Robbery – 1967 | 140mins | Crime, Thriller | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Suspenseful heist drama loosely based on the infamous Great Train Robbery of 1963, starring Stanley Baker, Frank Finlay, George Sewell and James Booth. The film is notable for its unconventional 20-minute opening scene that features little dialogue during a jewel robbery sequence and subsequent car-chase through the streets of London. Despite the high octane beginning the film soon loses its pace and takes on a documentary feel of how to accomplish the perfect robbery.

Paul Clifton (Stanley Baker) plans and achieves a daring diamond theft in order to raise the required funds to embark on a well-regimented robbery of the overnight mail train from Glasgow to London. Clifton reconnoitres the intended spot to halt the train and gathers together a gang of crooks to help with the heist. He requires one more man to complete his crew, the reluctant currency expert Robinson (Frank Finlay), so breaks him out of jail. On the night, the train is successfully held up and the gang members retreat to an unused airfield to share out the money, but Robinson calls his wife from a phone box during the raid, and Scotland Yard have already tapped the house phone. Pursuing Inspector Langdon (James Booth) closes in on the gang’s hideout and grabs all the crooks, save one: Clifton escapes to New York with the money.