"I'm not perceived as a traditional leading man, but I never aimed at that sort of thing either. I never straightened my front teeth, or whatever. I wan't cut out for that. Even if I did a 'big' movie, I'd still want to make it a real character." ~ Robert Duvall

John Flynn had got his start in pictures with Robert Wise in the late 1950s and did assistant directing jobs with John Sturges on The Great Escape and on two madcap comedies with J. Lee Thompson before getting his chance at directing in 1968 with The Sargant, starring Rod Steiger. After a strange detour in Jerusalem Flynn adapted The Outfit, from a 1963 Richard Stark book, and collected a brilliant ensemble cast to bring the project to life. Robert Duvall, in between Godfather I and II, headed the cast and delivered a note perfect characterisation that remained the personal favourite of his illustrious career and one that centres the films superbly.

Earl Macklin (Robert Duvall) is released from prison to find his brother Eddie has been killed by a mob hit. He teams up with Bett (Karen Black) as they set out to find his brothers killers and to settle the score. He discovers a bank job he’d pulled with his brother was on a mob owned front and he ropes in Cody (Joe Don Baker), his partner on that job to help out. The mob is known as The Outfit and is headed by Mailer (Robert Ryan) who is protected by layers of security. Earl and Cody start making waves by hitting joints run by Mailer until a final showdown in inevitable.

Donald E. Westlake wrote the book under the Stark pseudonym, and the lead character Parker was a fixture in several, including the book that John Boorman turned into the hit 1967 film, Point Blank, with Lee Marvin playing the character as Walker. Flynn updated the period timeline from the book and called him Macklin, and Westlake was impressed and thought the film the best adaptation of his work, saying it was “one movie made from a Stark book that got the feeling right. That movie is done flat, just like the books.” The films share the same feeling of relentless pursuit and tenacity, as here Macklin sets his sights on Mailer like a dog spying a juicy bone and won’t let up until he has it. If Marvin’s character is a more hyper-masculine version then Duvall’s is no less driven, it just presents as one with more elan and cunning than simple brute force. The protected rich man in the high tower is a similar trope in both stories, as is the notion that Parker/Walker/Macklin just wants the amount of money that is due them, no more, no less. Thieves with honour in an era where the mob/outfit has legitimized its business and figures like Mailer rub shoulders with ‘respectable’ wealth on racetracks and in casinos. The line between good and bad is not blurred, it’s non-existent.

The buddy film cycle was much in vogue in the early ‘70s and Duvall and Baker make a great faux Butch and Sundance with Black standing in as the Etta of the piece. Duvall is totally compelling as the central figure with a great cast around him at every point, his wiry energy and straight ahead, matter-of-fact manner disguises the fact that he is a hard man who knows how to get what he wants. Joe Don Baker is excellent as the smiling, shaggy dog companion and Karen Black holds on for dear life in her devotion to the flawed and driven Earl, but we sense it will end in tears for her. She has a lovely scene of quiet pathos where she phones her father in an attempt to go home and escape the chaos – a reminder of what a valuable presence she offered to so many American films of the era.

Flynn had the great good sense to fill even the smallest roles with some key faces and figures from Film Noir, the pinnacle of American crime films during the classic era of Hollywood. While Robert Ryan added a gravitas and star presence to the pivotal role of Mailer, some of the bit players brought significant baggage to their roles – Timothy Carey (Kubrick’s The Killing, Paths of Glory) played twitchy criminal Menner in his inimitable style, Elisha Cook (The Killing, The Maltese Falcon) plays a barman, Emile Meyer (Sweet Smell of Success, Baby Face Nelson) plays a gun dealer. On the female side, Marie Windsor (The Narrow Margin, The Killing, Force of Evil) plays Cody’s partner in a diner and Jane Greer (Out of The Past, The Big Steal) plays Earl’s sister-in-law and Sheree North, a one-time Fox starlet, has great play as the slutty wife of a car dealer’s brother. Richard Jaeckel cleans up her mess with aplomb, Henry Jones is a familiar face as a rogue doctor and in a packed roster a young Joanna Cassidy does well as Mailer’s trophy wife who hates football.

Bruce Surtees shot the film in a no fuss way, using available light and autumnal tones - himself the son of a three time Academy Award winning cinematographer in Robert Surtees, he’d graduated to features via Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood projects, having shot The Beguiled and Dirty Harry for the former and Play Misty For Me for the latter. The score was a very of its time Jerry Fielding effort – ominous, string driven tones for tension to a light jazz-tinged ambience in the cooler moments and brassy, percussive funk-lite action pieces with the ubiquitous flutes of the era. Very cool all the way around.

John Flynn found the time of New Hollywood, or the American Renaissance very suited to a couple of his best works and The Outfit sits neatly with the likes of downbeat crime flick, The Friends of Eddie Coyle and with the nuanced, harder tones of Klute or The Seven-Ups, or the grimy, druggy milieu of Cisco Pike or Straight Time. Studios were struggling to identify their markets and were swinging blind at times, taking chances on edgier content and for a brief moment in time names like Robert Duvall and Karen Black were enough to have riskier projects greenlit, with veterans like Robert Ryan as insurance. 

The Outfit is spare and fluid, a perfect distillation of crime as a left-handed endeavour, not glamourised or lionised, just shown as a life where different types of people land for various reasons. From the lower depths to the higher echelons the determining factor in success or failure can be the same – tenacity and honour will get you so far, but here the corruption is pervasive either way. A great and overlooked film.