“A GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY”

By Raymond Benson

In 1963, bandits robbed a Royal Mail train in England and got away with over two million pounds. Most of the gang was eventually caught and incarcerated, but the heist had been meticulously planned and cleverly executed. Hence, it was known as the “Great Train Robbery.”

In 1967, Peter Yates made a movie loosely based on the robbery itself, but everything else in the picture was fictionalized, including the characters involved. Robbery, Yates’ third feature film, is a tight, gritty, and realistic heist picture that is sure to please fans of Yates’ next title, Bullitt (with Steve McQueen). In fact, apparently McQueen wanted Yates to direct Bullitt because of the exciting car chase in the first fifteen minutes of Robbery. One can see the similarities between this one and the iconic sequence in Bullitt, although the earlier one takes place in London, and McQueen’s in San Francisco.

Stanley Baker plays Paul Clifton, the mastermind of the caper. Baker was well-known in Britain and had a productive career in both movies and television, but never quite became a major international star. Legend has it that he was one of the original actors approached to play James Bond in Dr. No. Clifton has a motley crew of men, played by the likes of Barry Foster, William Marlowe, and Frank Finlay, all with specific talents he has used before in robberies. The lovely Joanna Pettet is Clifton’s frustrated wife; she received second billing for what is less than fifteen minutes of screen time, but she makes the best use of it. James Booth is effective as the police detective who sets out to catch the gang.

Robbery easily sits alongside some of the “classic” caper movies (The Killing, Topkapi, The Italian Job). Yates’ direction is superb with the details of the planning, and then with the excellent nearly half-hour sequence of the robbery itself. It’s all good stuff, and suspenseful to boot. For those keeping score, Yates later received Academy Award Directing nominations for Breaking Away (1979) and The Dresser (1983).

Kino Lorber’s new Blu-ray is gorgeously rendered. There’s not a single grain to be seen. The high definition picture is sharp, and the colors are bold and vivid. The feature comes with an audio commentary by film critic Nick Pinkerton that is informative and entertaining. Unfortunately, there are no other supplements other than the theatrical trailer and other Kino Lorber trailers.

While I had known of the movie, I had never seen it prior to viewing this new Blu-ray release. I was duly impressed. Highly recommended for fans of the genre and for British cinema in general.

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