It was Andy
Coleby who described this British heist movie as a fine example of bread and
butter populist cinema. Unmistakable set around 1960 with location shooting
taking place in Newcastle and Gateshead, and the black and white photography
helping to give the Tyne and Wear area a real gritty bleak feel. Payroll
was released in the UK in May 1961and was directed by Sydney Hayers who made
two other films of note during this period Circus
of Horrors (1960) and Night of the
Eagle (1961). It is an unsophisticated tough crime drama involving a group
of four unscrupulous villains who originally plan to rob a saloon car that each
week carries a very large sum of cash to pay a factory's payroll. Before they
can carry out their well-planned undertaking a new means of transporting the
money is developed using a company with a prototype secure van, one that
supposed to be able to defy any attempt at robbery. But the security company
did not allow for the determination of Michael Craig and his rag tag band of
villains.
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| Husband and wife played by Dennis Pearson and Francoise Prevost. |
Although the
more cynical viewer can pick holes in the narrative it remains a grand example of
a British crime noir of the era, at times very exciting with a great robbery
sequence that ends in tragedy and which puts other crime dramas of the period
to shame. Solidly adapted by George Baxt from a novel by Derek Bickerton it
stars Craig[1]
as Johnny Mellors the head of the gang that carryout the hoist caper, his three
compatriots are played by a very edgy Tom Bell[2]
as Blackie, the brilliant composed Kenneth Griffith[3]
as the gangs alcoholic weak link Monty and Barry Keegan as Bert the mechanic. Also
involved in the shenanigans are Billie Whitelaw, as a vengeful widow who
manages to stay one step ahead of the local police force, Dennis Pearson as the
wages clerk and the gangs inside man and his unfaithful wife who is played by
Francoise Prevost the French actress who in 1968 starred in the Metzengerstein
segment of Spirits
of the Dead.
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| Various scenes from the 1961 film. |
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