The Mailbag Robbery

source: The Mailbag Robbery

Moviecut—The Mailbag Robbery

Simple heist story from the UK about three thieves led by Lee Patterson (Ronnie) who attempt to rob mail sacks containing bank notes on the overnight Flying Scotsman locomotive between Edinburgh and London. Now forgive the obvious did this little film perhaps provide some inspiration for the actual Great Train Robbery a few years later in 1963? Even the lead is called Ronnie, get it? Now on closer analysis the plotholes appear more flimsy than the wooden partition seperating a conveniently located passenger compartment with the loot. I mean even by 1957 standards it is pretty poor security. One of the three thieves Phil (Alan Gifford) spends most of the film in pain from a stomach ulcer and would be more of a hindrance than help? Serviceable performances from the cast, most of the action is interior obviously and the production is cheap. However it is does what is says on the tin as they say in the UK! In that I mean it is only of low running time etc. And was meant to accompany bigger budget productions as part of double-billed cinema exhibition....

I like this film,I have just bought a blu ray of it in a edition called Vintage Classics but really calling it a classic is a bit of a stretch. Compared to Payroll or the good die young or robbery under arms this is a minor piece of fun. As a 30 plus year railway employee the story seems unrealistic and not that thrilling either. The plot must have inspired the real Great Train robbers of the 1960s surely? Anyway I like this but don't expect to be watching it that often in the future. If you have never seen it and it is on tv give it a chance,it is watchable but you won't bore your friends about how great it is having seen it. I like the mix of other passengers,it seems odd that nearly all of them are at least 40.

Did Bruce Reynolds or Buster Edwards see it?I mean - might have given them ideas!

Lee Patterson (Ronnie), Kay Callard (Jackie), Alan Gifford (Phil), Kerry Jordan (drunk), Jeremy Bodkin (Charlie), John Dearth (father), Patsy Smart (mother), Margaret Withers (woman), Gerald Case (guard), John Lee (young man), Mark Baker (Gibbs), Geoffrey Bodkin (neat boy). Producer/director: COMPTON BENNETT. Screenplay: Norman Hudis. Story: Ralph Smart, Jan Read. Photography: Peter Hennessy. Film editor: John Trumper. Art director: Jack Stevens. Wardrobe: Vi Murray. Make- up: Eleanor Jones. Hairdresser: Eileen Warwick. Camera operator: Paddy A'Hearne. Set continuity: Rita Davison. Music director: Stanley Black. Production manager: Freddie Pearson. Assistant director: René Dupont. Sound: Len Page. Executive producer: Peter Rogers. An Insignia Film. Copyright 1957. U.S. release through U.A. U.K. release through Anglo-Amalgamated: 5 January 1958. Australian release through B.E.F.: June 1960 (sic). 6,225 feet. 69 minutes. U.S. release title: Mailbag Robbery. SYNOPSIS: Suspenseful, ingenious crime story: A daring scheme is carried out to perfection in imagination, but then we see setbacks on the actual trip. An unusual and holding thriller (Picture Show). COMMENT: "The Flying Scot" starts off most ingeniously with not a word spoken for the first 15 or 20 minutes. Of course, the idea was stolen from "Rififi" but it's still a suspenseful one even in this grade "B" work-out. The sequence turns out to be a neat joke on the audience, and thereafter the film follows a more predictable course. All the standard "B" elements are then deployed. Lots of talk and the plot line contrived so as to use the same sets over and over again; lots of filling out with extraneous plot strands that have very little to do with the main story; and all the scriptwriter's ingenuity channeled into ways to eke out the running time rather than ways to make the film more exciting. Odd to see Compton Bennett whose previous film was the elaborate "A" costume musical "After the Ball", reduced to working in the "B" league and this film, although it is competently directed within the limits of an exceedingly tight budget, is not likely to improve his status. Apart from the introductory quarter-hour, it's dull repetition all the way. The heroine is attractively costumed in the introductory sequence, but for most of the film, she wears much less flattering attire. Acting is competent enough on a "B"-grade shuffle level (the scriptwriter doubtless congratulated himself on his brainwave of giving the second lead a perforated ulcer that makes the said character move very slowly).

