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Robbery (1967 film)

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Robbery
theatrical release poster
Directed byPeter Yates
Written byEdward Boyd
Peter Yates
George Markstein
Based onThe Robber's Tale by Peta Fordham
Produced byStanley Baker
Michael Deeley
StarringStanley Baker
Joanna Pettet
James Booth
CinematographyDouglas Slocombe
Edited byReginald Beck
Music byJohnny Keating
Production
company
Distributed byParamount British Pictures
(UK)
Embassy Pictures
(USA)
Release dates
  • 21 September 1967 (1967-09-21) (London-premiere)
  • 22 September 1967 (1967-09-22) (United Kingdom)
  • 27 September 1967 (1967-09-27) (New York City)
Running time
114 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£395,338[1]

Robbery is a 1967 British crime film directed by Peter Yates and starring Stanley Baker, Joanna Pettet and James Booth.[2] The story is a heavily fictionalised version of the 1963 Great Train Robbery. The film was produced by Stanley Baker and Michael Deeley, for Baker's company Oakhurst Productions.

Plot

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A criminal gang uses a gas canister to knock out the occupant of a car and then bundles him into a stolen ambulance. There, the gang cuts free a briefcase full of jewellery. Shortly afterward, while the criminals change vehicles, they are spotted by the police. A high-speed chase develops, and the criminals get away.

Using the money from this job, crime boss Paul Clifton (Stanley Baker) builds up a team to hit a Royal Mail train coming south from Glasgow. A meticulous plan is put in place, but there are obstacles: Jack, the driver of the getaway car in the jewellery theft, is identified in an identity parade and arrested but refuses to name accomplices to police; gang member Robinson (Frank Finlay) must be broken out of prison; and Inspector George Langdon (James Booth) is hot on the trail of the jewel robbers and finds out through informers about plans for an even bigger heist.

The gang gathers to do the job and change the signals to stop the train and escape with the cash. In the morning, Langdon and the police investigate the crime scene and explore possible local hideouts, including a disused airbase in which the robbers are hiding in the basement, but are not found.

The cash is divided up and the getaway vehicles hidden at a scrapyard. The members wait in turn to take their share to Switzerland. However, the paid-off scrapyard man is arrested at an airport, is found with banknotes from the raid, and confesses. Police then arrest some of gang as they retrieve cars at the scrapyard. That leads the police back to the airfield, where they arrest further gang members.

Clifton evades capture, places his cut of the money on a private plane, and is last seen disembarking at New York with a different identity.

Cast

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Production

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Michael Deeley bought the rights to Peta Fordham's book[3] based on the 'Great Train Robbery' of 1963. He and director Peter Yates offered the project to Woodfall Film Productions, where Deeley worked, but the company did not want to make it. Deeley and Yates then approached Stanley Baker to star in the film. Baker had a good relationship with Joseph E. Levine, whose Embassy Pictures agreed to fund the movie.[4] Finance also came from the NFFC.[1]

To avoid legal problems, it was decided to write a script in which the details in the 25-minute robbery sequence were taken entirely from court evidence, but the remainder of the film would be fictitious speculation. "We had to make sure there was no risk of accidental identification with anyone", said Baker. "The characters involved in the film are in no way based on the characters who took part in the great train robbery".[5]

Vanessa Redgrave was approached to play Stanley Baker's wife but turned down the role.[6] Joseph Levine requested for the story to be changed to include an American mastermind behind the robbery to ensure that the movie would appeal to American audiences. Three days of scenes were shot featuring Jason Robards in his role on Long Island and using Levine's own yacht.[7][8] However, after this was done it was decided not to use the footage.

George Raft was to have played a role in the film but was unable to do so after he was refused entry into London.[9]

The movie was shot entirely on location in early 1967 and contains much period footage of central London, including shots of Marble Arch, Trafalgar Square, Little Venice and Kensal Green. Shots of the gang meeting up prior to the robbery were filmed at Leyton Orient Football Club during a match with Swindon Town. The gang's airfield hideout was filmed at RAF Graveley. Filming occurred even at New York Harbor and Arbour Hill Prison in Dublin. The robbery itself was shot to the east of Theddingworth.[10]

Reception

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Box office

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According to Michael Deeley the film did "good business" on release.[11] It was not a big hit in the US; Peter Yates called it "very poorly exploited".[12]

