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| Title: SLITHER Year: 1973 Rating: ****1/2 |
Right after playing the tough, feisty Sonny Corleone in THE GODFATHER, square-jawed James Caan went another direction; but it takes around fifteen minutes into SLITHER to realize this particular hardened criminal (a freshly sprung ex-con) isn't really tough at all...
As in, he doesn't prefer fighting, whether offense or defense, seeming dazedly reluctant when a cranky farmer wants to break his arm for hitchhiking... and what Caan holds back provides one of his best performances...
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| James Caan and Peter Boyle in SLITHER aka La Chasse aux Dollars |
He plays former local hero has-been Dick Kanipsia, rolling with the punches instead of doling them out, and is the epitome of a rogue — the irony being he can hardly ever be alone, mainly stuck with quirky husband and wife Peter Boyle and Louise Lasser (perfectly wielding their own unique style, only more laidback than usual)...
Boyle driving and Caan shotgun, towing Lasser in the married's beloved RV, listening to swing era instrumentals while searching for a ton of money that Caan's newly murdered prison buddy, played by the always intriguing Richard B. Shull — formerly partnered with Boyle — had promised was...
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| Sally Kellerman sipping a Budweiser in SLITHER |
Well all that stuff, which can fill volumes of background exposition, is complicated in the usual pulpy fashion that evolving mystery-laden noirs tend to be...
And SLITHER, oddly named after what Caan does to emerge from painted corners as opposed to a snake-driven creature feature it sounds like, has the kind of story that only partially makes sense during the usual 11th hour mystery-genre explanation... an intentional letdown having caused two-hours of roundabout havoc...
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| One of two black vans that have their own soundtrack in SLITHER |
Although Sally Kellerman, as part hippie-dippy/part gun-wielding psycho chick Kitty, is Caan's real problem, and yet she's also the purest character: the only one having nothing to do with what's behind the main plot/chase that includes super-cool, supped-up, menacing black vans...
That have their own formidable (yet 70's-groovy) score ominously intruding upon the upbeat jazzy mainline every time they appear, tailing our offbeat heroes, who spend most of the picture trying to figure out who, and/or what's, inside. Making SLITHER work almost entirely between the lines. An underrated parenthetical semi-classic.
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| James Caan and Peter Boyle in SLITHER |
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| James Caan and Peter Boyle in SLITHER |
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| James Caan in SLITHER aka La Chasse aux Dollars |
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| James Caan and Louise Lasser in SLITHER |
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| James Caan and Peter Boyle in SLITHER with Allen Garfield |
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| James Caan and Peter Boyle in SLITHER |
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| James Caan and Sally Kellerman in SLITHER |
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Edwina Gough as a cute friendly bingo player in SLITHER
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| Edwina Gough in SLITHER with James Caan |
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| Another Godfather actor Alex Rocco with Sally Kellerman in SLITHER |
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| James Caan in SLITHER aka La Chasse aux Dollars |
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| James Caan in SLITHER with Allen Garfield |
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| James Caan in SLITHER with Allen Garfield |
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| Sally Kellerman in SLITHER aka Os Covardes Vivem Bem |
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| James Caan in SLITHER with Richard B. Shull |
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| Photos from the Neo Noir road film SLITHER featuring a cool black van |
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| Bikini girl in SLITHER aka Os Covardes Vivem Bem |
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| Chase scene in SLITHER aka Os Covardes Vivem Bem |
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| Allen Garfield is the expository-teller in SLITHER |
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| James Caan in SLITHER with Richard B. Shull |
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| James Caan with cranky driver Seamon Glass in SLITHER |
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| Diana Darrin and Peter Boyle in SLITHER |
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| Louise Lasser in SLITHER with James Caan |
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| James Caan and the book Ruined Virgin in SLITHER |
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| James Caan on the road in the road movie SLITHER |
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| Edwina Gough plays bingo in Slither with Sally Kellerman and James Caan |
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| The adorable Edwina Gough and James Caan in the SLITHER bingo scene |
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| James Caan plans another quick escape to slither out again in SLITHER |
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| Recent coronavirus victim Allen Garfield in Slither w/ James Caan & Peter Boyle |
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| Diana Darrin and Peter Boyle in SLITHER aka A nagy koppanás |
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| Juxtaposition of the Pismo Beach and both vehicle types in SLITHER |
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| James Caan in SLITHER aka A nagy koppanás aka Śliska sprawa |
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| James Caan and Sally Kellerman bed down in SLITHER |
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| Sally Kellerman as Kitty in SLITHER aka Lønn som forkjent |
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| James Caan and Peter Boyle in SLITHER aka Los cobardes viven bien |
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| James Caan and Peter Boyle in SLITHER aka Los cobardes viven bien |
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| Louise Lasser with Peter Boyle in SLITHER starring James Caan |
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| Louise Lasser in SLITHER aka Jackpot aka Lønn som forkjent |
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| Sally Kellerman as Kitty in SLITHER aka Schleuderpartie |
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| Peter Boyle and Louise Lasser in SLITHER starring James Caan |
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| James Caan and Sally Kellerman in SLITHER with Peter Boyle |
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| Warner Brothers Archive Blue Cover and the SLITHER video cover of yesteryear |
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| Black vans and James Caan in SLITHER aka Слизняк aka Os Covardes Vivem Bem |
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| What looks a kind of reverse High Noon has James Caan finishing up with SLITHER |
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| Peter Boyle as Barry Fenaka in SLITHER directed by his future Dream Team partner Howard Zieff |
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