Robbery (1967 film)
| Robbery | |
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Film poster
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| Directed by | Peter Yates |
| Produced by |
Stanley Baker Michael Deeley |
| Written by | Edward Boyd Peter Yates George Markstein |
| Based on | The Robber's Tale by Peta Fordham |
| Starring |
Stanley Baker Joanna Pettet James Booth |
| Music by | Johnny Keating |
| Cinematography | Douglas Slocombe |
| Edited by | Reginald Beck |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by |
Paramount Pictures Embassy Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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110 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Robbery is a 1967 British crime film directed by Peter Yates and starring Stanley Baker. 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.
A criminal gang uses a gas canister to knock out the occupant of a car and then bundle him into a stolen ambulance. There they cut free a briefcase full of jewellery. Shortly after, when changing vehicles, the criminals are spotted by the police and a high-speed chase develops with the criminals getting 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: the driver of the getaway car identified in an identity parade and arrested (but refuses to name accomplices to police); gang member Robinson (Frank Finlay) has to 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 where the robbers are hiding in the basement, but are not found.
The cash is divided up and the getaway vehicles hidden at a scrapyard. Members wait in turn to take their share to Switzerland. However, the paid-off scrapyard man is arrested at an airport and found with banknotes from the raid and confesses. Police then arrest some of gang as they retrieve cars at the scrapyard. This leads the police back to the airfield, where they arrest further gang members.
Clifton evades capture. He places his cut of the money on a private plane and is last seen disembarking at New York with a different identity.
Michael Deeley bought the rights to Peta Fordham's book based on the "Great Train Robbery" of 1963. He and director Peter Yates offered the project to Woodfall Film Productions where he 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.
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