The Great Riviera Bank Robbery

This was a glossy television movie shown on ITV as Dirty Money. It was made by its then ATV subsidiary ITC.

Dirty Money has a charismatic turn from Ian McShane. He plays an ex soldier knows as The Brains who teams up with another ex soldier Jean (Warren Clarke) who has fascist sympathies to rob a bank vault in Nice.

Although Jean and The Brains have a right wing agenda to rob the vaults as they intend to buy arms for their struggle. They have to recruit local criminals whose sole interest is money and a greater share of the proceeds.

Based on a true incident; the gang had to several nights spent digging through a wall in a sewer. Hence why the film is also known as Sewers of Gold.

As the film was based in Nice and shot on location. There are lots of glamorous women but also lots of power tools. This is a great movie if you like to see men digging through walls or blow-torching safes.

The political angle is murky. The Brains is a neo fascist but he is keen to stress that no violence was used in the robbery and draws a CND insignia before leaving. His motive for the robbery was to incite an armed revolt by nationalists, something that does not go unnoticed by one of the hired criminals.

It is a straightforward and glossy television movie. You have the planning, too much time with the digging. After the robbery the focus moves to the police who hunt for the robbers and a daring escape. Although your mileage might vary about how much you want to cheer on neo nazis trying to escape from the police.

I have seen this film several times and impressed with its sharp action. It almost has a slight documentary feel to it.

I am really surprised this film is not wider known. It was on video several years back, but then withdrawn. I have been begging for a copy for years and hope it will be re released soon.

Caught this on Talking Pictures under the awful title, Sewers of Gold.

Really surprised how good it was, and how good Ian McShane was (much better than Lovejoy).

The cast is a veritable who's who of 1970s British support actors, quite a few appeared in episodes of The Sweeney.

The film had that feel to it, although from the robbers viewpoint rather than the police.

Based on a real robbery that took place in France, this film really doesn't try to be French at all. It is all rather English, but that doesn't detract from what is a really good thriller.

A real treat from all the murder mysteries we get fed in 2022. A crime without violence and a drama without sex, drugs and never ending profanities.

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First thing to bear in mind is that there are actually TWO movies ,made at the same time,dealing with the same subject :a true life event of ex-firebrands using the sewers to rob a bank.

-The French version,made by Jose Giovanni , ("les egouts du paradis" = sewers of paradise (sic))which kept the hero's real name but is rather listless. The "hero" becomes a nice guy ,some kind of Arsene Lupin,who visits the old ladies in the hospital.

-The English version,which features a best lead (Ian McShane billed as "Brain") and seems more honest.Far from being heroes,like in Giovanni's flick,the characters are fascists (anti communist) and their paramilitary activities are not passed over in silence :in the French attempt,all they show is weapons in the thieves' den in the country.

I saw this film on TV under the title SEWERS OF GOLD. It's a British heist movie based on a true story about a gang of fascists who decide to rob a safety deposit vault in Nice by accessing it through the local sewer system. The story had already been adapted as PARADISE but this British version is well worth a watch, riding high in a mini-wave of similar heist pictures that came out around the same time (A NIGHTINGALE SANG IN BERKELEY SQUARE is another good one).

The film was directed by the little-known Francis Megahy who would later re-team with Ian McShane for a few LOVEJOY episodes. McShane is excellent here, by the way, tough, suave, and charismatic as the leader of the robbers. Inevitably most of the running time is involved with the detail of the planning and execution of the robbery and it's a masterpiece of tension, featuring a strong cast (including a youthful Warren Clarke making an impact) and expert direction. The tension never lets up. The finale offers plenty of twists and turns which keep the viewer engaged too. I love films in this sub-genre and SEWERS OF GOLD is another highlight.