ma-cortes A top-notch cast under superb direction and slickly made by Sidney Lumet who makes this movie enjoyable in every aspect . Amusing caper with magnificent acting by all-star-cast , acceptable production design and masterfully realized by the always original and great Sidney Lumet . After Duke Anderson (Sean Connery , being the first film in which he stopped wearing a toupee) is released from prison after ten years for taking the rap for a scion of a Mafia family , he cashes in a debt of honor with the mob chief (Alan King who also worked in ¨Just Tell Me What You Want¨ by Lumet) to bankroll a caper . Upon visiting his old girlfriend , Ingrid (Dyan Cannon married to Gary Grant) at her upscale apartment in New York City , he plans to rob the entire building . As the ex-convict , under strange electronic surveillance that have tracked him since he abandoned prison , wishes to pull off a big robbing . Agreeable as well as interesting picture with tight editing , magnificent acting , fast-paced , thrills , plot twists , emotion and entertainment . It was originally conceived as a tense as well as thrilling flick about a spectacular hold-up . Though the most movie is set in a luxurious building it never lacks for taut , suspense , intrigue , inspired direction and a climax particularly thrilling . The tension behind closed doors is tense , charged and riveting . Sean Connery is very good as ex-inmate decided to carry out a big heist , being accompanied by a beauty Dyan Cannon . Support cast is pretty good , such as a young Christopher Walken -film debut- is perfectly cast as an ex-con , Alan King as mobster , Ralph Meeker as Police officer , Martin Balsam as gay man , Garrett Morris , Val Avery , and final feature film by Margaret Hamilton of Wizard of Oz , among others . Fine Quince Jones soundtrack . Atmospheric and appropriate cinematography by Arthur Ornitz . Frank Pierson's brilliant script was left virtually intact on this adaptation upon the novel titled "The Anderson Tapes" by Lawrence Sanders . This thriller was professionally directed by Sidney Lumet with an extraordinary plethora of actors who give awesome interpretations . It keeps the spectator utterly involved , it holds up extremely well on television . Sidney Lumet was a master of cinema , best known for his technical knowledge and his skill at getting first-rate performances from his actors and for shooting most of his films in his beloved New York . In ¨ The Anderson tapes¨ Lumet had a strong comeback with this box-office hit . He made over 40 movies , often complex and emotional , but seldom overly sentimental . He achieved great successes such as ¨Serpico¨, ¨The Veredict¨, ¨Fail safe¨ , ¨ Morning after¨, ¨The hill¨ , ¨Dog day afternoon¨, ¨Murder on the Orient Express¨ , ¨Network¨ and his best considered one : ¨12 angry men¨ . In 2005 , Sidney Lumet received a well-deserved honorary Academy Award for his outstanding contribution to filmmaking.