Reminding me of "Rififi", the film starts with a young couple pasting signs on their train compartment window "Reserved - Newlyweds", when their body language tells that they are so obviously not! They change their clothes and within a short time are in the middle of a seamless, well rehearsed robbery aboard "The Flying Scot" - all told with no speech!! It seems too good to be true and it is. It is just a dream of cocky adrenalin filled Ronny (Lee Patterson) as he strives to sell his plan to his sceptical gang members. Phil (Alan Gifford) thinks it's do-able so along with waitress Jackie (sultry Kay Callard) they set about putting it into action. Of course things go wrong, Ronny is too hot headed, instead of the easy screws in his dream, the money is behind a panel with immovable rivets so drills and saws have to be utilised, which makes them behind schedule so they miss their drop off point and now have to take the money off the train themselves. Phil becomes ill, the older woman in his carriage being a nurse realises it is a perforated ulcer and he later admits to Jackie that he postponed surgery that same week because this chance of easy money was too good to turn down. Main player Ronny is unlikable which is a plot twist - Jackie has a lot of sympathy for Phil but like a lot of British "little" movies it is the quirkiness of the other players, any of which you are thinking will propel the narrative, that makes the film memorable. Firstly Phil's train companion has her head stuck in a crime magazine then announces "I've been watching you" - Phil stiffens but she reveals she is a nurse and is worried about his health. Another couple are a wife with an alcoholic husband, she is taking him to a clinic to "dry out" - concerned but keeping him supplied with liquor so he won't cause a disturbance on the train. A family, mother, father and bratty child cause grief to their fellow passengers with their different views on child rearing - mother wants the little boy to explore and be adventurous, father just itching to use a rolled up newspaper. Funniest part - a passenger who is on the receiving end of the unrestrained brat, is doing a cross-word, thinks long and hard about a word, sees the little boy and very clearly spells out B-A-S-T-A-R-D!! I thought the little boy was going to "crack the case", he has already made himself troublesome around the train and has told all and sundry that he has seen a man with a gun, but like the little boy in "The Fallen Idol" he has told one lie too many and this is the chance his father is waiting for. As it is the instigator is a passing guard who puts justice in motion in a quietly unobtrusive British way. Director Compton Bennett had a major hit with "The Seventh Veil" (1945) but by the mid 1950s he was ensconced in programmers. Shot in just 3 weeks on a budget of 18,000 pounds - shows what a imaginative and proficient director can do when given a chance. Highly Recommended.

An entertaining British thriller, which illustrates how the most brilliantly conceived, meticulously planned crime can begin to go pear-shaped once a few imponderables find their way into the mix. The over zealous guard, interfering passengers,( the inevitable drunk, the kid from Hell and the winner of a Richard Wattis look-alike contest) and an unfamiliar interior coach design rendering the loot almost impenetrable all conspire to make the task far more challenging than originally imagined. That's before even considering the self-inflicted wound. Why you would include a gang member who's half dead with an ulcer is any ones guess! Lastly, for those of us who spent our formative years in the days of steam; it appears that the same train, making the same journey on the same track is hauled by at least three different locomotives. That's library footage for you.

In the 1950's , all the studios were churning out 'B' movies, or as their publicity offices preferred to call them, Supporting Features. Most are now just memories or entries in catalogues, but in their day they were 65 minutes of taut thriller and proved to be the training ground for actors, writers, directors and technicians, as well as the twilight zone for former top stars. This genre has now been overtaken by the TV cop programme. Not surprisingly, in the 1970's companies like ITC snapped up many of the people who had once worked in 'B' movies. 'The Flying Scot' is a justifiably good example of the genre. Well crafted and cheap to make! The story is quite simple. Ronnie, a young impetuous American crook, played by Lee Patterson, is looking for 'the big one', and proposes to rob the Mail Train by drilling through the compartment walls whilst the train travels from Glascow to London. The film opens with a silent run through of the plan leading to the gang living it up in a South American Bar (shades of 'The Lavender Hill Mob)! There is not a wasted action or word as the story unfolds, and what a little cracker it turns out to be. The underrated Kay Callard gets her teeth into a role as Patterson's necessary sidekick and when it turns out the technician (Alan Gifford) is suffering from a crippling ulcer Patterson becomes more and more paranoid. And to add to his frustration the passengers are not behaving as he planned. The story by ace script writer Norman Hudis, who later turned his hand to TV's Danger Man, builds to a nerve wracking climax that takes several insignificant incidents and modest sub-plots to bring about a satisfying and logical ending. Oh, and another bonus. To save costs producer and director Compton Bennett plundered the studio library for actual pictures of the Royal Mail, lineside and station life.

I recently purchased The Flying Scot on video at a bargain price and was pleased I did. A group of robbers travel overnight on The Flying Scotsman and make a large hole between two compartments to access the sacks full of money. One of the robbers is ill and after a young boy works out what they are up to, he tells the guard, who then throws a written message out of the window to a signalman which states to call the police when the train reaches journey's end in London. The robbers get arrested in the abrupt ending to the movie. I found this movie enjoyable despite the cast being made up of fairly unknown B-movie stars. I found a few errors in the movie: The opening scene with London Paddington station where we here an announcement for the train going to London is the same scene at the end too. Another error is the fact that the Flying Scotsman terminates at Kings Cross, not Paddington. Also, the exterior views of the train were made up of stock footage of views of different trains on different regions of British Railways. Despite these errors, a movie worth watching. It is available on video in Britain as part of the Steam Cinema series. Rating: 3 stars out of 5.