Charley Varrick (a.k.a.The Last of the Independents and Kill Charley Varrick) is a 1973 American neo-noir crime film directed by Don Siegel and starring Walter Matthau, Andrew Robinson, Joe Don Baker and John Vernon. Charley Varrick is based on the novel The Looters by John H. Reese, and is the first of four consecutive films in which Matthau appeared that were not comedies (although his role in Earthquake is comedic).

Plot

Charley Varrick is a crop duster and former stunt pilot with knowledge about explosives. After his cropdusting business failed, Varrick has turned to a life of crime along with his wife Nadine. Along with two accomplices named Al Dutcher and Harman Sullivan, they rob small-town banks in rural New Mexico; they specifically select small local banks that aren't insured by the FDIC, in order to avoid the involvement of the FBI and other federal authorities. During the robbery of one such bank in the (fictional) small town of Tres Cruces, the bank's manager, Harold Young, reluctantly leads Varrick into the bank's vault. As his cohorts empty the bank's vault, Varrick notices that Young is trying to hide some satchels by slowly easing himself in front of them; he demands that Young open those satchels up as well, despite Young's claim that the satchels only contain bearer bonds.