Blueprint for Robbery

I nearly turned off after the first few minutes because the characters in the opening scenes seemed so bland. But I'm glad that I stuck with it because it turned out reasonably well, though as has been mentioned in other reviews the direction could have been sharper. And some of the acting wasn't great.

The only name that I recognised on the cast list was Robert J Wilke in a small role as a police captain; it's the only time I've seen him on the side of the law - usually he's a bad guy.

I laughed when it proved so easy to gain access to the building through an outside door, especially when there were so many security devices inside. And the hoodlums didn't hesitate before entrusting their loot to just one man for more than two years. "That's going to add very badly," I thought.

This surprisingly good and taut thriller took me completely by surprise; I had no prior knowledge of either the film itself or most of the actors involved. It moves along at pace with a crisp dialogue and characters we can warm to and empathise with; I had not even heard of Jay Barney before but he is a.real presence here - tough, charismatic and at the same time loyal and principled. His close son/father relationship with "Pop" underpins the whole movie and the ultimate dilemma faced in the final act is touching.

A shame that the producers at the time didn't allow a little more budget to flesh out some plot developments and narrative as it leaps forward but overall a most satisfying example of that much-loved genre, the "Caper movie "

I watched some of the scenes being filmed for this movie in 1960 when I worked at Barker Brothers warehouse. That is in Los Angeles, not Boston. The building at 530 Molina at the intersection of Palmetto Street in the Warehouse District East of Alameda Street was the location for the Brink's building. Barker Brothers warehouse is across the street from there. The scenes looking out the hotel window at the building being robbed were filmed from a furniture warehouse. You can Google the 530 address and see that the building is still there and Barker Brothers old closed warehouse which was supposed to be the hotel ground floor entrance is also still there. The building North of there was also used as the hotel exterior. The movie rings true throughout. It has good characters and many familiar character actors appearing in this fast paced black and white film. The production is not cheap but it is primitive compared to today's explosion circus atmosphere norm. I highly recommend this if you like the old Cagney/Bogart/Raft movies. Look for great old cars that were new at the time the movie was being made.

A quickie heist movie set in Boston following in the footsteps of 'Rififi' and 'The Killing' (with a bit of machinegunning thrown in as a nod to 'The Untouchables') directed by and populated largely by TV professionals.

As usual women barely feature in this world, but it does boast a quirky cameo as a prison visitor with a guilty conscience by Marion Ross, still nearly fifteen years away from the role that made her name as Marion Cunningham in 'Happy Days'; who never had anything to hide.

One of my favorite films of the 70s is William Friedkin's The Brink's Job. It is a great comedy loaded with a lot of familiar character players and it's jus great fun. This fil Blueprint For Robbery takes the same story with a far different and more serious treatment.

If you've seen The Brink's Job you'll recognize quite a bit from the plot and some of the characters. The cast here isn't as well known as the other, but Bill Friedkin had quite a bit more budget to work with.

As in the other a gang is assembled all with a different skill set. The details of the caper itself follow closely with the Friedkin film. And two of the gang is looking to double cross the others.

J. Pat O'Malley who played a lot of winsome Irish character plays an old time safecracker. Robert Wilkie who played mostly villains in his career is the detective who solves the crime. A young Marion Ross has a marvelous bit as a woman seeking advice from Jay Barney who is one of the gang disguised as a priest visiting O'Malley in prison.

Blueprint For Robbery is a B picture from Paramount playing the bottom half of double bills in1961. If yo saw this with whatever feature Paramount was showing you got your money's worth.