1967: Robbery (6)

What else happened this year? Vietnam? Strikes? Had that all finished? This was close to the year of protests, and I think it wasn't much of a surprise.

What is the plot - in one sentence? A group of English robbers plot together to rob a postal train, while dogged policemen look to capture them.

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? They initially succeed because of good planning. However, the plan involves hiding for a few days in a hidden bunker, and they grow impatient. One of them calls his wife, which gives the police a clue to their location. Police close in and all of the members are arrested, except for the leader of the gang, who manages to smuggle his money away and is shown in New York without his signature moustache. It finishes with a genuine 'the end?' 

What is the meaning of the title? It's about a robbery. It's about as generic as a title gets.

 

These are the two main guys behind the robbery, here they are 'training' for the heist. Note that one is wearing suit pants, the other wearing his grandad's cardigan. If they're the brains, no wonder it went awry.

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? Other than the lack of mobile phones and cctv, and the fashion, this would be the bones of a good story today. It holds up well. A woman slaps a criminal in a line up, and the one woman in the movie of any substance (the lead gangster's moll) gets drunk on neat vodka and asks to be slapped around, but she isn't - which is incredibly progressive for that era of cinema*

Any thoughts? This movie's initial car chase is excellent. It's why the director was tasked with directing the excellent Bullitt the following year. It's so good, in fact, that although the rest of the movie is good, it peaks in the first few minutes and never fully recovers, and that's never good (right ladies?)

There are a couple of funny things: Some of the gang members arrange to meet and discuss the heist. They do so at a soccer match; talking noisily about robbing and killing with people all around them. there's also a very leisurely prison break, where a fight is started as a distraction and the guy they're springing, against his will, is hoiked up by rope over the wall, very slowly. while the police ignore it. It's also him who calls his wife, which gives their location away, so that was a bad call.

My favourite line, because of the time it is, and because it's so forced, is

'money breeds money? Mine must be on the pill'

which is met with far more laughter than you'd imagine.

Would you recommend this? I would. I liked it, an almost-gritty robbery movie with few recognisable actors and a tight plot. It's set in a very cool, confident London and makes a good focus on the match between the criminals and the police, some of whom are shown to have a past together.

We also get a very strong 'I'm not going back inside (prison, if it goes wrong), not again' Chekov's promise** He is true to his word, as the character who says this is able to hide money in Ireland and then fuck off to America.

Final thoughts? This was nicely done, a good surprise, but it got me thinking of other movies which start stronger than the rest of the movie, I could think of several. I still liked this though. the story is ageless but the details change immensely: it's a good story ad good plot, but has police smoking indoors and other details from the time that give it a bit of flavour. I approve.

 Want more of this nonsense? Find the link to all of these right... here... 

*Just for the record, I thought of that question after watching a lot of Western and films noir, which feature women being slapped around as par for the course. I also watched 'La Dolce Vita,' of which probably the most famous scene is a comely Swedish woman frolicking in that Roman fountain. The part they don't tell you is that immediately after it, her boyfriend slaps her around. That's why this question is here, and so far, it's still a valid question.

** -I don't understand Chekov's gun as a principle