Thieves Like Us (1974)

When two men break out of prison, they join up with another and restart their criminal ways, robbing banks across the South.

Director:

Robert Altman

Writers:

Calder Willingham (screenplay), Joan Tewkesbury (screenplay)

Stars:

Keith Carradine, Shelley Duvall, John Schuck

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Keith Carradine	...	Bowie
Shelley Duvall	...	Keechie
John Schuck	...	Chicamaw
Bert Remsen	...	T-Dub
Louise Fletcher	...	Mattie
Ann Latham	...	Lula
Tom Skerritt	...	Dee Mobley
Al Scott	...	Capt. Stammers
John Roper	...	Jasbo
Mary Waits	...	Noel Joy
Rodney Lee	...	James Mattingly (as Rodney Lee Jr.)
Arch Hall Sr.	...	Alvin (as William Watters)
Joan Tewkesbury	...	Lady in Train Station (as Joan Maguire)
Eleanor Matthews	...	Mrs. Stammers
Pam Warner	...	Woman in Accident

Storyline

Two convicts break out of Mississippi State Penitentiary in 1936 to join a third on a long spree of bank robbing, their special talent and claim to fame. The youngest of the three falls in love along the way with a girl met at their hideout, the older man is a happy professional criminal with a romance of his own, the third is a fast lover and hard drinker fond of his work. The young lovers begin to move out of the sphere in which they have met, a last robbery in Yazoo City goes badly and puts paid to the gang once and for all as a profitable venture, but isn't the end of the story quite yet, as all three are wanted and notorious men with altogether different points of view on the situation they are faced with.

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Plot Keywords:

criminal | mississippi | southern u.s. | great depression | escaped convict | 

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Taglines:

a romance

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 June 1974 (Denmark)

Also Known As:

Bizim gibi hirsizlar

Filming Locations:

Canton, Mississippi, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,125,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

George Litto Productions, Jerry Bick

Technical Specs

Runtime:

123 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Robert Altman persuaded Bert Remsen to switch jobs and take a role as an actor. Up to then, Remsen was better known for being a leading casting director.

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Goofs

On the night before the law officers come to the Grapes Motor Hotel, a thunderstorm occurs. Keechie has a conversation with Mattie out in the motor hotel's courtyard, with both of them covering their heads from the rain. The next morning, when Keechie leaves her cabin and walks to the motel's office, the ground in the courtyard is dry. But when the law officers arrive a few minutes later, the ground in the courtyard is suddenly muddy and filled with puddles.

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Quotes

T-Dub: I shoulda robbed people with my brain instead of a gun.

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Connections

Referenced in Grosse Pointe: Thieves Like Us (2000)

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Soundtracks

It's Somebody's Birthday
(uncredited)
Written by Lewis Allan and Earl Rogers

User Reviews

Wonderful

As an Altman fan I have seen "Theives" many times over the years; it was to me the sort of film one admires rather than loves; it has a slower pace than Altman's big atmospheric classics like "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" and "Calfornia Split."

Since I caught up with the novel last fall I sat down with the movie last night; and I have to say for the first time I really agreed with the lavish praise heaped on the film by Pauline Kael, it may just be a masterpiece.

It is a film about how the ordinary were for a time drawn into the exceptional world of crime. The gallows laughter of the three killers is nervous and frightened; they know they are having a good old time while they can; dodging prisons where men cut there own limbs off to avoid being worked to death. Kitchee's specialness is a kind we would never notice in life; and in the film's lovely coda (diferent from the book) she melts back into the crowd, probably never to be touched by something transcendent again; and the cruel pop Christianity of the day drones on.

As the movie is unshakably shadowed by Bonnie and Clyde, the novel was partly inspired by the real life couple. Bowie's ability to break Chickama out of jail is better explained in the novel.

The film was not shot in Panivision so the video probably doesn't lose too much. Give this one a chance.