Strongroom

The supreme accolade for a 'B' film is that so many cinemas should choose to show it as a main feature, and it gets translated into at least one foreign language - the case with this production.

You can't help noticing how tiny the budget must have been. Just a handful of modest room-sets, no location work, no special effects, no big-name stars (even Derren Nesbitt was probably not bankable as early as this). Yet its smallness is its strength. We are able to focus on an average English town living the second-division life. A group of three gangsters, somewhat out of their depth, try to exploit the quiet holiday period to pull-off their one and only robbery before going straight. According to plan, one of them bluffs his way into a bank, wearing postman's uniform, before letting-in the other two, and they tie up the manager and his secretary who are alone in the building. But they hadn't thought about the office cleaners who would naturally come on duty at a quiet time like this, so the gang has no choice but to lock their two captives in the strongroom that they've just burgled.

Driving off, they realize that the unfortunate couple will soon run out of air, so they have to devise a plan to enable the cops to get hold of the strongroom keys in time to rescue them. Otherwise the robbery charge they were risking could turn into a murder charge (which could still have meant the gallows in 1962).

This is where the suspense begins, with alternating scenes of the manager and secretary trying to break out of their prison, and the gang trying to engineer their release without giving themselves up. There is great ingenuity in the plotting of this drama, far above the standard 'B'-film level. It is truly involving to watch a mortuary attendant announcing that they'll have to wait for the keys until he gets the coroner's report, while the two captives are only minutes from suffocating. And the same when the manager's friends briefly wonder why such a punctual man should have missed their lunch-date, but eventually decide it's not worth investigating. It is these little sub-plots that drive the story to such effect. But the surprise-ending is too masterly to be disclosed here.

Derren Nesbitt, a dead ringer for Richard Burton, both in looks and in the blend of charm and menace, is brilliantly cast as the dominant gang-member, persuading a nervous young Keith Faulkner not to cut-and-run and just leave the captives to their fate. There is no leading lady in the full sense, but Ann Lynn as the secretary makes the most of her few opportunities. (She was just divorcing Antony Newley at the time, over a little local difficulty called Joan Collins.) The script is generally convincing, except for the gossip between the two young charladies, which comes a little too close to a pastiche of downmarket girlie-chat (though the topical references to consumer advertising are significant), and the mortuary attendant is rather too plodding as the official who insists on following regulations.

"Strongroom" is a classic example of how a supposedly insignificant "B" film, can catch the viewers attention, and hold onto it like a vice. Of many such films produced in the UK, during the mid-50's/early 60's, it is quite probably the best. The story, outlined by other reviewers, is quite novel and the acting is generally top notch, given the film's limited budget. The script, and more importantly the direction, is absolutely first class and Vernon Sewell does an excellent job in cranking up the tension throughout the film. The ending is hard-hitting and unexpected. All-in-all, a super little movie that won't disappoint anyone who seeks it out.

Well, what a pleasant surprise this turned out to be - a nifty, suspensful bank robbery/thriller that has the audience switching sides as the action unfolds. Derren Nesbitt unusually plays a character that shows a spark of humanity as he insists on going back to the scene of the robbery to prevent the two staff suffocating in the vault. However, I think the actor who plays 'Mr Snape' walks away with the trophy, even though he appears in only a handful of scenes. His acting is very natural and casual and he delivers his lines without grabbing the stage. A really good, tight and entertaining effort from all involved.

Colin Gordon and Ann Lynn are closing up the bank branch for the long Easter weekend, when three masked men enter to rob the bank. When the charwomen enter the bank, they tie them up and gag them, shut them in the vault and sneak out. They are, it turns out, three ordinary, decent criminals in their first (and they hope their only) job. While two of them head off with the money, the other drives to a nearby town, where he will phone the police and leave the vault keys. They'll split 30,000 quid, Gordon and Miss Lynn will have a great story to tell, and everyone will be happy. Then the police come to the door. The third robber was in a road accident and killed. The two survivors work out he hadn't made the call yet, and there's only so much air in the vault. The evidence clerk has the keys, but wont release them.

There are some very useful coincidences in the story, but it's certainly a well told one. Will the two robbers return to the scene of their crime, lest they become murderers? Will they get the trapped people out? Will the police catch on to what they are doing? the result is an exciting one with nice performances and interesting characters.

Strongroom is directed by Vernon Sewell and written by Max Marquis and Richard Harris. It stars Derren Nesbit, Colin Gordon, Ann Lynn, Keith Faulkner and W. Morgan Sheppard. Music is by Johnny Gregory and cinematography by Basil Emmott.

Three men enact a bank robbery and lock up the manager and his secretary in the vault. Upon making their getaway it dawns on them that the two in the vault could die from lack of oxygen and thus landing them as murderers should they be caught...

Every once in a while a "quota quickie" or "B" crime movie really strides out on its own to stand tall and proud, Strongroom is one such film. Originally the support feature to the George Chakiris film Two and Two Make Six, Sewell's picture went down well enough with the public that it often became the main feature in some theatres.

Compact at just 80 minutes in length, it's a picture heavy on claustrophobia and thematic stings, embracing that old noir devil of fate along the way. It's directed in a tight no-nonsense way by Sewell, who manages to keep things moving without it being at cost to nail biting suspense. Well performed by all involved, it's a film that never once cops out, right up to, and including, the quite brilliant finale. 8/10