James Hitchcock This was the last film Sean Connery made during the hiatus between swearing that he would "never again" star in a James Bond movie and his brief return to the franchise in "Diamonds Are Forever". As Bond he perhaps played the ultimate goodie, the man who specialised in saving the world and was quite capable of doing so several times before breakfast. Here he gets to play a baddie, as his character John "Duke" Anderson is a hardened criminal. It is also noticeable that in this film Connery was permitted to show his balding head to the world; in the Bonds he was obliged to keep it hidden under a toupee. The film opens with Anderson being released after ten years in prison. His lengthy sentence, however, has not taught him the error of his crooked ways, because he almost instantly starts planning his next heist, a daring daylight robbery of an entire high-class New York apartment block. The block is familiar to him because one of the occupants is his old mistress Ingrid, with whom he has renewed his relationship despite the fact that she now has a new boyfriend. The film then relates how Anderson and his accomplices go about executing their scheme. The title refers to the fact that Anderson is being kept under surveillance by various people using hidden bugs and cameras. One of those carrying out the surveillance is a private detective hired by Ingrid's boyfriend, who suspects with good reason that she might be cheating on him; the others are all working for various government agencies who have various reasons for doing so. Yet none of the agents involved this pervasive spying are able to put together the pieces to realise just what Anderson is planning. Despite this blatant failure of government intelligence, however, the raid is eventually thwarted by the police. The official censorship imposed by of the Production Code had ended by 1971, but it had been replaced by the unofficial censorship of the television networks who disliked films in which crime was seen to go unpunished. Columbia Pictures therefore agreed to rewrite the original ending which showed Anderson escaping. The whole "tapes" aspect of "The Anderson Tapes" is little more than a pointless, and confusing, gimmick. There are four ways in which the subject could have been treated. One way was to make a civil liberties "issue movie" about the whole question of illegal and underhand government surveillance, as was done in a more recent (and much better) film, "Enemy of the State". Such a film, however, would be open to the objection that Anderson and his gang are exactly the sort of people whom the government should be keeping an eye on. Another way would have been to make a "law and order" issue movie about bungling government agents who, despite all their hi-tech apparatus, fail to realise that a major crime is being plotted under their noses. A third would have been to make a comedy about bungling government agents who, despite all their hi-tech apparatus, fail to realise that a major crime is being plotted under their noses. For the film to have worked as an indictment of bureaucratic incompetence, however, the plot would have needed substantial rewriting to concentrate more on the government agents and less on the criminals, and to have worked as a comedy it would have needed to be a lot lighter in tone. The fourth, and probably best, option would have been to drop all the "surveillance" aspects and make a simple heist movie, something like a latter-day "The Concrete Jungle", telling the story from the point of view of the criminals and concentrating on their motivation and psychology. Such a film might also have allowed more scope for exploration of a potentially interesting theme; the dilemma facing a gang leader who is required to kill one of his own gang in order to ensure the success of the operation. Logistical and financial support for Anderson's operation is being provided by a local Mafia boss- but at a price. The Mafia insist that Anderson should take one of their "heavies" along on the raid- and that Anderson should kill him during it. (The reason is that the man's dangerously unpredictable behaviour has made him a liability to the Mob). The sixties probably marked a low point in the history of the American crime movie. The "golden age" of film noir had ended in the fifties, and the "new wave" of ground-breaking films like "The Godfather", "Dirty Harry", "Chinatown" and "Taxi Driver" which were to revitalise the genre in the seventies still lay in the future. The few crime flicks which were made tended to be dull and derivative. Even something like "The Thomas Crown Affair", one of the better ones, was really more style than substance. "The Anderson Tapes" may have been made after the turn of the decade, but it is really more sixties than seventies. Sidney Lumet was later to make one of the great "new wave" crime dramas, "Serpico", but this film is not in the same class. "The Anderson Tapes" lacks interest, relies too much on a gimmick, and the plot is difficult to follow. It is both the weakest Lumet film and the weakest Connery film that I have seen. 4/10

poe426 One of the things that makes THE ANDERSON TAPES compelling viewing is its almost documentary-like approach to storytelling: the intercutting of the after-the-fact interviews with the crime-in-progress action works wonders. Sean Connery is at his best, here, as the mastermind of the heist. The fact that he must reluctantly agree to dispense with an unwanted member of his crew in order to get the job done only adds to an already touchy situation- and, in perfect keeping with the overall concept of the movie, it's when he reluctantly fulfills this obligation and kills the heavy-handed "Socks" that he alerts the authorities to his own presence and is shot. Irony abounds. The web of surveillance that ends up ensnaring everyone involved is at this moment about as au currant as it gets (and the boy with the ham radio is a forerunner of today's technocentric shut-ins). THE ANDERSON TAPES is a movie whose time has come again.

jfarms1956 This film is for those over 16 but would probably appeal most to the over 40. The movie does move slowly and is predictable. However, for those of us who love and remember Sean Connery as 007 will enjoy this film. Dyan Cannon's appearance in this film is also an added plus. I also say Kudos to the actors/actresses appearing in the film for their performance. The movie provides light entertaining. It also makes you wonder just how intrusive "Bib Brother" really could be in our own lives. It is difficult to imagine all this governmental surveillance without governmental action. In any case, grab your popcorn and enjoy Sean Connery as a professional burglar.Four thumbs up.