The Hot Rock | |
---|---|
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
|
|
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.