Plot Synopsis (continued)
Saturday - The Day of the Heist
There were a number
of events that occurred four days later - the morning of the heist,
often described by the third-person narrator to seemingly provide
continuity, although the sequence was still confounding, disorienting,
sometimes out of chronological order, and not showing the entire
context. At first, the sequence of events for the heist went off
without a hitch, but then everything began to go horribly wrong.
The Sequence of Holdup-Related Events - As Per the
Narrator
|
Time
|
Where
|
Events
|
7:30 am |
George's apartment |
Over breakfast, the two-timing greedy and
scheming Sherry again nagged her nervously wide-awake and restless
husband George about their poverty-stricken lifestyle: "It's
just, I
can't stand living like this, a crummy apartment and
a hamburger for dinner," although
she was encouraged by the fact that they would soon be rich
after the robbery: ("But things are gonna be different,
you'll see. When we get all that money, we'll have so many
nice things. I'll stop thinking about myself so much. Your
problems will be my problems").
She suspected, from George's odd, upset and unusual sleepless
behavior, that it was the day of the robbery, and badgered
him: ("It's
today, isn't it?...I
know my Georgie. He can't fool me. I'm right, aren't l, darling?
Today is the day we get all that money"),
but George denied it. He reminded her of Johnny's threat to
her: "You
heard what Johnny told you. To stop butting in, mind your own
business, or he'd call this whole thing off." She assured
George that she wouldn't interfere - and then added how Johnny
had also hinted at physical violence: "That
if I did butt in, as you and he choose to call it, that he'd
break my neck." She also hinted, with lots of feigned
hesitation, that she had flirtatiously helped George (but also
betrayed him) by defusing Johnny's anger. She falsely confessed
that she had succumbed to Johnny's physical advances:
"I tried to stop him. I pleaded and I struggled," but
added:
"It doesn't matter, does it, darling? The only thing that
really matters is how I feel about you now, isn't it?" And
then she again asked: "It is today, isn't it?" George
nodded. She now could set in motion Val's plan to steal the
money from George and his associates after the heist. |
5:00 am |
Racetrack |
Red Lightning was fed a half portion of feed,
in preparation for the 7th race that afternoon - the $100,000
Lansdowne Stakes. |
7:00 am |
Unger's apartment |
(Narrator: "At
7 that morning, Johnny Clay began what might be the last day
of his life.")
[Note: In retrospect, this was entirely inaccurate.
Johnny was the only survivor of the holdup!]
Johnny
bid goodbye to an awakening Marvin, and expressed confidence:
("Everything's
all set. Should go perfectly, but if it doesn't, and everything
goes wrong, why, just don't talk about this with anyone. You'll
be in the clear for everything except being short on your books").
Johnny was regretful that they might never see each other again
following the split of the dough that evening, and he wished
Marvin a good life: ("We'll
probably never see each other again after we split the money
and break up tonight, but in my book, you'll always be a stand-up
guy"). Marvin responded and described their friendship
with some homosexual insinuations: "Johnny, I- I don't
know how to say this, and I don't even know if I have the right,
but - I've always thought maybe you're like my own kid...You've
had a lot of rough breaks and maybe you've made a few mistakes,
but after today, the good Lord willing, you'll be a new man,
a rich man, and that can make a lot of difference. You've got
a lot of life ahead of you, a lot of people to meet. People
of quality and substance").
Marvin suggested that they go
away together, instead of Johnny wedding Fay: ("Wouldn't
it be great if we could just go away, the two of us, and let
the old world take a couple of turns and have a chance to take
stock of things? It can be pretty serious and terrible, particularly
if it's not the right person. Getting married, I mean"),
but Johnny wasn't interested. Marvin was explicitly instructed
to keep away from the track: ("Go to a movie or something"),
especially around the time of the momentous 7th race, at about
4:30 pm. Johnny expected to be back at about 7 pm. |
8:15 - 8:45 am |
Airport
Florist Shop
Motel
Bus Station |
(Narrator "It was exactly 7 a.m. when
he got to the airport.").
[Note: The narrator deliberately created confusion
by stating this inaccuracy. Johnny was
in Unger's apartment at 7 am.]
