Robbery

As a former professional racing car driver British born director Peter Yates was more than qualified to stage a thrilling car chase through the streets of West London, following what was a well executed diamond robbery in Hatton Garden. This 20-minute sequence at the beginning of Robbery (1967) persuaded American actor Steve McQueen to invite Yates to America to direct his first Hollywood movie Bullitt (1968).

 

The Glasgow to London train.

It was Michael Deeley, producer of The Italian Job (1969), who bought the rights to Peta Fordham’s book on the Cheddington Mail Van Raid, better known as the Great Train Robbery when just after 3am on the 8^th August 1963 in Buckinghamshire a gang of 15 men attacked a Royal Mail train on its nightly run between Glasgow Central and London Euston and got away with over £2.6 million in used banknotes: the equivalent of over £40m in today's money.

 

Sears Crossing.

For legal reasons the screenplay was a fictionalised version of the story except the actual 25-minute robbery of the train, which was based on court transcripts.   "We had to make sure there was no risk of accidental identification with anyone. The characters involved in the film are in no way based on the characters who took part in the great train robbery”[1].

 

The Royal Mail train is robbed!

The films star and co-producer was Stanley Baker who played Paul Clifton, his wife was played by Joanna Pettet, best known for the part of Mata Bond in the 1967 version of Casino Royale. The main police present’s is represented by James Booth who can be seen in French Dressing (1964), Sparrows Can't Sing (1963) and as Private Henry Hook VC in Zulu (1964). Well known character actor William Marlowe plays Clifton’s second in command and other well known faces include Frank Finley, Barry Foster, George Sewall and a very young looking Robert Powell in his first feature film as a Train Guard.

 

Some of the £2.6 million.

This British crime drama has been underrated and ignored for years; it was not released on DVD until 2008, and deserves a far wider audience. Shoot completely on location by DOP Douglas Slocombe, another connection with The Italian Job, it’s a very authentic and cleverly executed film with some great period detail right down to the sheepskin coats, the smartly dressed women and the Jaguar Mk 2’s.  Watching this film you can sense its influence on other British film and TV police/crime thrillers from the seventies like The Sweeney or perhaps The Long Good Friday (1979). Well worth a look if you have never seen it and a revisit if you have, like me, not seen it since it cinematic release.

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[1] Stanley Baker April 1967.

French Dressing .

It was his work for the BBC’s arts programme Monitor between 1958 and 1965 that brought Ken Russell to national attention, which in turn gave him the opportunity to direct his first feature film. Turning down the chance to direct Cliff Richard in the movie Summer Holiday (1963) he instead opted to direct French Dressing (1964) a decision that ultimately forced him to return to work in television until a second chance arose allowing him to make the more critically acclaimed feature film the Len Deighton spy drama Billion Dollar Brain (1967).

Gormleigh on Sea.

American film actress Alita Naughton.

This Tati-style comedy produced by Frank Harper was set in a seedy British seaside resort called Gormleigh-on-Sea; actually the filming took place at Herne Bay in Kent, South East England obviously during the summer month’s going by the amount of rain. Its rather dubious screenplay involves a very dull down at heel seaside community, that is until seasonal deckchair attendant Jim Stephens (James Booth) and his colleague Henry Liggott (Roy Kinnear) convince the Mayor (Bryan Pringle) to transport an ambitious young French actress called Francoise Fayol (Austrian born B-Movie actress Marisa Mell) to Gormleigh to open the local Film Festival. Of course every thing descends into chaos and its left to Jims girlfriend Judy (obscure American actress Alita Naughton) to save the Mayor from complete embarrassment.

Ken's first nun.

This critical and commercial flop is probable Ken’s most forgettable film and he has admitted that he had no idea how to handle actors at this time and we have to contend with James Booth doing his normal Jack-the-lad routine which grinds after awhile. The script is weak, even with additional dialogue from the great comedy writer of Till Death Us Do Part, Johnny Speight. I’m not surprised that Ken went back to the BBC, certainly not up to his later brilliance but a rare curio all the same and his first opportunity to include a nun, censored for showing her a garter belt! An interesting thing is we get to see, during the film, what the filmmakers regarded as a foreign movie and a ‘French actress’. I would generously describe Ken’s first film as a grand pastiche of seaside humour al la the famous saucy seaside postcards of Donald McGill. For fans only.

James Booth and Roy Kinnear.

Marisa Mell demonstrates the hula hop.