The title refers to the basement vault of a bank built out of concrete and with a thick steel door.
Three young men stake out a neighborhood bank for weeks, planning to knock it over. But when they move on it, things go wrong.
Forced to lock two bank employees in the air-tight strongroom in order to make their getaway, they are faced with the moral dilemma of possibly letting those people die of asphyxiation while they beat it with the money.
That dilemma creates the tension and suspense in this small, 75-minute movie from 1962.
“Strongroom” has uniformly good performances and some great plot twists.
It stars Derren Nesbitt, Keith Faulkner, and William Morgan Sheppard as the bank robbers, and Colin Gordon and Ann Lynn as the bank workers. The movie was directed by Vernon Sewell, a veteran of small-budget pictures, and a good craftsman.
This, and films like it, are difficult to find. But finding it will have its rewards. Right now, a version of it is on YouTube. But many an English B-movie appears and then disappears off that site. So move fast if you want to catch a good one.
(For more posts on film and television, check out Todd Mason’s blog.)
Elgin, I like a good heist movie and STRONGROOM seems to be one, though, frankly, I hadn't heard of the film or any of the actors until not.
ReplyDeleteOnly one of the actors was somewhat familiar to me. I had never heard of the film. But, I like these little British crime movies from that era.
DeleteOn to the list it goes - cheers.
ReplyDeleteThese short, fast-paced, crime movies really get on with the story. This is one of the better ones.
Delete