At the airport at the American Airlines counter,
Johnny pre-checked a personal bag for his 9:00 pm flight to
Boston that evening. Then, on the way, he bought flowers (placed
in a large flower box) from a florist, and stopped by the motel
cabin (Narrator: "He arrived at 8:15"). He spoke to
Joe, the motel manager, and told him he would be back to pick
up a bundle after it was dropped off for him by a uniformed cop
(Kennan) in a patrol car at about 6:30 pm (after the heist).
In the cabin, Johnny removed his rifle from the dresser drawer
and transferred it into the long flower box along
with another hand-gun, then drove to a bus station about a half
hour later ("He
reached the bus station at 8:45"), and placed the flower
box (with weapons) in a locker. |
9:20 am |
Mailbox Outside O'Reilly's apartment |
(Narrator: "It was 9:20 when he arrived
at Mike's apartment.").
Johnny's next stop was
O'Reilly's apartment, where
he deposited the bus locker key in Mike's outside mailbox. |
11:15 am |
Inside O'Reilly's apartment |
(Narrator: "Mike
O'Reilly was ready at 11:15 am.").
O'Reilly dressed and then
said goodbye to his wife Ruthie, who was not eating her breakfast.
Before leaving for work, he promised that they would soon be
rich and she would receive better medical care: ("Ruthie,
things are gonna get much better for us...I know I've made a
lot of promises in the past, but this time it's not just talk.
We're gonna be rich, and soon. You're gonna have a fine house,
and doctors that'll make you well again").
He announced he would return late, at about 10:00 pm, after a
"little get-together" with some fellas. She advised
him not to drink too much beer, and he said he wouldn’t
be drinking. His mother would be over later in the afternoon
to fix Ruthie's dinner. O'Reilly opened his outside mailbox to
get the bus locker key and his mail, before leaving. |
11:29 am |
Bus Station |
(Narrator: "He reached the bus station
at 11:29.").
O'Reilly entered the bus station, and had just
enough time to retrieve the flower box (with the hidden weapons)
locked inside a bus station locker where Johnny had stashed it.
Then, he ran over to a departing Race-Track Special bus, barely
missing it, en route to the track. |
12:10 pm |
Race-Track
Employees' Locker Room |
(Narrator: "At 12:10 as it was his custom,
he arrived at the track.").
To his nosy, meddlesome co-employees
in the locker room who were teasingly asking: "Who's the
girlfriend, Mike?",
O'Reilly claimed that the flowers in the box were for his wife
("These
posies are for my wife").
He was barely able to get his co-workers to leave him alone,
and had to refuse to accept their well-intentioned assistance
to refrigerate the flowers. He slightly offended his helpful
friend Bill (Richard Reeves) and had to insist: "These
flowers are going in my locker!" O'Reilly placed the
flower box into his own locker - planted there for Johnny's use
later. Between another row of
lockers nearby, race-track teller/cashier George was listening
to Mike's conversation. He opened his own locker to retrieve a
pistol out of his lunch box, and then pocketed the weapon. O'Reilly
changed his clothes, and observed uniformed men wheeling something
into the payroll office across the hallway. The first race of the
afternoon had just finished - the winner was Second Ending. |
After the 1st Race |
Racetrack Bar and Environs |
At the racetrack bar where he was specifically
ordered not to hang out by Johnny, Marvin arrived drunk and
continued to drink heavily.
He was cautioned by O'Reilly to moderate his intake after he
ordered a double bourbon: ("Don't you think you've had enough
pal?"). |
3:32 pm |
Police Telephone on Street Corner
and
Racetrack |
(Narrator: "At exactly 3:32 that same
afternoon, Officer Randy Kennan set in motion his phase of
the operation.").
To avert suspicion later on, policeman Kennan telephoned his headquarters
to fictitiously report a radio malfunction in his squad car.
