Rent Robbery (1967)

A solid British crime film based on the notorious Great Train Robbery - Robbery review by Philip in Paradiso

Essentially, this is a fictionalized version (1967) of the Great Train Robbery of 1963, in the UK, whereby a Royal Mail train transporting large amounts of cash was targeted by a well-organised gang. The story starts, in the film, with the gang targeting a jewellery dealer transporting high-value diamonds across London: the car chase is very good and perhaps the most spectacular sequence of the movie. With the money from this robbery, the gangsters can fund the setting-up of the attack on the train. The leader of the gang is Stanley Baker as Paul Clifton, who is both tough and charismatic. But not all goes according to plan...

Overall, it is a good film, but somewhat predictable in its narrative form (and not only because it shadows the true story it is based upon). It is nice to see Central London in the mid-1960s, and the film has a very British feel to it. Other than that, it is not a masterpiece, but worth watching if you like this kind of thriller and vintage films, so to speak. And you realise how much Britain has changed in the past 60 years: no one uses firearms in the film, for instance, even though there certainly is violence...

For the real story, go to this Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Train_Robbery_(1963)

Train Caper. - Robbery review by Steve

Best known of the many crime films inspired by the 1964 Great Train Robbery. This strays well away from the facts, and the names are changed. Stanley Baker is the criminal mastermind who assembles a huge gang of specialists in order to steal over a million quid in used notes from a Royal Mail locomotive. While Scotland Yard, led by James Booth, closes in.

It follows a standard three act heist structure: the coming together of a diverse team of crooks; the staging of a complicated theft; and the unravelling of the caper due to internal conflict and individual flaws. Robbery is different for this period in that there is an abundance of action, particularly car chases.

And Peter Yates got to direct Bullitt off the back of it. The pursuits are okay, but don't look all that amazing by present standards. The measured pacing sometimes plods, and because the gang is so big, there isn't so much depth of characterisation. The photography is flashy in the style of the era with lots of focus pulls and pop art closeups.

The cast is all male, save for the brief intrusion of Joanna Pettet's peripheral glamour. Baker always stands out, and though the ensemble cast is fine, no one else makes an impact. There is an impression of the impressive logistics involved but it's mainly an action film inhabited by laconic, impassive tough guys with lots of cars and gadgets.