Critical

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The critical response to Robbery over the years was summarized by Peter Elliott in 2014: "Robbery was praised by a number of critics upon its release.... However, time and culture have not been kind to Yates' film, and it has, to a very large extent, been relegated to a footnote in British crime cinema".[13] Beyond critical opinion, the location-shot car chase at the beginning of the film has been very influential. It was seen by Steve McQueen and led him and producer Philip D'Antoni to approve Yates as the director of Bullitt (1968).[14] The car chase in Bullitt has been called "revolutionary" and "one of the most exciting car chases in film history".[15]

Variety called the film "a cleverly-spun suspense story with authentic British locale shooting" and added that "the screenplay [...] deliberately puzzles the action and gives inventive and unexpected twists to the plot which add to the overall suspense. Dialog is minimal and used only when absolutely necessary".[16]

Boxoffice reviewed the film as "crisply photographed, immaculately edited and technically absorbing."[17]

Leslie Halliwell said: "Heavy-going fictionalised account of the famous train robbery of 1963; best seen as standard cops and robbers, with some good chase sequences".[18]

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 3/5 stars: "Following the Great Train Robbery of 1963, several film projects were announced, but this is the only British production to have got off the ground. It never fulfils the promise of its opening car chase, during which one vehicle mows down a policeman and a procession of schoolchildren. Thereafter, the plotting and execution of the robbery seems rather trite, and the fictitious characters are not half as colourful as the real-life Ronnie Biggs and company. But there is more action towards the end, enough to impress Hollywood, who summoned Peter Yates to direct Bullitt".[19]

Awards

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The film won the best original British screenplay award (for Edward Boyd, Peter Yates, and George Markstein) from the Writers Guild of Great Britain.

Home media

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Robbery was released on DVD for the first time in 2008. Before this, the only copies in circulation had been from a VHS release in the 1980s.

In August 2015, a remastered version was released on Kino Lorber Blu-ray and DVD, scanned at 2K and fully restored to its original aspect ratio, along with some special features.

References

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Notes

  1. ^ a b Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 361
  2. ^ "Robbery". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
  3. ^ Fordham, Peta (1965). The robbers' tale; the real story of the great train robbery. Hodder and Stoughton. OCLC 3453300.
  4. ^ Deeley p35
  5. ^ "Film Makers Chase Mail Raid Millions", The Times, 10 April 1967: 3. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 12 July 2012.
  6. ^ Deeley p 39
  7. ^ "Robbery Winds Up on Long Island Sound". The Pittsburgh Press. 1 June 1967. p. 18.
  8. ^ Weiler, A.H. (28 May 1967). "They Seek Out Saul Bellow". The New York Times. p. D9.
  9. ^ 'Raft Lost Part in British Film', The Washington Post and Times-Herald (1959–1973) [Washington, D.C,], 16 March 1967: D24.
  10. ^ Webb, Jonathan (January 2018). "Focus on Rugby". Today's Railways. No. 193. Sheffield: Platform 5. p. 46. ISSN 1475-9713.
  11. ^ Deeley p39
  12. ^ Lesner, Sam (9 February 1968). "British Director to Film U.S. Dilemma". Los Angeles Times. p. c14.
  13. ^ Elliott, Paul (2014). Studying the British Crime Film. Columbia University Press. p. 64. ISBN 9780993071775.
  14. '^ Turner, Kent. "2011 Film Comment Selects". Retrieved 29 November 2015. Yates made Robbery (1967) a year before he shot Bullitt. It's a no-brainer why Steve McQueen wanted him as his director. Far from just a test run, Robberys opening chase scene through London set the stage for the action/crime thrillers The French Connection and The Seven-Ups in the '70s.
  15. ^ Levy, Emanuel (2008). "Bullitt". emanuellevy.com. Retrieved 6 November 2010. Bullitt contains one of the most exciting car chases in film history, a sequence that revolutionized Hollywood's standards.
  16. ^ "Robbery". Variety. 248 (7): 6. 4 October 1967. ProQuest 964067172 – via ProQuest.
  17. ^ "Robbery". Boxoffice. 91 (25): a11. 9 October 1967. ProQuest 1705123046 – via ProQuest.
  18. ^ Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7th ed.). London: Paladin. p. 860. ISBN 0586088946.
  19. ^ Radio Times Guide to Films (18th ed.). London: Immediate Media Company. 2017. p. 781. ISBN 9780992936440.

Bibliography

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