Robbery (1967, Stanley Baker, Barry Foster)

This stylish caper film from British director Peter Yates, was completed just prior to the director’s move to America to make Bullitt (1968) with Steve McQueen. Here the protagonist is the always brilliant Stanley Baker, who heads a team attempting to steal three million pounds from a Scottish mail train. Notable for its unconventional opening: with little or no dialogue we follow for 20-minutes a daring jewel theft, which is later revealed to a prelude to the main robbery to come.

Robbery is one of more than a few films based loosely on the Great Train Robbery, a multimillion pound holdup of a British mail train in 1963. The 2.6 million pounds the robbers stole was equivalent to $7.3 million back then.

production details
UK | Embassy | 110 minutes | 1967

Director: Peter Yates
Producers: Stanley Baker, Michael Deeley
Director of Photography: Douglas Slocombe
Editor: Reginald Beck
Composer: Johnny Keating
Script: Edward Boyd, George Markstein, Peter Yates
Art Director: Michael Seymour

cast
Frank Finlay as Robinson
Barry Foster as Frank
Stanley Baker as Paul Clifton
John Savident
Joanna Pettet as Kate Clifton
James Booth as Inspector George Langdon
William Marlowe
George Sewell
Glynn Edwards
Clinton Greyn
Robert Powell
Mike Pratt

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