Trois milliards d'un coup

Best known as the little obscure crime film that gave English director Peter Yates his big game-changing opportunity to make BULLITT stateside, after Steve McQueen had witnessed the rudimentary car chase sequence from ROBBERY, an extremely sparse, deliberately uncaring British Neo Noir Heist-Thriller...

And it's not just the chase that Yates carried over to the McQueen classic but the meticulous and metronomic moments leading up to it...

Starring the always tough/ultra square-jawed Stanley Baker but only because he's in charge, ROBBERY makes pretty much equal use of the male leads...

Including James Booth as the trailing cop, William Marlowe as Baker's strong-silent second, Barry Forster as his strong-silent third while Frank Finlay, as a meek/geek though crooked banker too-easily broken out of prison, is the most vulnerable and sympathetic...

Yet there's very little sympathy for these particular devils, whose only flaw is how long and tediously methodical it takes for the actual train heist (inspired by The Great Train Robbery) to go down... the director not always considering an audience but, like real life crimes - and even the McQueen ultra-realistic police-procedure about the other side of the law - Yates showcases the slowburn reality like being right there, for better or worse since it's not always extremely exciting, and that's the point...

Just don't let the casting of beautiful poster-perfect Joanne Pettit fool you. ROBBERY cares neither about romance or the human condition.

What obviously is a great (or maybe not-so-great depending on who to trust) film elsewhere on the world map, ROBBERY (1967) has since been into obscurity in the States. The print's a knockout! This may have helped launch future rip-offs of the burglar heist category, including the mellow-yellow LOOPHOLE. Anyone here who finds this will be glad that this is just one of the few kinds of movies that has never been seen quite often these days. It's a truly interesting find! Starting off with a long car chase, it becomes deeply involving with the story where Clifton runs a professional crook squad planning and attempting to rob a trainload of loot. You will not expect a fast-paced breeze through a simple little concept like stealing, but a very sharp plot makes this stand out, where one event leads to another. With a near-surprise finish, this is one domestic rarity that must be seen, and is highly recommended. Take it from me, you will be surprised at how many good movies are left in waiting for the eye.

This is true British gangster filming at its best.

The opening robbery and car chase, from Hatton Garden around central London and out to Maida Vale, is utterly brilliant and that's years before the French Connection or anything like that. Peter Yates was brilliant. In fact, if they re-make any British gangster film these days it should be Robbery, not Get Carter or anything like that.

The music is utterly brilliant, too. Johny Keating should be up there with the likes of John Barry, John Williams, etc. He seems to have done virtually nothing after this film.

Even the faked scenes of the train robbery itself are great despite the London-Glasgow express train really being another train on a branch line travelling at about 30 mph.

They could've made a sequeal to this, too, with the legendary and fantastic Stanley Baker shown in the New World. Same goes for the late Barry Foster.

The terseness of the one-word title perfectly fits the low-keyed demeanour of this laconic heist movie that just a couple of years earlier would have been shot in black & white but now had to be in colour (but with results so pleasing to the eye I'm not complaining).

The initial car chase promptly brought Peter Yates to America to repeat the trick but seeing it staged in the narrow streets of London rather than in San Francisco in 'Bullitt' (which could have been built for the job) the results were thus ten times more harrowing; and the film that follows is far more coherent.

Robbery is for me a semi-documentary / thriller based on the Great Train Robbery of 1963. The location of the actual heist, on a bridge crossing a country lane bears similarity to the real robbery. The film moves around much of 60s London in the first part, during which time the gang are robbing to gain funds, plus planning the main robbery.

The gangs' meeting on the terraces during a Leyton Orient match is well screened; Stanley Baker becomes so heated during their discussion he misses a great run and shot against the crossbar shown from the pitch!

As for the central characters, Stanley Baker superbly plays "Mr Big" Paul Clifton, who is a character that the viewer never quite gets to know the limits. For example he tells the gang "we don't need guns, the police don't carry them"; later his wife finds his revolver at home, when quizzed he says "the gun is because I not going back inside (prison)".

William Marlowe cleverly plays Clifton's "number 2" Dave Aitken, who is clearly "nice cop" versus Clifton's "bad cop" in terms of running the gang.

As with the real train robbery, the gang make a successful robbery; however mistakes made during hideway contribute to their eventual capture. Not least when their contact who "cleans up" the getaway vehicles is apprehended at an airport leaving the UK with about £50K stuffed up his coat - his capture enables the police to set up a successful trap for the rest of the gang.

The ending of the film is probably a slight movement forward from many 1950s movies where the gang are all caught - the ending to Robbery slightly leaves the viewer guessing. This is a film for enthusiasts of films of past years, who may like to spot London landmarks.