The Film:
One of the great things about films is the ability to notice how the world changes in time, how things become more widely accepted and how peoples general perceptions change. One of the greatest examples of this is when people moved from the repressive mid-fifties into a more upbeat and 'swinging' late fifties/early sixties. This film is a great example of bringing these changes to screen, by showing the open sexuality and open mindedness that most Brits seemed to take on board, by showing one scene with a couple of gay men (very unusual in fifties cinema) and some excellent lines of dialogue that would never have been dreamed of being said on the big screen five years earlier, the best of which being:
"Is that your wife?"
"Yes"
"Is she dead?"
"No, no. I regret to say the bitch is still going strong."
Despite all that, this isn't what the film is about. The film itself is about a good old fashioned bank heist led by Hyde (Jack Hawkins - The Cruel Sea). Hyde is a former high ranking army officer who is bitter after being forced into early retirement. Using his access to top secret personnel files he hires a bunch of ragtag ex-army men who have all left the force for various reasons such as fellow officers deaths being their fault. The men include such great British actors as Richard Attenborough (Lexy the mechanic), Roger Livesey (as conman Mycroft), Bryan Forbes (as Porthill, a gigolo) and Nigel Patrick (as spiv Race). The film starts with Hyde sending all the others half of a £50 note and a book, aswell as a place to meet later that day. As they meet in a hotel conference room, Hyde tells them all his plan and why he's gathered them together aswell as telling them what their financial awards will be (over £100000 each). The first mission that they must undertake together is to steal guns from a military base and after that, surveillence the bank before the robbery. I'm not going to tell you the outcome of the heist, but I will say that it isn't the outcome you suspect.
This film is one of the few really good heist films out there and in my eyes, is only a beaten by the fantastic The Italian Job as far as British heist films go. The script is very good and rather than focus on just one or two of the robbers, it actually shows them all a bit of attention, developing their character and making you more aware of the reasons they were selected by Hyde and why they are going along with it. The casting decisions are nothing short of excellent, with none of the actors giving a performance that I would rate less than above average with Attenborough giving one of the best of his long and varied film career. The score is also very good, thanks to Philip Green. All in all, every part of this film is done with a high level of professionalism and skill, but falls just short of the amount of action I would expect from a film of this genre. Comes highly recommended to fans of classic British films.
The DVD:
Video:
Network have provided the show with an anamorphic transfer of 1.78:1 and a very nice one at that. Sometimes black and white films have a problem with a lack of detail or of the blacks sort of merging together rather than being distinct shades. No problems with that here and the only problem we do get is occasional grain and one or two scratches. Much better than you would think a film from the fifties would be treated.
Audio:
Network have provided us with the original English Dolby Digital Mono track here and there's nothing wrong with it. Dialogue is clear at all times and sound level is consistent throughout. There is practically no background hiss and, basically, it just sounds great. I would definately have liked to see a nice little 2.0 Surround mix here though I don't think the film would really benefit from a full on 5.1 mix. As usual with Network, no subtitles have been provided.
Extras:
Network have provided a several on this release.
We start with a full length audio commentary with writer/actor Bryan Forbes and actress Nanette Newman. Throughout the commentary, Forbes gives us a wealth of information whilst Newman just seems to be there to ask him the occasional question and give us a brief insight into what the filming was like for her (she only had a small role). Despite being a very informative commentary where we learn some interesting things like the film having a budget of just £172000 and why filming was stopped for actor Jack Hawkins whilst his throat cancer, a disease he would eventually die from, was looked at, the commentary at times gets a bit tedious and boring. Great to have on the disc though.
Next up we have a documentary entitled The South Bank Show: Richard Attenborough, a very in depth documentary at Richard Attenborough's varied film career that has also seen him produce, write and direct in more recent years, including the fanstastic Gandhi. The documentary looks at his entire career rather than just focus on a certain period and includes interview segments with the man himself (very open and honest) aswell as Bryan Forbes and Steven Spielberg. Originally airing on the 15th of November 1992, the documentary starts with a screen informing us it has been edited for contractual reasons, making the runtime a cutdown 69 minutes and 21 seconds.
The rest of the extras are an image gallery (2:54) and a theatrical trailer (2:52).