As he was about to drive off in his patrol car to the track,
he ignored a woman's (Mary Carroll) cry for help to investigate
a domestic violence incident: ("Come
quick, they're killing each other!"). If he had been delayed
getting to the track by ten minutes, he would have thrown off
the carefully-executed plan. (Narrator: "Ten minutes late
would be fatal"). He drove into the track area as the 7th
race was just starting. He parked his car below an open window
of the race-track building. |
2:30 pm |
Chess Club |
(Narrator: "Earlier that afternoon, at 2:30,
Maurice was at the chess club. He was to be at the
track in position at 4 o'clock just before the start of the
7th race.")
Maurice asked for his friend Fisher to make a phone call for
him, if he wasn't back by 6:30 pm. The call was to be made to
Mr. Stillman ("...and tell him Maurice requires his services").
During the conversation, Maurice offered an allegorical mystical
story when Fisher became too inquisitive: "There are some things,
my dear Fisher, which do not bear much looking into. You have
undoubtedly heard of the Siberian goatherder who tried to discover
the true nature of the sun? He stared up at the heavenly body
until it made him blind. There are many things of this sort,
including love and death, and my business for today." |
4:00 - 4:23 pm |
Racetrack Bar Area |
As Maurice was arriving around 4:00 pm - to
start a brawl at the bar area, the start of the 7th race was
also being announced and shown. He ordered a bottle of beer
from O'Reilly. Maurice noticed Johnny positioned outside
a "NO
ADMITTANCE"
- 'employees only' racetrack office door. To start the brawl,
Maurice yelled at O'Reilly: "Hey, can I have some
service, you stupid-looking Irish pig?" When O'Reilly
approached and asked what was the matter, Maurice knocked the
bartender to the floor and fought off a group of racetrack
officers during a major commotion and fight, as Johnny watched
from afar. George also nervously looked on - and then left
his $5 dollar teller window, and opened the payroll office
door to provide access to Johnny. Eventually, Maurice was
overpowered, restrained, and dragged out of the bar by seven
guards.
(Narrator: "It was exactly 4:23 when they
dragged Maurice out.").
In the confusion caused by the brawl, the unobserved
Johnny slipped through the open payroll door. |
11:40 am - 12:30 pm |
Farm and Racetrack Parking Lot |
(Narrator: "At 11:40 that morning, Nikki
left his farm. He arrived at the track at 12:30.").
Nikki drove
from his farm (with a guitar case hiding a sniper rifle), and
arrived at one of the racetrack's closed parking areas at 12:30
pm - too early - in his open sports car roadster. He was diverted
by the black parking attendant (James Edwards) to a different
parking lot, because the lot wasn't open yet. Nikki falsely
claimed he was a disabled veteran (from the Battle of the Bulge),
and would watch the race from his parked car. After a patronizing
bribe was offered, however, he was allowed to park in the lot
adjacent to the track. The friendly attendant brought Nikki
a race program during the 2nd race. When asked, Nikki advised
him to bet on 'Red Lightning' in the 7th race. |
Race # 7
|
Racetrack Parking Lot |
As the 7th race was about to begin, the attendant
came over to thank Nikki for the race tip, and gave him a horseshoe
for good luck, but the anxious Nikki refused the gift, to try
to get the talkative and bothersome attendant to leave before
the race commenced: "Keep
your junk and leave me alone, will ya?" When the attendant
innocently asked: "Somethin' wrong?", Nikki was compelled
to deliver a racial slur and call the attendant a 'nigger':
("You're
wrong, nigger. Be a nice guy and go on about your business").
The attendant answered: "Sorry, boss. Sorry to have bothered
you. My mistake." As he marched away, the attendant tossed
the horseshoe in disgust to the ground, just behind Nikki's
car. |
During Race # 7 and at 4:24 pm |
Sniper's perch near parking lot |
Nikki aimed his rifle and shot Red Lightning
during the 7th race as it turned the corner after the stretch.
As Nikki backed up to drive off in his car, he was shot dead
by a track police officer. His body was
sprawled next to the back tire that had been punctured by the
horseshoe - a symbol of luck gone bad.
(Narrator: "Nikki was dead at 4:24").
(Death Toll Total: One)
At the same time, the race-track had erupted
into confusion following the downing of Red Lightning. |
2:15 pm |
Luggage Shop |
(Narrator: "At 2:15 that afternoon, Johnny Clay
was still in the city. He knew exactly how long it would take
him to drive to the track, park his car, and walk to the grandstand.
