Funnily enough, if one wants to talk about Machine Gun McCain, one first has to comment on the utter lack of will and passion for the project on behalf of the film’s cast and crew. John Cassavetes allegedly only accepted a role in the crime film so that he could finance his own pictures later on, and Italian director Giuliano Montaldo said that he made both MGM and another movie called Grand Slam so as to establish his name in the film industry before moving on to the projects he really wanted to make. The final product ended up competing at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival against all odds, where it did not win any awards.
Machine Gun McCain was written by Mino Roli (story), Israel Horovitz (dialogue) and Giuliano Montaldo, who based it on Ovid Demaris’s book called Candyleg. Released in Italy under the name Gli intoccabili, the movie centers around former bank robber Hank McCain, who is paroled after 12 years of doing time. He reconnects with his son and forges a plan to rob a Las Vegas casino owned by the mob. Alongside Cassavetes, the film rounded up some pretty big names on an international level, including Peter Falk, Britt Ekland and Gena Rowlands, who all did a pretty solid job. And although Falk did not share any scenes with the lead actor, he would ultimately end up becoming one of Cassavetes’ longest-lasting collaborators.
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