Scotland yard non perdona

This is a very decent British crime film with some excellent moments. Tom bell carries off the part of the main baddie pretty well but I do not feel he is consistently good throughout, although this may well be shortcomings in the script, which certainly needed tightening up. I thought Billie Whitelaw rather unconvincing as mother of two and amateur sleuth, but she just about gets away with it. No, for me it is Francoise Prevost who brings this film to life. She dominates every frame she is in and the whole film seems to step up a gear. We are uncertain as to her motives and I am sure this is intended if unusual in a film such as this. Most refreshing that we should take to a character and then not really be sure whether we should be cheering or not. Shades of 'The Wire'?!! There is some fine location action and indeed it is some of the car or hideout interiors that slow the film down. Overall though, well worth a watch and something out of the ordinary.

Payroll is a product very much of its time, borrowing elements from the urban realism of fifties and sixties British cinema upon which to hang its fast-paced, wages-of-sin morality tale. The film is set in Newcastle (though you'd never guess it from the accents) and features strong performances from Michael Craig and Billie Whitelaw, with Françoise Prévost sizzling as the femme fatale par excellence.

The film starts out as a by-the-numbers heist thriller, before taking a sharp turn into territory that almost anticipates the revenge movie vogue of the seventies and eighties. The parallel story lines are handled adroitly, as is the animal attraction between Katie (Prévost) and Mellors (Craig), although William Lucas's turn as Katie's useless husband lacks subtlety.

Payroll is still an engrossing, entertaining and even mildly shocking watch. One weakness which will jar with the modern viewer is the incongruous hot jazz score; silence would have been preferable and more suited to the film's aesthetic.

Well worth a watch, even half a century on.

'Payroll' is astonishingly good and deserves a DVD release asap! Even though this movie is over forty years old there are still some super tension mounting scenes which had me on the edge of my seat! The ever reliable Michael Craig was particularly convincing, and well supported by the equally impressive Billie Whitelaw. William Lucas over-acted like mad in the scene where he breaks down, but other than that he was in fine form. The b/w film complimented the tale and made the seedier elements even more gripping and believable. I've seen this movie on auction sites a few times and it always attracts a number of bidders. In my opinion its a British gem!

A brutal and nihilistic British gangster movie depicting a wages heist (SLIGHT SPOILER COMING:) that naturally goes horribly wrong.

Filmed on location on the mean streets of Newcastle with a snazzy jazz score by Reg Owen, a cast of familiar faces includes Michael Craig, Kenneth Griffith and Tom Bell.

No prizes for guessing that it all ends in tears but the reactions of the two wives is remarkable: a nice little homebody is transformed into an avenging angel in white, while another character's high maintenance French wife has an extraordinary scene where she completely loses it and loudly goes berserk reverting to her native tongue as she shrieks in despair.

I agree that this story is not so unusual. Robbery, revenge...But the acting, directing and everything in this crime drama are outstanding. You are glued to this film, and the armored truck robbery is one of the most impressive, brutal, among all those I have ever seen; let me tell you that I am a heist movie specialist, and not only the greatest ones, even the most underrated from all over the world are in my huge collection. This attack sequence is very brutal, especially for this period. This crime flick is typical from those late fifties and early sixties movies from UK. See for instance the grade B features made by Danzingers or Butchers Productions; with nearly always those likes of William Lukas in most of them, the equivalent, for those years, of today Ray Winstone or Bill Murray - not the American one. The Butchers or Danzingers Brothers studios gave us such items, but with a length time much shorter. One of the best gangsters movies from UK ever made, for this time, and even of all time. But unfortunately not the best known, and that makes no difference for me.