A few days out of jail and John “Duke” Anderson (Sean Connery) is back with his lover Ingrid (Dyan Cannon) and already planning his next job: robbing every single apartment in her building with the help of a furniture van.

To do the job right, he needs the right crew. So he gathers a team that includes antiques dealer Haskins (Martin Balsam), the safecracker known as The Kid (an incredibly young Christopher Walken) and Pop (Stan Gottlieb), an old-timer who is finally out of jail. However, Angelo (Alan King), the mob boss who funds this operation, forces him to bring along — and kill — “Socks” Parelli (Val Avery) as part of the job, making things even more complicated.

This movie has a great cast, with Conrad Bain, Garrett Morris, Ralph Meeker*, Scott Jacoby and Margaret Hamilton in her last role. It’s beyond prophetic in how overly watched we would be, as every step of the crew is watched, listened to and recorded by a number of government agencies, as well as a team of amateur radio operators. It was released one year to the day before Watergate, which announced just how watched we all are.

Based on the book by Lawrence Sanders, the screenplay was written by Frank Pierso (Cool Hand Luke, Dog Day Afternoon) and diected by Sidney Lumet (Network, Serpico). It brought back Connery’s career and stopped his typecasting as James Bond.

*Meeker plays Edward X. Delaney, a continuing character of Sanders, who would be played by Frank Sinatra in The First Deadly Sin.

Through the Decades: 1970s Collection is new from Mill Creek. It also has A Walk In the Spring Rain, Dollars, Fun With Dick and Jane, The Owl and Pussycat, For Pete’s Sake, The Horsemen, The Stone Killer, Brother John, Gumshoe and The Last Detail. You can learn more on their site and order it from Deep Discount.