Calculated Risk

This is a film that i remembered well from the time that i first saw it at my local cinema back in 1963.it has been shown on TV and now i am pleased to report it has been released on DVD.It was shot during the big freeze of 1963 which explains the fact that everything is covered in snow.The plot is very straightforward but with the extra twist of the bomb.Up until only a few years ago unexploded bombs were still being dug up in London,particularly in the EAST end.There were many delayed action bombs,designed to cause maximum inconvenience and blow up the bomb squad.Once reactivated there would only be a matter of minutes till they exploded.Of the cast only Warren Mitchell is familiar giving us a hilarious cameo.a really good B thriller.

John Rutland is released from prison. The brother of his dead wife, William Lucas, meets him and takes him to the dead woman's grave, and then home. He doesn't want to hear about the plan to rob a bank through the bombed-out home next door; Rutland's plans always fail. But the prospect of 200,000 pounds changes his mind, so he perfects the plan, makes all the preparations, and prepares to send Rutland and his crew off, while he sits at home for his share. Things start to go wrong when Rutland has a heart attack and has to sit it out. Lucas takes his place. Then the bad news starts to pile up.

It's a very nice little thriller, and Norman Harrison directs it very nicely, with underground sequences that are reminiscent of the same year's THE GREAT ESCAPE. The characters are barely sketches, but well presented by their performers, and William McLeod's camerawork captures the claustrophobia of their work space very well.

CALCULATED RISK is a fine little British B-picture about a gang of criminals plotting a major heist. What's so special about that, you might ask; you'd be well within your rights to do so, given that the same set-up propelled about a hundred of these pictures during the era. Well, where CALCULATED RISK works is in the execution, which takes place within the claustrophobic confines of a ruined cellar for the most part.

An above-average script wrings maximum tension from the story and a largely unknown cast all do very well in their character roles. William Lucas is the master criminal behind the job and much more sympathetic than he was in THE BREAK, where he played a similarly but slightly more murderous character. Watch out for Warren Mitchell in a fun cameo as a market trader. The plot has some great twists thrown into it which really help build the tension, and the last ten minutes or so are quite extraordinary. CALCULATED RISK is the kind of film that reminds you that you don't need a high or even medium budget or any action to make a gripping and suspenseful thriller - just a good story, well told.

Tightly plotted, suspenseful minor British crime thriller about an ex-con who leads a group of safecrackers to break into a bank vault through the cellar of an adjacent deserted building, only to find more than they had bargained for (namely an unexploded WWII bomb). Decent performances by Warren Mitchell and William Lucas, and a taut script by Edwin Richfield (a well known British character actor of the 60s) make this worth a watch.

A bank heist set and shot during the freezing winter of 1963. The thing is about the plot is that you knew it would never work out, it was just a question of how and why. The reason was an explosive twist. An unfamiliar main cast was somewhat refreshing.