Strongroom

This taut British B-movie from 1962 sees Derren Nesbitt and Keith Faulkner carrying out an apparently foolproof bank heist but of course, everything goes pear-shaped despite the robbers’ precise planning.

It’s Easter weekend (Saturday afternoon to be precise) and both bank manager Mr. Spencer (Colin Gordon) and his young secretary Rose Taylor (Ann Lynn) are about to close the bank for the long bank holiday weekend when suddenly, someone knocks on the already locked door. Mr. Spencer, who has a stuffy and bookwormish demeanour about him, cautions Rose to look out of the window first to check who’s knocking. Well well, seeing how it appears to be the postman (on a Saturday afternoon?), she lets him inside the building. Of course, we already know that it’s not the postman but a thug named Griff (D. Nesbitt) because he and his two accomplices, Len Warren (Keith Faulkner) and Len’s brother Alec (W. Morgan Sheppard) had their car parked outside the building earlier on and one could just tell the trio are up to no good. And so it is! The second he steps inside the bank’s office, Griff pulls a stocking over his face in order to make it look distorted and the other two robbers follow suit. The three robbers drag Spencer and Rose down into the basement, where the airtight strongroom (vault) is located. After having bagged plenty of cash, they lock Spencer and Rose inside the strongroom. As they are about to make off with the loot, two cleaners unexpectedly arrive and almost ruin the trio’s escape plan but they manage to escape without the cleaners noticing anything. Meanwhile down in the vault, Mr. Spencer desperately bashes against the heavy door in the hope to attract the cleaners attention, as he is aware that they must have entered the office by now but unfortunately, the cleaners dismiss the banging noise as construction work from a neighbouring building.

While Griff, Len and Alec have their stolen booty to celebrate, they are aware that the two victims locked inside the strongroom may well suffocate, seeing how it’s Easter weekend and none of the other employees will return to work until Tuesday. A plan is hatched which involves Len’s brother Alec leaving the keys to the vault in a phone box and placing an anonymous call to alert the coppers. Meanwhile, back in Len’s flat, he and Griff are counting the bank notes and fool around when suddenly, the doorbell rings and two policemen appear. Griff almost loses his nerve but calms down when one of the policemen wants to speak to Len instead. Not knowing what’s actually going on, Griff and Len obviously assume it has something to do with the robbery but the real reason as to why the two coppers turned up is an utterly unexpected one: Alec was involved in a traffic collision and was killed instantly. The papers found on him identified him as Len’s brother, living at his address. Shocked beyond words, it’s Griff who composes himself again and, thinking rationally, he figures out that Alec must have been killed before he was able to make the anonymous phone call to the police. That’s bad news indeed, because it means that Mr. Spencer and Rose will now surely suffocate inside the strongroom unless Griff and Len are willing to give their game away - which they won’t.

Len is initially reluctant to help the two employees because he blames them for his brother’s death and it’s not until Griff points out that if they die inside the vault, then he and Len will be charged with murder if caught - back then, murder was still a capital offence. At first, their plan to rescue the two victims from the vault seems straightforward: Len is supposed to go to the police and collect his dead brother’s belongings, including the strongroom keys, drive back to the bank and free Mr. Spencer and Rose (who grow weaker by the minute). But then another unexpected surprise: the coroner’s assistant refuses to hand Alec’s belongings to Len with the explanation that there’s some bureaucracy involved and they will need to wait for the all clear. Now what! With much determination, Griff persuades Len to drive to the bank and drill a hole into the strongroom door but…
This really is a tense little number and the characters are confronted with situations beyond their control, but brought on by themselves.

There’s a wonderful surprise on this Blu-ray release, namely another British B-thriller, this time from 1961 and also directed by Vernon Sewell. THE MAN IN THE BACK SEAT once again sees Derren Nesbitt and Keith Faulkner as robbers, although here the dynamic is reversed as Nesbitt’s character, Tony, plays the ruthless and manipulative one wheres Faulkner’s Frank is the one with a conscience. Here, the robbery doesn’t take place in a bank but Tony and Frank attempt to rob bookmaker Joe Carter (Harry Locke) as he exits the local dog track. The two robbers only realise that the case holding the cash is chained to Joe’s wrist after they’d nearly beaten him to a pulp. Driving around town trying to figure out which steps to take next, they eventually end up in Frank’s flat, which he shares with his wife Jean (Carol White), who isn’t at all pleased about the situation and on top of it, can’t stand Tony as she considers him to be a bad influence on Frank. Although both Tony and Frank eventually manage to separate the case from Joe’s wrist, his condition rapidly deteriorates and it finally dawns on them just how much trouble they are in… The film might be barely an hour long but it really runs at a great pace, with enough twists and turns to keep us glued to the screen.

Additional bonus material includes: audio commentaries, 1992 audio interview with film editor John Trumper, the early 1-min crime film ‘Footpads’ from 1896, Vernon Sewell’s (cringe-worthy) public information film ‘A Test for Love’ from 1937, the 1957 short crime caper ‘The Awakening Hour’ by Donovan Winter, the 1979 road safety film ‘After Dark’ and last but not least, an illustrated booklet (first pressing only).