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The Hot Rock (film)

The Hot Rock
Hot rock2.jpg
Directed by Peter Yates
Produced by Hal Landers
Bobby Roberts
Screenplay by William Goldman
Based on novel by
Donald E. Westlake
Starring Robert Redford
George Segal
Ron Leibman
Paul Sand
Moses Gunn
Zero Mostel
Music by Quincy Jones
Cinematography Edward R. Brown
Edited by Frank P. Keller
Fred W. Berger
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date
  • January 26, 1972 (1972-01-26)
Running time
105 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $4,895,000
Box office $3.5 million (rentals)

The Hot Rock is a 1972 American comedy crime caper film directed by Peter Yates from a screenplay by William Goldman, based on Donald E. Westlake's novel of the same name, which introduced his long-running John Dortmunder character. The film stars Robert Redford, George Segal, Ron Leibman, Paul Sand, Moses Gunn and Zero Mostel.

After John Dortmunder (Redford) is released from his latest stint in prison, he is approached by his brother-in-law, Andy Kelp (Segal), about another job. Dr. Amusa (Gunn) seeks a valuable gem in the Brooklyn Museum that is of great significance to his people in his country in Africa, stolen during colonial times and then re-stolen by various African nations.

Dortmunder and Kelp are joined by driver Stan Murch (Leibman) and explosives expert Allan Greenberg (Sand), concocting an elaborate plan to steal the gem. Although the scheme (and each subsequent one) is carefully planned—and keeps increasing in cost—something always goes awry, and the quartet has to steal the diamond again and again.

First off, the diamond is swallowed by Greenberg when he alone gets caught by the museum guards during the initial heist. Dortmunder, Kelp, and Murch, at the urging of Greenberg's rotund father Abe (Zero Mostel), a lawyer, help Greenberg escape from state prison, but they then find he does not have the diamond. After Greenberg tells his partners he hid the rock in the police station (after bodily evacuating it), the quartet break into the precinct jail by helicopter, but the rock is not where Greenberg hid it. Greenberg discloses that his father Abe was the only other person who knew where it was.


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