Thief Duke Anderson—just released from ten years in jail—takes up with his old girlfriend in her posh apartment block, and makes plans to rob the entire building. What he doesn't know is that his every move is being recorded on audio and video, although he is not the subject of any surveillance.
Direction
Lumet's claustrophobic blocking makes luxury feel like a cage.
Editing
Spliced surveillance footage builds delicious dramatic irony.
Acting
Walken's debut—silent, menacing, already weird.
Director
Sidney Lumet
Sean Connery
Duke Anderson
Dyan Cannon
Ingrid
Martin Balsam
Haskins
Ralph Meeker
Police Captain 'Iron Balls' Delaney
Alan King
Pat Angelo
Christopher Walken
The Kid
Val Avery
Parelli aka Socks
Dick Anthony Williams
Spencer
Garrett Morris
Officer Everson
Stan Gottlieb
Pop
Paul Benjamin
Jimmy
Anthony Holland
Psychologist
Richard B. Shull
Werner
Conrad Bain
Dr. Rubicoff
Margaret Hamilton
Miss Kaler
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was Christopher Walken's first credited film role. He plays 'The Kid' with almost no dialogue, letting his physicality do the work.
Released the same year as the Pentagon Papers leak, the film's paranoid surveillance themes hit different—Lumet basically predicted the Panopticon.
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Reactions from the web
We're so lucky we don't have to worry about anyone watching us these days.
@dasse1588 28
Max Zorin and 1st James Bond
@aleksandarvil5718 16
The searing social commentaries Sean Connery made in the beginning of the movie just before he was released after serving a long jail sentence still apply today but on a far grandeur and perverse scale. This was more than just a heist movie, rather a prescient dystopic view that we live in today.
@albertodesouza2954 11
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