Charley Varrick - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Charley Varrick or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Charley Varrick

[miriam]

Joe Conforte: The owner of Mustang Ranch as himself.

[elmer]

After Molly (Joe Don Baker) picks the lock on her door and let's himself in to her photo studio/apartment, Jewell Everett (Sheree North) tells him, "I didn't figure you for Clint Eastwood". Eastwood had made 4 movies with director, Don Siegel.

[russell]

The piece that John Vernon plays on the piano is by J. S. Bach, but it's the D minor Invention, not from one of the English Suites.

[steve]

A yellow Lincoln Continental sedan is used during a major plot in the film, during the bank heist. This particular scene is similar in Telefon (1977), where a yellow Lincoln Continental is used during the attempted bombing of the Hyatt Regency in Houston, Texas (actually San Francisco, California, where the film took place).

[ronnie]

The film's working title was "The Last of the Independents". Director Don Siegel wanted this to be the final title of the movie but in the end it became a tagline on the movie's main poster. The phrase is also the motto of Walter Matthau's crop-dusting company in the film.

[jim]

Stuntman Craig R. Baxley plays a character named van Sickle which appears to be a tribute to longtime stuntman Dale van Sickle.

[russell]

The braided wedding bands worn by Walter Matthau and Jacqueline Scott are the same as those worn by Charles Bronson and Lee Remick in Telefon (1977) also directed by 'Don Siegel (I)'.

[gabriel]

The crop duster that Varrick (Walter Matthau) attempts to escape in at the end of the movie was destroyed in Oakdale, California on 31 December 1976 during a crop dusting operation. Upon starting a swath run the pilot of the BOEING A75N1 failed to see and avoid wires and crashed. The 33 year old pilot was killed.

[miriam]

The last film of veteran character actor Tom Tully.

[wallace]

Walter Matthau was not fond of this film. Don Siegel would later say Matthau hurt this film's box office by publicly stating that he did not like the film nor even understand it.

[jamie]

Character Maynard Boyle's line, "They're gonna strip you naked and go to work on you with a pair of pliers and a blowtorch," is paraphrased in Pulp Fiction (1994) by character Marsellus Wallace.

[wallace]

Walter Matthau's character makes love repeatedly to Felicia Farr's character. She was the wife of his longtime comedic partner, Jack Lemmon.

[miriam]

According to Don Siegel in his biography, Walther Matthau was addicted to gambling. He compounded his illness by actually not wanting to win. .Excitment and enjoyment in gambling went from losing. Siegel lost 1200 dollars bet that this film - Charley Varrick - would earn less money than Walther Matthau's previous film where he starred in.

[phyllis]

The yellow car used in the bank robbery at the beginning of the film is referred to as a 1972 Lincoln Continental, but it is a 1971 model.

[jessica]

The $765,118 stolen from the bank would equate to nearly $4.5M in 2018.

[nina]

The last film for Bob Steele.

[nora]

According to an article in the October 19, 1972 edition of Daily Variety, the owner of the junk yard seen at the end of the film was suing Universal Pictures for $75,000 ($454,000 in 2018) in damages caused to his business during production of this film. The results of that suit are not known.

[sara]

This film was made and released about five years after its source novel "The Looters" by John H. Reese was first published in 1968.

[jim]

Charles Matthau, the son of Walther Matthau, plays the role of the little boy in front of the bank that got robbed. His young son later on played an uncredited role of a bee in a performance together with his father in Saturday Night Live. Walter Matthau's son became a movie director .