The Outfit

The Outfit is a 1973 American neo-noir crime film directed by John Flynn. It stars Robert Duvall, Karen Black, Joe Don Baker and Robert Ryan. Flynn's screenplay is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Richard Stark, pseudonym of Donald E. Westlake. It features a character modeled on Stark's fictional character Parker, who was introduced in The Hunter. Plot A pair of hitmen (one dressed as a priest) drive to Eddie Macklin's house and kill him as he builds a brick wall in his backyard. Eddie's brother Earl is released from prison in Illinois after a 27-month term for carrying a concealed weapon. His girlfriend Bett picks him up and takes him to a motel. She informs Earl of his brother's execution by the Outfit. Earl realises that the motel stay is a setup, and when one of the hitmen who killed his brother bursts into the room, Earl ambushes him and tortures him for information. Macklin lets the hitman live and sends him back to Chicago as a warning. Bett confesses that the Outfit tortured her and threatened to cut her face up if she didn't lure Earl to the motel. His next move is to rob a poker game where Outfit member Jake Menner is playing. Menner explains that the bank that Eddie and Earl robbed together was an Outfit cover, so the contract on the two of them is simple retribution. Macklin calculates that the Outfit owes him $250,000 for the trouble it has caused him. He says whatever he earns by ripping off the Outfit's operations in the meantime is just gravy. Then, he shoots Menner in the hand as revenge for the treatment of Bett.