If there's a main flaw to "Robbery", it's the obsession with process and style. The characters are simply not a high enough concern here. There's certainly some good performances. William Marlowe, especially, has the perfect face for this sort of film. Peter Yates is a great director, but he displays only hits of the brilliance displays in later films like "Bullitt", "The Friends of Eddie Coyle", or even "The Hot Rock". All three films cover similar material, but this is the only one that is drowned in documentarian detail.There's not a lot more to say. If you're a fan of Yates, this was a important starting point for him. And the opening car chase is certainly thrilling. You just might enjoy this enough on the first watch.

The curse of the Train Robbers is as effective in its own way as that of King Tut.Most of them did long spells of bird,a disproportionate number of them have died early,at least one of them has been the victim of a gangland killing,many of the others have served heavy sentences since. Not perhaps the life of Riley they envisaged back in 1963......and all because they had too much poppy. Taking about 150 grand apiece(maybe £3million today) made them seriously rich and a target for fellow villains who bled them dry for "protection" and finally grassed them up. They were awash with readies,bags of it were left in locations all over southern England to be found by delighted punters who either handed in to Old Bill or didn't. Faced with all that money,many plans went right out of the window and "Robbery" is the story of a successful crime that went wrong after they'd done the hard bit. Mr Stanley Baker is excellent as the man who keeps his head whilst all others around him are losing theirs and getting nicked.All the same,he is preparing for a lifetime of looking over his shoulder. It is the only movie I have ever seen that even remotely reflects the scintillating danger of the high - speed car chase and the excitement experienced by both the hunters and the hunted.It also makes crystal clear that serious professional criminals have absolutely no qualms about killing or maiming anybody unfortunate enough to be standing between them and freedom,be they coppers or schoolchildren. Robin Hood and his Merry Men these geezers weren't.Although they denied being involved in the robbery,all the main instigators have happily dined out on tales of their derring - do that night in Buckinghamshire 45 years ago ever since.It's worth reflecting that if Mr Jack Mills the engine driver they so brutally attacked had died,they might well have been hanged. But these good south London boys who no doubt loved their old mum all ended up doing a 30 which certainly served to discourage the others as there hasn't been a Mail Train blag since. "Robbery" is a fairly pedestrian semi police procedural enlivened only by the action set - pieces.Only Mr Baker makes much of an impression in the acting stakes,the other main roles are comfortably enough filled but it's coppering and villainy by the numbers for the most part.

Most of the other commentators have hit this one on the head.There's plenty of tense action from the beginning. The car chase through the streets of London after a botched jewel-heist is quite excellent. I don't think it has been bettered except by those of 'Ronin'. What is so spectacular about this chase is that it doesn't just focus on the participants as most other movies do. Here are real streets with other real vehicles and pedestrians. They are human and relevant, and not just props of convenience. The multiple cutting between furiously speeding cars and a peaceful school-crossing patrol is particularly memorable, as indeed are the consequences. We observe one of these unfortunates stricken with hysteria by her near-death experience. Once again; other movies treat bystanders as inconsequential accident-fodder rather than vulnerable people who suffer and die. Considering the age of this movie it's a hell of an act to beat.After that, the plot assumes a fairly detailed parody of the infamous 'Great Train Robbery'. Most of the rent-a-mob stalwarts of the period can be spotted somewhere, with the excellent Stanley Baker giving it his baddie-best. And, of course, there's that wonderful old icon, the 3.4 litre Jaguar, standard road-tool of the 1960's villain.  Yes; it is a bit dated now - especially as regards the language used. But that was a matter for the censors not the movie-makers. The likes of Mary Whitehouse have a lot to answer for.Give it a go if you haven't seen it. So long as you take its age into account, you're sure of a racy, if slightly nostalgic time.And while you're about it; you could check-out the slightly earlier 'Payroll'. There's another oldie that still hasn't lost its ginger.

Interesting flick that starts out in thumping swingin' sixties style, the opening half-hour is all class as a meticulously planned diamond heist is carried out by a cool gang of sharp-suited sixties types, followed by a storming car-chase round the streets of London. The fact that this car chase is sparked by there just happening to be a police car passing by as the gang transfer from their van to a getaway car is a clue as to what is to follow - rather reliant on coincidence, and some appalling dialogue, the rest of the film is a little disappointing but never less than reasonable crime-action story, full of faces familiar to UK TV viewers, including a young and sprightly looking George Sewell, and a baby-faced Robert Powell, before his Italian Job work and way before his eighties Hannays. Speaking of the Italian Job, a lot of the style of this film is very similar to that classic, and you can't help but think some of the ideas here influenced the makers of Caine's finest hour (a mini coming down a ramp out of the back of a speeding truck, anyone?). Not a bad film, fascinating for anyone interested in the period and genre, with its cast of faces, selection of classic motors and often hilariously dated dialogue, this is well worth a watch, but no great classic.