawaii, Portland, Maine and Wichita Falls, who contact the police. (There is an obvious goof as Wichita Falls is said to be in Kansas, not Texas, obviously the screenwriter confused it with Wichita, Kansas). The alarm is thus raised, after some problems as to which side (callers or emergency services) should take the phone bill.

As the oblivious criminals work, the police array an enormous amount of force outside to prevent their escape and send a team in via a neighbouring rooftop.

In the shootout that follows, Anderson kills "Socks" but is himself shot by the police. The other robbers are killed, injured or captured, but none get away with it. One of them, "Pop", gives himself up after a while of letting the police believe that he is the real concierge. Having never adapted to life on the outside he looks forward to going back to prison.

In the course of searching the building, the police discover some audio listening equipment left behind by the private detective who was hired to check up on Ingrid. While organising the robbery Anderson met various people who were under similar surveillance for other reasons by various government agencies. To avoid embarrassment over the fact that they failed to realise what was going on and that some of the tapings were illegal, the agencies order the tapes to be erased.

Reaction and Notes

Sean Connery's performance as the likeable criminal Duke Anderson was instrumental in his break out from being stereotyped as James Bond.

The film was also prescient in its focus on the pervasiveness of electronic surveillance, from security cameras in public places to more discreet and underhand methods. This theme would become a movie staple following the Watergate scandal a few years later.

Connery, Balsam and Lumet were to get together again for "Murder on the Orient Express". Connery had previously worked for the director in "The Hill" and would reunite again many years later for "Family Business", co-starring Dustin Hoffman and Matthew Broderick. Balsam had been one of Lumet's "12 Angry Men".

Cast

*Sean Connery - John Anderson
*Dyan Cannon - Ingrid
*Martin Balsam - Tommy Haskins
*Ralph Meeker - Captain Delaney
*Alan King - Pat Angelo
*Christopher Walken - The Kid
*Val Avery - "Socks" Parelli
*Stan Gottlieb - "Pop"
*Garrett Morris - Police sergeant.