He planned to arrive just before the start of the 7th race").
Johnny emerged from the front of a luggage store
with a briefcase. |
Just Before Race # 7 |
Racetrack |
Johnny walked by the grandstand's teller windows,
gesturing toward the scared-looking George behind the barred
$5 Win ticket window. Standing near the payroll door, Johnny
spotted drunken Marvin leaning against a wall. He walked over
to the racetrack bar area, gestured toward O'Reilly, and saw
Maurice waiting at the bar for his appointed time to start a
brawl. He walked back to the payroll door, awaiting the chaos
at the bar created by Maurice. Once the barfight commenced, the "money
room" was notified of the need for more guards, and two guards rushed out.
With the chaos in the bar area, Johnny slipped
through the payroll door, earlier opened by George. |
Johnny ascended a spiral staircase,
and first went to the employees locker-room to retrieve the
rifle (planted in O'Reilly's locker in a flower box), and then donned
a grotesque, grinning rubber clown mask (over his face) and gloves.
The Actual Heist:
As Race # 7 (deliberately
commencing more than once during the above sequence), the four clerks
/ accountants in the track's back counting or "money room" of
the payroll office were held up by the disguised Johnny, and robbed
of $2 million in cash. The guards that normally were present in the
room had rushed off to help control the bar-fight. One of the cashier-clerks
was ordered to place cash on the back table into a large white laundry-duffel
bag ("Fill
that bag up just as fast as you know how"), while the others were
disarmed and told to face the wall. The clerk with the duffel bag was
also ordered to continue filling the bag with cash from the safe.
In the background, the race announcer was heard describing the spill
of Red Lightning and how the jockey Danny Freed was unhurt. When the
duffel bag was stuffed to the brim with cash, Johnny ordered the floor
clerks into the employees locker room across the hall. Then, Johnny
placed his disguise (mask, gloves, coat, and shirt) and the weapon
into a large duffel bag, and tossed the heavy, bulky bag out an open
window.
As Johnny exited the payroll door, an armed policeman
confronted him, but was knocked down. He was able to cooly walk
out of the racetrack building with crowds of people.
The Gang Members' Rendezvous in Maurice Unger's Apartment:
More news
about the robbery at the racetrack was conveyed on the radio, after
the surviving gang members (George, Mike, Randy and Marvin) had assembled
and were waiting at Unger's apartment - the rendezvous site for the
accomplices at the appointed time of 7:00 pm - to split up the cash
and get their shares of the loot. It was reported that the horse
sniper (Nikki) had been fatally shot in a racetrack parking lot.
The tense group awaited nervously for Johnny to appear, drinking
and listening to the radio, but heard no news of the main bandit's
escape with the duffel bag of money:
"In one of the most daring and carefully-executed
hold-ups in criminal history, a lone bandit wearing a rubber mask
today took an estimated $2 million stuffed into a large duffel
bag from the offices of the Lansdowne Racetrack. The robbery occurred
during the running of the seventh race and was apparently timed
to coincide with the shooting of Red Lightning, just as the horse,
valued at $250,000, was leading the pack at the far turn. The jockey,
Danny Freed, escaped with minor injuries. A man identified as Nikki
Arano, who allegedly shot the prized thoroughbred, was himself
fatally wounded by track police as he attempted to shoot his way
out of the track parking lot. At this time, the most baffling mystery
that still plagues the authorities is just how the bandit managed
to successfully get away from the track with the bulky duffel bag
containing the money. A painstaking search of the track grounds
is being conducted on the theory that the money may still be hidden
there."
After the radio news report, bruised-faced O'Reilly
was surprised the scheme had worked so well: ("No
one saw the duffel bag come out of the window"). Kennan confirmed
everything went smoothly, claiming to the others
that he had retrieved the thrown duffel bag from the window ("Ah,
that part of it worked OK. Landed right at my feet"),
but was anticipating being punished (with a 30-day suspension) by his
police Captain, and accused of being drunk:
"I
reported my radio out of order before I went out to the track. But
the Captain ain't buyin' it. He's convinced I was holed up somewhere,
drunk. And if the Captain's convinced, there ain't nobody that can
un-convince him. Besides, no one's gonna think anything of seein' a
cop at the racetrack. I mean, they won't get any funny ideas about
it and tie it in with the robbery. Anyway, if they do, it won't cut
any ice. Captain knows I was
drunk. And he ain't a man you can argue with. So I guess I'll just
have to break down, admit it, and take my punishment."
