‘5 Against The House’ or — National Lampoon’s Heist Movie?
Four college students witness an armed robbery at Harold’s Casino in Reno, a policeman subsequently informing them that the guy was an idiot as Harold’s is impossible to knock-off. The security is too tight, the surveillance systems too sophisticated but boy, is there a tonne of dough in that place.
On the drive back to their college one of the four muses all this over and develops a foolproof plan — how to rob Harold’s and get away scot-free! Yes, they have their studies but there’s the feeling something is missing from their lives, some excitement. Besides, they’ll give the money back afterwards. This is simply an exercise to prove a point and have some fun along the way.
However, all of the four friends will need to be involved in the heist if it is to work, which could be tricky as the most level-headed of the group, Al, has just become engaged to Kim Novak. He’ll need persuading, something his old Korean war buddy, Brick, feels sure he can do. Yet when Brick’s PTSD from combat rears its head it becomes apparent that Brick might be willing to go further than anyone expected not just to get Al onboard with the plan but to rob the casino for real… and keep the money.
From the above it might seem that ‘5 Against The House’ (1955) is a tough, no nonsense thriller so let’s get the fact that, much like a middle-aged man passing for a college student, this movie isn’t what it appears in the slightest. Instead it’s a college caper, its four friends getting up to mischief in Reno. It’s all very, very silly.
This could put some people off because the light tone, farcical college environment (this film has more in common with ‘Animal House’ than ‘Rififi’) and constant jokey banter really jar when the movie has to deal with the fact these guys are ultimately committing armed robbery. The humourous tone also means whenever Brick’s war trauma manifests it can seem somewhat crass and insensitively handled, simply there to force events to get “serious”. The result is a film impossible to take seriously.
Oddly, though, this is the movie’s strength because I ended up enjoying ‘5 Against The House’ way more than I was expecting. Sure it’s silly and fluffy, has Kim Novak crow-barred in and rests on a plan that is laugh-inducingly ludicrous but it’s also an incredibly easy watch. The script is constantly throwing quips and “zingers” at the audience to the point you feel it’s trying too hard (“I need to get out of this singing dress” “You know she’s right; that dress actually does sing” or “He’s got a headache and we’re living in the Aspirin age”) but I admired the effort and laughed quite a bit.
Although not as much as how hard I laughed when I realised what the “fool-proof” plan actually was. The film plays coy with how they’re going to execute the robbery for the majority of the runtime, sometimes pulling a narrative twist (Brick suddenly taking control) so as to actively avoid having to explain it at all. But the central conceit is so silly I couldn’t help but admire the insanity of it all and it kept me giggling away until the climax.
Throw in the pretty nifty use of an automated parking garage, the use of technology and gadgetry, bullying freshmen for laughs, ridiculous cowboys outfits, even more ridiculous false moustaches, atomic paranoia (“Nobody’s going to drop a bomb on you now”) and you can really sense how hard ‘5 Against The House’ is trying to entertain. And on that fundamental level it pretty much succeeds.
Keep your expectations low, throw any notion of a thriller or noir out of your head, accept the fact middle-aged men can be college students who suddenly decide to commit a major felony and ‘5 Against The House’ is a fun, if unremarkable, watch. It’s not a classic (there’s nothing classic about this film — the acting, the dialogue, the music — in the slightest) but I was pleasantly surprised at how much more I enjoyed it than I was expecting.
