The Outfit

Robert Duvall avenges his brother’s murder by the mob in John Flynn’s unsparingly tough inheritor of classic 1940s noir.

Introduced by Jason Wood, Executive Director for Public Programmes and Audiences, BFI

  • Director

    John Flynn

  • With

    Robert Duvall, Karen Black, Joe Don Baker, Robert Ryan

  • USA 1973. 103min

  • 35mm

  • Certificate

    15

Released from a stretch following a failed bank heist, Earl Macklin learns that his brother has been killed by a mob ‘outfit’, and so sets out to take them down. Flynn’s tough adaptation of Donald E. Westlake’s Parker novel trims away any ounce of fat to deliver one of the leanest, meanest crime films of its era. Sidestepping the existentialism of many 1970s neo-noirs for something more classical, it’s given added authenticity by the presence of so many original 1940s noir faces: Robert Ryan, Jane Greer, Timothy Carey and Elisha Cook Jr. among them. A favourite of Tarantino, who once planned to remake it, The Outfit ranks among the most overlooked US films of its era. This original release print is well-worn for its first reel, and at reel changes, but otherwise fine.

James Bell