Seeing the wide diversity of opinion on this flick, I feel compelled to weigh in with my own opinion, which sides with the naysayers. "Maltin" is way off base in giving this one 3 stars. The cast is excellent, no doubt, and the direction is good. But the thing that sinks the effort is, as has been stated, the lumbering, talky, wandering, unfocused script, which creates too many soap opera style subplots, from the failing marriage of the mining tycoon's son, to the financial difficulties of the librarian, to Victor Mature's son's disappointment with his father's lack of war experience, to the voyeuristic impulses of the bank teller, and on and on and on. The movie can't decide whether it wants to be "Peyton Place" or "Kiss of Death". And yes, it IS hard to see Ernest Borgnine as an Amish farmer, but that is probably only because of the subsequent "McHale's Navy"; doubtless viewers at the time had no trouble with it.
An example of the excessive talkiness of the movie is the hotel room scene the night before the heist, in which Lee Marvin talks with his compatriot about his ex-wife. The scene fails both as character development and plot propulsion; it only bogs down action.
The one thing I did learn in looking up this flick was what a prolific actor the redoubtable J. Carrol Naish (Chapman, the crook with the brown suit) was; IMDB lists him as having made almost two hundred movies in a 41-year career. In 1933 alone, he made nineteen movies !!! Talk about a work ethic !
An example of the excessive talkiness of the movie is the hotel room scene the night before the heist, in which Lee Marvin talks with his compatriot about his ex-wife. The scene fails both as character development and plot propulsion; it only bogs down action.
The one thing I did learn in looking up this flick was what a prolific actor the redoubtable J. Carrol Naish (Chapman, the crook with the brown suit) was; IMDB lists him as having made almost two hundred movies in a 41-year career. In 1933 alone, he made nineteen movies !!! Talk about a work ethic !