Robbery

For the crime, see robbery.

Robbery is a 1967 British crime film directed by Peter Yates. The story is a heavily fictionalised version of the 1963 Great Train Robbery.

The film was produced by Stanley Baker and Michael Deeley, for Baker's company Oakhurst Productions.

Plot

The film begins with a staged robbery, as a 'traffic warden' sneaks a time delayed gassing device into a Vanden Plas 4 litre car on London's Hatton Garden. The car drives off, and when the gas is released and the driver passes out - crashing the car on Nothumberland Avenue - other accomplices arrive in a stolen ambulance, dressed as ambulancemen. They quickly take the unconscious occupant of the car who has a briefcase chained to his arm. In the back of the ambulance they steal the case, containing jewels.

Straight after, as the robbers park the stolen ambulance in a North West London housing estate to escape in a silver Jaguar MkII, the scene is spotted by police, who are alerted by the stolen ambulance. A prolonged high-speed car chase erupts - one of the biggest yet seen in a British film - with the silver MkII being pursued by police in a similar car, a Jaguar S-Type. The criminals get away.

Using the money from this job, crime boss Paul Clifton (Stanley Baker) begins to build up a team for a much larger job, this time being a Royal Mail train coming south from Glasgow, specifically on the night straight after a bank holiday weekend and carrying a backlog of cash. A meticulous plan is put in place, but there are obstacles: the driver of the silver Jaguar is identified in an identity parade and arrested (but refuses to name accomplices to police); an essential member of the team has to be broken out of prison (Robinson, the bank note expert); and Inspector George Langley (James Booth) is hot on the trail of the jewel robbers, and finds out through informers about plans for an even bigger heist. The film depicts the preparations for the robbery - such as reconnaissance trips to the crime site to plan exits, as well as the police investigations - in a matter-of-fact and unsensationalised way.

Then the night of the job arrives, and the team place themselves and their getaway vehicles at a point on the railway track in the darkness, as others perform tasks such as changing the signaling lights and disconnecting track-side telephones. The robbery itself happens without any unforeseen deviations from the plan, and the robbers arrive at their hide-out with the money. The only question mark is Robinson, who admits to having attempted to call his wife from a nearby phone booth as he waited in the bunker during the heist. At day break the police - including Langley who has driven up the motorway in his Mini - set up operations at the crime site, and begin to explore possible hide-outs, including the disused airbase which the robbers are using. When the police get there, they find evidence that the robbers have used this building, but assume the criminals have probably long since left - which isn't the case, because they are in fact hiding in the basement.

Having escaped that close shave, the robbers' plan seems to be going ok. All the vehicles and some of the men have left the airbase, and the vehicles are hidden at a scrap yard, whose owner is being paid off. The process of sorting the money continues in the bunker - and those still in there wait for news that the coast is clear so they can be picked up and the money taken out of the country, to Switzerland.

Things turn for the worst when the scrap yard man appears sweating and nervous in an airport departure lounge, alerting security. Although he was paid a much smaller amount than the others were getting - around £1000 - he is caught with banknotes strapped to his body. Being obviously nervous and out of his depth, he evidently caves into police interrogation because they are later waiting at his yard when half the robbery team go there to retrieve the vehicles. One of the arrested must have in turn confessed to the hide-out location, because we see the police drive back to the disused airfield - in an identical convoy of vehicles to those the robbers used - and arrest those in the bunker. Paul Clifton's original plan was to immediately get the money to Switzerland and divide it up there, but it was a decisive error that half the team demanded the money be split straight away, which meant the plan had to be modified to include a hide-out, near the scene of the crime.

The only one of the team not arrested is the leader Paul Clifton, who has managed to organise to take a cut of the money, and yet not been caught. In the closing scenes he places some wooden boxes of money on a private plane bound presumably for Switzerland, and is last seen disembarking at New York with a different identity.

Cast

• Stanley Baker as Paul Clifton
• Joanna Pettet as Kate Clifton
• James Booth as Inspector George Langdon
• Frank Finlay as Robinson
• Barry Foster as Frank
• William Marlowe as Dave Aitken
• Clinton Greyn as Jack
• George Sewell as Ben
• Glynn Edwards as Squad Chief

Production notes

The film, which was shot entirely on location, contains great period footage of central London including shots of Marble Arch, Trafalgar Square, Little Venice and Kensal Green. Filming was even done at New York Harbour and Arbour Hill Prison in Dublin.

Robbery also became an influential in the genre of British film and TV police/crime thrillers through the 1970s, such as The Sweeney and The Long Good Friday. Robbery also inspired the 1988 movie Buster 21 years later and apparently was filmed in the exact same location.

The film include a dramatic car chase, realistic portrayal of police procedure as well as crime preparations and scenes shot entirely on location. These creative aspects attracted the attention of Steve McQueen who hired director Peter Yates the following year to direct Bullitt. The movie, which was produced by the star's Solar Productions Company, was shot entirely on location in San Francisco and features one of cinema's greatest car chases.

DVD Release

In 2008 'Robbery' was released on DVD for the first time. Previous to this, the only copies in circulation were from a 1980s VHS release.

External links

• Robbery at the Internet Movie Database
• Robbery at Allmovie