“Dollars”, also known as “$” (and released in the UK as “The Heist”), is a 1971 American comedy set in Hamburg, Germany, and the first collaboration between Goldie Hawn and Warren Beatty. Beatty plays Joe Collins, an American bank security adviser who plans the perfect crime with the help of Dawn Divine, a sex worker played by Hawn. Due to West German bank privacy laws, criminals can store illicit cash in bank safe deposit boxes. With Dawn’s help, Joe steals the cash from three of those boxes, which of course makes the two of them a target for the criminals they’ve ripped off. What ensues is a series of chases, stunts, and double-crosses as the two extraordinarily good-looking Americans try to make off with the money.
“Dollars” isn’t as remembered as many of the movies on this list, but as dumb crime comedies, it holds up pretty well. Beatty and Hawn are always a delight to watch, and this adventure gives them a lot to do. Granted, Hawn’s “sex worker with a heart of gold” character isn’t the kind of female lead we tend to root for these days, but much like Julia Fox in “Uncut Gems,” she does pretty well by the end of the movie. .