When
it became later and later than the "timetable" had called
for, a 7:00 pm rendezvous, it was now 7:15 pm (according to George),
and the foursome began to wonder why Johnny had not shown up. Kennan
assured them that Johnny would soon get there as planned: "Don't
worry. He'll get here. He had to pick up the dough at the motel where
I dropped it." As planned, Kennan had
driven the bag to Johnny's motel, and deposited it in Johnny's rented
cabin room. George was anxiously skeptical about why Johnny hadn't
arrived: "Everything
else runs on a timetable until it comes to payin' us our shares. Then
the timetable breaks down."
The Unexpected Arrival of Mobsters - A Deadly Shoot-Out:
At around 7:15 pm when they heard the elevator, the
group was ready to welcome Johnny, but were surprised
instead by the arrival of Val Cannon (with accomplice Tiny (Joe Turkel)),
who at gunpoint held up the gang members:
"It'll be a massacre if you don't keep those mitts up." When
Val demanded to know about the stolen cash and Johnny's whereabouts,
a deadly shoot-out or gunfight ensued. From a back room, George appeared
and shot Val and Tiny, but all were gunned down and killed (and viewed
as a pile of strewn corpses while Latin music played on the radio),
except for the seriously-wounded George, who struggled to get to
the door and twist the knob (from his POV).
(Death Toll Total: Six)
Johnny's Arrival at the Rendezvous Location:
[Note: The narrator then stated two confusing time-frame
references. He announced that "40 minutes before (the gunfight),
at 6:25, Johnny reached the motel" - but that was an inaccurate
statement. '40 minutes before 7:15' would have been 6:35 pm. And
then the narrator announced that Johnny was "15 minutes behind
schedule" due to heavy traffic around the track.]
At the motel, Johnny - at first - almost mistakenly
entered the wrong motel room. He retrieved the duffel bag that had
been brought there by Kennan, plus the guitar case. When Johnny arrived at the apartment for
the 7:00 pm rendezvous, the narrator provided another false statement:
Narrator: "Johnny arrived at
the meeting place at 7:29, still 15 minutes late." [Note: Johnny
was actually almost a half hour late.]
After parking in front of the apartment, Johnny saw
(from his POV that was filmed from the backseat) the bloodied George
stumble out of the apartment front door, fall over the hood of his
car, and then cross the street to his car after an apparent gun battle.
The group's agreement was that if plans went awry, the one who possessed
the money could flee, and then later divide the cash with the others.
Johnny was forced to take the money - as described in voice-over:
Narrator: "It had been
prearranged and agreed to by all that in the event of an emergency
before the split, the money was to be saved by whoever had possession
of it at that time without any consideration of the fate of the
others, the money to be divided in safety at a later date. After
what he had seen, and not knowing the cause or the circumstances
of the others, Johnny had no choice but to save himself and the
money. Ten minutes later, he bought the largest suitcase he could
find."
After purchasing a large old suitcase at a pawn shop
at 7:39 pm, Johnny drove to a deserted country road and stuffed
the cash into the suitcase (but significantly, he couldn't secure
the case because of the inoperative locks).
[Note: It must be stated
that after all the meticulous planning, why didn't Johnny pre-purchase
a functioning suitcase?]
