Jack Hawkins gathers together an ex-army group who all pursuing criminal activities in one way or another and need money. They are Nigel Patrick, Dickie Attenborough, Bryan Forbes, Roger Livesey, Kieron Moore, Terence Alexander and Norman Bird (not as I was confusing him with Alec MacGowan from Frenzy, but a TV stalwart). With Robert Coote, Nanette Newman, Melissa Stribling. And a cameo from Oliver Reed as a gay actor!
We spend quite a lot of the time getting the plan agreed and assembled before the exciting robbery itself, which is meticulously executed (and perhaps where The Italian Job's writers borrowed the idea of a car being driven into a truck). The interplay between the characters is fun until the last minute sting and the sadly predictable pre-seventies ending.
Photographed by Arthur Ibbetson, edited by John Guthridge. Bryan Forbes adapted John Boland's novel but apparently changed the ending, though at the moment I don't know how.
 |
| "I'll wash, you dry, old darling." |
No comments:
Post a Comment