INSIDE OUT (1975)

 

The 1975 caper film INSIDE OUT is a English/German production, filmed mostly in Berlin, dealing with an attempt to loot some hidden Nazi gold. 

30 years after the end of WWII, a swindler (Telly Savalas), an ex-con (Robert Culp), and a retired German military officer (James Mason) hatch a scheme to break out a notorious Nazi bigwig named Reinhard Holtz out of "Siegfried Prison" in Berlin. The motley group is convinced that Holtz knows where a large cache of Nazi gold is buried. As expected, various complications ensue, and the group has to improvise at the drop of a hat to carry off their fantastic plot. 

Telly Savalas already had some experience in going after Nazi gold in KELLY'S HEROES. Here Telly seems to be having a great time, reacting to every obstacle with a well-placed quip. The entire movie, in fact, has a lighthearted air to it. INSIDE OUT isn't a intense suspenseful thriller--it's rather tame for being an international production made in the 1970s. It's rated PG, and it has a very TV movie type of feel to it, especially since Savalas and Robert Culp were long-time American small-screen stars. 

INSIDE OUT was capably directed by Peter Duffell (THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD), and the Berlin locations look fine due to John Coquillon's cinematography. But even for a caper film, the story line is rather far-fetched. Why are Telly and his gang so convinced that an old Nazi will remember an incident over thirty years ago, and why are they so convinced that the large amount of gold will still be where it is supposedly buried? They seem to be taking a major chance over a huge long shot, but this is, after all, what characters do in these types of movies. 

As part of their plan, one of the minor members of Telly's group pretends that he is Hitler in order to convince the drugged-up Holtz to give up the info on the gold's whereabouts. (Nazi gold and fake Hitlers have been elements and a surprisingly high number of features.) Rienhard Holtz, the old Nazi, is held in a prison all by himself, and he's constantly watched by the military of four different countries. Holtz is obviously meant to remind the viewer of Rudolf Hess--so much so that one wonders why the script just didn't go ahead and call the character Hess. (Were the filmmakers afraid of somehow getting sued?) Ten years after INSIDE OUT was made, WILD GEESE II used Rudolf Hess as an actual character in another story involving breaking the man out of his internment. 

INSIDE OUT is a decent, if not particularly memorable, heist tale.