In this crime thriller, career burglar John "Duke" Anderson (Sean Connery) is released from his latest prison term of 10 years. He renews his relationship with his old girlfriend Ingrid (Dyan Cannon), who lives in a upscale apartment block in NYC. Anderson decides to burglarize the entire building. He gets financing from a Mafia boss and gathers his four-man crew, including Haskins (Martin Balsam) a vintage 1970s gay stereotype, and old ex-con drunk William "Pop" Myer (Stan Gottlieb), whom Anderson met in jail, and who is to play concierge while the real one is bound and gagged in the cellar. What Anderson doesn't know is that every move he makes is being monitored and taped by several law enforcement agencies, who hope that he will lead them to the Mob kingpins. "The Anderson Tapes" boasts an impressive supporting cast, many of whom play against type, including Alan King as the aging and infirm Mafia don Angelo. It was the first major motion picture for actor Christopher Walken, who appears as "The Kid."
Less welcome is a man the Mafia foists onto Anderson: the thuggish "Socks" Parelli (Val Avery) , a psychopath who has become a liability to the mob and, as part of the deal, Anderson must kill him in the course of the robbery. Anderson is not keen on this since the operation is complicated enough, but relunctantly agrees. The agents, cameras, bugs, and tracking devices of numerous public and private agencies see almost the entire operation from the earliest planning to the execution. As Anderson advances the scheme he moves from the surveillance of one group to another as locations or individuals change. The movie goes on and on and on and finally in a shootout Anderson kills "Socks" but is himself shot by the police. The other robbers are killed, injured or captured, but none get away with it. "Pop" gives himself up after a while of letting the police believe that he is the real concierge.
In the course of searching the building, the police discover some audio listening equipment left behind by the private detective who was hired to check up on Ingrid. While organizing the robbery Anderson met various people who were under similar surveillance for other reasons by various government agencies. To avoid embarrassment over the fact that they failed to realize what was going on and that some of the tapings were illegal, the agencies order the tapes to be erased.
This fast paced movie is slick, humorous, experimental at times, with a notable performance by Martin Balsam as the gay Haskins. Direction is flashy, but it fails to explain the tapes very well, although it addresses the influence of surveillance on modern times, as well as the lack of co-ordination between government agencies. Sean Connery's performance helped him breakout from being stereotyped as James Bond. The screenplay was written by Frank Pierson, based on the best-selling 1970 novel of the same name by Lawrence Sanders. Quincy Jones composed the music score, and Sidney Lumet directed.
