British-born director Peter Yates had already made such a reputation directing top stars in big films - including Steve McQueen in Bullitt - that he really couldn't go wrong with Robert Redford AND George Segal in a glossy comedy-thriller about a robbery that does keep going wrong. Although William Goldman's script is not one of his best (or most stylish), there are all sorts of compensations from the actors. Redford engagingly spoofs his own image as the ice-cool (but inwardly ulcer-prone) robber-in-chief, Ron Leibman is very funny as Murch, who claims he can 'drive anything' and William Redfield contributes a marvellous cameo as the harassed, paranoid police lieutenant. Yates makes ingenious use of his New York surroundings, finding all sorts of new locations and new angles on old locations: very much the same sort of precision job, in fact as in Bullitt, but allowing room for the comedy to amuse and the suspense to bite.

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