Hank McCain as he cruises down the Vegas strip: Twelve years of prison and I still get a kick out of these lights.
Irene: They're beautiful.
Hank: They're not beautiful. They're cheap. It's an attraction for sad, fat businessmen begging for more money...for hustlers, for thieves, for pimps. I LOVE IT!

Lean, mean and paranoid, convict Hank McCain (John Cassavetes) is sprung from prison by West Coast mobster Charlie Adamo (Peter Falk) to rob a Las Vegas casino that is owned by an East Coast Mafia boss in the same syndicate. Adamo's underhanded attempt to muscle in on his fellow gangster's territory ignites a gangland war between factions with McCain caught in the middle and running for his life after he successfully pulls off a $2 million dollar heist. Along the way, McCain is double-crossed by his own son, hooks up with a bar hostess (Britt Ekland), is briefly reunited with his former mistress (Gena Rowlands) and goes down fighting in a genuine noir finale. Although it didn't get any respect from the critics or even much notice from film reviewers at the time, Machine Gun McCain (Italian title: Gli Intoccabili, 1968) is a remarkably taut, fast-paced B-movie crime thriller that is as feral and cagey as its title hero. Cassavetes imbues his role with a pent-up intensity that threatens to explode at any moment and often does. It's one of his best performances and demonstrates why he was more in-demand as an actor in Hollywood instead of a director.

While Cassavetes and Peter Falk agreed to do Machine Gun McCain strictly for the money, the movie proved to be a lucky charm in more ways than one. It was during the making of the film that Cassavetes got to know Falk and began to collaborate with him on his next independent feature, Husbands (1970). He also recruited Ben Gazzara, who was in Europe during the same period shooting The Bridge at Remagen (1969), to complete the trio featured in the title, a story of three married friends who go on a drinking binge in London after a close friend dies of a heart attack. Thanks to Bino Cicogna, the co-producer of Machine Gun McCain, Cassavetes was able to secure financing for his film when no Hollywood studio would commit to it. Cicogna, unfortunately, was not the most reliable investor, and like a subplot from Machine Gun McCain, he ran into trouble with creditors and fled to Brazil where he was later murdered. Nevertheless, Cicogna's initial investment allowed Cassavetes to make Husbands and eventually work out a favorable distribution deal with Columbia Pictures.

One fascinating aspect of Machine Gun McCain is to see members of Cassavetes' tight-knit filmmaking ensemble appear in an exploitation film and bring the same style of improvised, spontaneous acting to their roles. Val Avery, who previously worked with Cassavetes as an actor in Edge of the City (1957) and then under his direction in Too Late Blues (1961) and Faces (1968), appears here as a Mafia businessman. Gena Rowlands, Cassavetes' wife, has a scene-stealing cameo toward the end as a former gangster moll who tries to arrange safe passage for McCain and his girlfriend, Irene, out of the country. And Falk, who is perfect as the treacherous, power-hungry Adamo, would go on to work with Cassavetes on five more films.

Connoisseurs of giallos, spaghetti Westerns and Eurotrash movies will also get a kick out of Machine Gun McCain's supporting cast which features such distinctive Italian actors as Gabriele Ferzetti (Once Upon a Time in the West [1968], The Night Porter [1974]), Luigi Pistilli (Death Rides a Horse [1967], The Lady of Monza [1969]), Tony Kendall, also known as Luciano Stella, who appeared in Mario Bava's The Whip and the Body [1963] and Django Against Sartana [1970], and Brazilian born actress Florinda Bolkan, star of Lucio Fulci's A Lizard in a Woman's Skin [1971] and the gruesome historical drama Flavia the Heretic [1974] in which she is skinned alive in the finale. The other noteworthy Italian contributor on Machine Gun McCain is composer Ennio Morricone who provides a memorable score including the influential "Ballad of Hank McCain."

While most of Machine Gun McCain was shot in and around Las Vegas, there was some additional location shooting in Rome, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Tourists who remember Vegas in the late sixties will get nostalgic watching Cassavetes and Britt Ekland cruise past such once famous landmarks as the Golden Nugget, the Flamingo, The Golden Gate Hotel & Casino, the Fremont and the Frontier. Machine Gun McCain, however, is much better than a ride down memory lane and enjoyed critical acclaim in Europe when it was first released. The director, Giuliano Montaldo, was even nominated for the Golden Palm award at Cannes when the movie premiered there in 1969.

Producer: Bino Cicogna, Marco Vicario
Director: Giuliano Montaldo
Screenplay: Giuliano Montaldo, Mino Roli, Ovid Demaris (novel)
Cinematography: Erico Menczer
Film Editing: Franco Fraticelli
Art Direction: Emilio Baldelli, Roberto Velocchio
Music: Ennio Morricone
Cast: John Cassavetes (Hank McCain), Britt Ekland (Irene Tucker), Peter Falk (Charlie Adamo), Gabriele Ferzetti (Don Francesco DeMarco), Luigi Pistilli (Duke Mazzanga), Margherita Guzzinati (Margaret DeMarco).
C-94m.

by Jeff Stafford