George's Fatal Confrontation with His Faithless Wife
Sherry:
After staggering home to his apartment, the sole-surviving,
determined yet fatally-wounded George heard his wife from the back
bedroom calling out - thinking it was Val: "I'm
back here, Val, darling. How'd it go, dear?" He stumbled into
the room - looking like Nikki's paper target after it had been shredded
with gunfire - and confronted his faithless and scheming wife Sherry
with a plaintive question: "Why
did you do it?" He suspected her of desertion, but she had a
pre-planned alibi - she claimed that she was preparing clothes for
the cleaners, but she was obviously packing a suitcase to run away
with her co-conspirator Val. Sherry believed that the money would bring
her out of poverty and revitalize her life. She insulted George for
his continuing stupidity in getting himself shot - and then tipped
off George that Val would be arriving soon, to run off with her:
"So you had to be stupid. You couldn't even play
it smart with a gun pointed at you. Well, you
better get smart fast and get outta here while you can still walk....You
better get out of here before he gets here."
About to expire, George
denounced her for associating with Val, but first requested
that she call an ambulance for him, but she coldly refused: "The
door's behind you. Take a cab."
He vowed his love for her: "I love you, Sherry," but then
as she continued to urge him to leave: ("George, you better
go on and go. You look terrible"), he blasted away and shot her
in the abdomen - no longer impotent. As she died, she bemoaned her
unfair luck:
"It isn't fair. I never had anybody but you.
Not a real husband. Not even a man. Just a bad joke without a punch
line."
George fell dead, tumbling forward and knocking
over the parrot cage - a symbol of his pitiful, enclosed life. Her
loudly-squawking, shrieking bird mimicked her line: "Ain't
fair."
(Death Toll Total: Eight)
Johnny's and Fay's Fateful Airport Escape:
Johnny met his girlfriend/fiancee
Fay at the airport - with pre-purchased tickets for a 9 o'clock DC-7
flight to Boston, for their assumed names: Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Preston.
At the check-in counter, an airline desk clerk (William Benedict) denied
Johnny's vehement requests to take his prominently-bulky suitcase
on board, and insisted that he check the oversized bag due to airline
regulations. The friendly clerk offered to retrieve his earlier checked
bag to transfer the contents to smaller bags, but Johnny said that
wouldn't work. When Johnny suggested to Mr. Grimes (James Griffith),
the obliging supervisor, that he couldn't make the trip without the
bag, he was offered two full ticket rebates if he decided not to
fly, and then was offered free insurance by the clerk for the valuable
large piece of baggage if he did decide to travel. Realizing that
he was making a scene, the apprehensive Johnny was finally forced
to capitulate ("Check
it through"). The camera focused on the
bag as it was loaded onto a conveyor belt and disappeared.
There were further doomed circumstances for the heist
when Johnny and Fay were standing behind fencing on the tarmac at
the departure gate. They watched in horror as a baggage-cart driver
swerved to the right to avoid a rich woman's (Cecil Elliott) spoiled
poodle-dog named Sebastian that had escaped from her arms and ran
into its path when frightened by the airplane noise. (The woman was
awaiting her husband's flight arrival at a nearby gate on the tarmac.)
The jostled cart sent Johnny's checked heavy suitcase of stolen
money tumbling onto the tarmac where it broke open and flooded the
airstrip with the cash - there was the incredible visual shot of
an airplane propeller blowing away the fallen suitcase's contents
of stolen cash that whirled all over the runway.
[Note: The scene
paid direct homage to the conclusion of John Huston's The
Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) when the wind blew hard-earned
gold dust across the desert to merge with the desert soil.]
Stunned by the sight of the money blowing around,
Johnny and Fay decided to walk calmly back into the terminal and
flee from the airport. In the final few moments of the film, Mr.
Grimes was alerted by phone to the opened suitcase of cash on the
runway, while he simultaneously noticed the unusual sight of the
couple slowly walking by the check-in desk toward the terminal's
glass exit doors.
After Fay
desperately tried to hail a few passing taxi-cabs from the curb, she
turned and watched through the glass doors behind them, as Mr. Grimes
pointed at them and identified them to two armed plainclothes policemen
(Charles Cane and Robert B. Williams). The alerted officers approached
toward the glass doors to arrest them, as
Fay murmured a warning:
Fay: "Johnny, you've
got to run!"
Johnny: "Nah, what's the difference?"
The stunned Johnny - demoralized and spiritless, realized
it was futile to run, and delivered the film's final existential
line to Fay. They both turned to face the two authority figures
who were advancing through the doors and moving closer to them with
their guns drawn. |