It’s not shocking to realize that William Friedkin, one of the star directors of ’70s filmmaking, took a breather and attempted a caper comedy after the ordeals of “The French Connection” and “Sorcerer,” seeing as how the latter film damn near broke him.

He could have made a straightforward version of “The Brinks Job.”  But no, the facts of that story — the 1950 Brinks Armored Car Co. vaulted business office heist in Boston — seemed to lend themselves to laughs.  So he cast a corps of guys who had proved or would prove in this film and later ones that they could be funny.

Peter Falk, Peter Boyle, Warren Oates, Paul Sorvino, Allen Garfield and Sheldon Leonard — playing the tallest and least likely to ever be seen in a dress F.B.I. chief J. Edgar Hoover?  There’s got to be a chuckle or two, three or ten in that crew.

“Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia” star Oates plays a bespectacled blowhard vet whose story of his “service” during WWII changes to much nobody could possibly take this “Specs” guy seriously when he suggests blowing a safe with a bazooka. But he is. Serious.

“Young Frankenstein” star Boyle has nothing funny to play as the fence/financier of the caper. Garfield may be somewhat amusing as the short-attention-span brother-in-law Falk’s “mastermind,” Tony Pino, keeps in the crew, against his better judgement.

And Falk plays it pretty straight, bringing a deadpan incredulity to Pino, a l0w-rent cool customer, fresh out of “the joint” and ready to make a score that will end his greasy spoon diner days with wife Mary (Gena Rowlands).

For long stretches as the “job” is plotted and planned, we have to hunt for clues as to why this was ever considered a “comedy.”

One “tell” — Friedkin’s late ’40s to early ’50s’ period piece is the tidiest version of Boston you’ll ever see, unless Disney makes a “Newsies II: Beantown Bop” sequel. A filmmaker known for grit and grime and cityscapes painted in grey and rust — “The French Connection,” “To Love and Die in LA” — swept and scrubbed the streets, alleys, warehouses and tenements of Boston because comedy is…tidy?

The occasional funny line gives away the intent, too.

“Yer honor, I can’t DO no twenty years!”

“Well, do as much as ye can, son.”

The big joke here is that this unlikely crew of ex-cons and unimaginative mugs pulled off the heist of the century when they figured out that the armored car company Brinks was basically intimidating and formidable by self-hyped reputation. As was the Hoover era F.B.I.

Brinks was uniformed but sloppy, guarding millions in cash and securities and the like with cut-rate methods and minimal expense and effort. The vaunted F.B.I. couldn’t get anywhere in the investigation without torturing would-be suspects. And even then, a guy with a high pain tolerance and teeth-gritting patience could wait them out.

Falk, who’d first proven his comic mugging chops with The Rat Pack’s “Robin and the Seven Hoods” over a decade before, manages a cocky twinkle here and there, and the odd bit of sputtering outrage.

But “The Brinks Job” is entirely too straightforward to play as funny as we’re walked through the haphazard planning, the not-that-tense near blunders of the job itself and the aftermath.

“Slow-walked” is closer to the mark. Comedy is quick, and this film isn’t. And it’s not as if Friedkin does anything ambitious or arresting with the heist, either.

“The Hot Rock” was more suspenseful and far funnier. “Brinks Job” is closer to George C. Scott’s abortive “The Bank Shot” in failed caper comedy terms, and even that film scored more laughs than this.

There’s a little “local color” with the odd Boston Italian (Sorvino) or Irish mug (Malachy McCourt plays one) popping up. Falk’s ex-con is an expert “peteman,” or “pete.” That’s an archaic term for safecracker.

Aside from that, this movie could have been shot and set most anywhere urban, with only the cars identifying the era and only the label “comedy” telling us we’re supposed to be laughing.

Falk would hit his comic peak with “The In-Laws” and in decades of playing Lt. Columbo on TV. Boyle would have a grand third act comeback with “Everybody Loves Raymond.” And Oates would turn up in “Stripes,” the wildly popular Bill Murray farce, before dying too young.

Friedkin would also bounce back — not with the notorious “Cruising” (1980), but with “To Live and Die in LA” a few years later. And he’d never make a classic comedy, or even a very good one.  But with “The Exorcist,” “The French Connection,” “To Live and Die in LA” and “Killer Joe” on his credits, who needs comedies?

Rating: PG, violence, profanity
Cast: Peter Falk, Peter Boyle, Warren Oates, Gena Rowlands, Allen Garfield, Gerard Murphy, Kevin O’Connor, Malachy McCourt and Sheldon Leonard.
Credits: Directed by William Friedkin, scripted by Walon Green and Noel Behn. A Univeral release on Youtube, Amazon, Apple TV, other streamers
Running time: 1:44