by Erika Cox
Directed and produced by Lewis Milestone, a classic movie from 1960 was
the heist film Ocean’s Eleven. The film was not immediately popular with
critics, but it was remade in 2001, featuring such superstars as Brad
Pitt and Matt Damon.
The original film differs greatly from the remake,
and although the remake is considered by most to be the superior film,
the original Ocean’s Eleven is a classic and well loved by many people
who love adventurous plots and famous faces.
In the original movie, Danny Ocean leads a gang of men who were all once
in the army together to rob five Las Vegas casinos on New Year’s Eve.
The famous Rat Packer
Frank Sinatra plays Danny Ocean, and other
Rat
Packers also appear in the film. Ocean’s crew of men consist of people
who all have special jobs in making the crimes work.
Jimmy Foster (Peter Lawford) is one of the first to join the band of
thieves. He was once a war hero, but has since become a playboy living
off of his wealthy mother. He discovers that Duke Santos (Cesar Romero)
is an ex-mobster and plans to marry his mother, so he has a personal
stake in the robbery.
Dean Martin plays Sam Harmon, an ex-Lieutenant, who works as a lounge
performer and participates in the group only to make everyone else
happy—he has not lust for the money himself. His job in the casino,
where Roger Corneal (Henry Silva) also works, provides amble distraction
when necessary. Tony Bergdoff works as the group’s electrician, and he
scopes out the circuit boxes and security alarms in the days leading up
to the heist.
Josh Howard (Sammy Davis Jr.), also plays a crucial role
at this point. He was the demolition man in the war and helps the gang
by disguising himself as a garbage man and blowing up the casinos’ power
supply out of town. Other parts of the gang include Mushy O’Connors
(Joey Bishop), Spyros Acebos (Akim Tamiroff) Vince Massler (Buddy
Lester) and Curly Steffens (Richard Benedict).
About two hours before midnight, Bergdoff crosses the wires at all five
casinos to prevent the back up generators from kicking in during the
blackout. The crowd is joyfully singing Auld Lang Syne as the power is
blown, and the teams enters the five casinos who’s generators do not
seem to be working. They stuff money into bags, which they throw into
garbage cans outside on the street. On the way out, Bergdoff has a heart
attack and dies, and Ocean and Foster hurry away, since the police
quickly stop to help him. The next morning, Josh, still as the garbage
man, picks up the money, which looks like garbage, and takes it out of
town to the dump. He releases his load and picks out the bags of money,
hiding them in a nearby tunnel.
Duke Santos offers to find the money for a cut of the casino’s losses.
He hears from a sheriff that Bergdoff mentioned the 82nd Airborne in his
final moments of life, and learns from Foster’s mother than her son and
Ocean are both in the city. He puts it all together and figures out who
has pulled the heist. He confronts Ocean and later sells out the casinos
for a promised 50% of the total share instead of the 30% offered by the
casinos.
The men come up with a new plan to get the money. They hide it in Bergdoff’s coffin and send ten thousand dollars to his widow, asking to
have the body shipped to San Francisco for burial. The plan backfires
when she decides at the last minute to have the body cremated, and their
cash goes up in smoke. At the end of the movie, the camera shows the men
walking, defeated.
The movie was not a huge success and was instead considered simply a fun
project for the Rat Packers to work on together. It was nominated for a
1961 WGA Award for Best Written American Comedy and a 1961 Golden Laurel
Award for Top Action Drama, but was not given much more thought until
the 21st century remake, which has a drastically changed plot, but still
features a gang of men coming together for a great casino heist.
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