Watching this restored British B-movie classic on the big
screen you were reminded that there are far darker places to be than the NFT2
on a Tuesday evening. The film is full of dread not least the ticking clock for
the people locked in the titular space but also the men who put them there and
who realise their own lives are on the line. Strongroom has always
punched above its weight with contemporary reviews comparing it favourably with
the main feature it was supporting, the comedy Two and Two Make Six (1962)
starring George Chakiris and Janette Scott and costing £116,401, almost seven
times as much as the little film that died harder.
Both efforts were a product of Bryanston Films established by Maxwell Setton and Michael Balcon in 1959 in an attempt to create “new collaborative enterprises to provide greater integration between production and distribution…”* It was a new “route to market” for independent film makers who could no longer get support from the likes of the Rank Organisation and the Associated British Picture Corporation who had shifted to film distribution and not filmmaking. Bryanston were the first and most successful of what was sadly a short-lived period but amongst their twenty features were the likes of the Peter Sellars comedy, The Battle of the Sexes (Charles Crichton,1960), The Small World of Sammy Lee (1963) and classics of the British ‘new wave’ directed by Tony Richardson for Woodfall including A Taste of Honey (1961) and The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1962).
Strongroom, with a budget of £17,000 was one of
the company’s B-movies and was directed by Vernon Sewell who had also made The
Wind of Change the previous year for the company. Based on an idea from
Richard Harris (no, not that one, the writer!) it’s the kind of tight procedural crime
thriller that was very much in vogue at the time. It’s nuanced and cares for
pretty much all of its characters leaving you rooting for both the robbers and
the robbed by the end.
This is partly down to the narrative hanging off a couple
of dramatic double acts with Derren Nesbitt as Griff, a small-time crook after
just one big pay day, and his partner in crime Len Warren (Keith Faulkner),
less experienced but perhaps more ruthless as initial success sinks in. They
are assisted by Len’s brother Alec (W. Morgan Sheppard) as they wait patiently
outside a bank, Eastern Counties Bank at the corner of St. Margaret's Road and
The Barons in St. Margaret's, (right next to Twickenham Studios, thanks Reelstreets.com!) which Griff has been casing for many months. He knows their
routines perfectly and, on this Bank Holiday Saturday knows they will finish
early and be empty until Tuesday… it’s going to be the perfect crime.
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| Colin Gordon and Ann Lynn |
Inside the bank the rather stuffy Mr Spencer (World War
II veteran and man of many parts Colin Gordon looking, if anything, younger
than his 51 years) keeps on working and has asked his secretary Rose (Ann Lynn,
then married to Anthony Newley, Sammy Lee himself, and star of so many kitchen sink
neo-classics including the excellent Four in the Morning (1965)) to work
late. This confuses the watching gang as they know two remain inside and time
is against them. The plan must proceed and they break in and take Mr Spencer
and Rose captive, taking them downstairs to the bank’s strongroom and forcing
them to open it.
Once again luck is against them as two cleaners make an
unscheduled visit to the bank – some great chit-chat between Hilda Fenemore and
Diana Chesney – as they sweep away oblivious. Downstairs there’s consternation though
and in their panic the lads decide to lock up Spencer and Rose in the strongroom,
tied up for good measure. They sneak out avoiding the cleaners and begin their
getaway… the mood shifting from relief and elation at what would seem to be a
successful heist but then Griff begins to fret.
 |
| Derren Nesbitt and Keith Faulkner |
It is here that the quality of Richard Harris and
co-writer Max Marquis’ script comes through as Griff, Len and Alec quickly work
out the implications of what has just happened. Alec, the elder brother can see
more clearly what Griff is driving at when he realises that the two in the
strongroom won’t be found until Tuesday and, having run out of oxygen in the airtight
vault, will leave the boys as murderers destined for the gallows (the last hangings
were in 1964). They agree that Alec will drive far away from the scene, leave
the keys to the vault in a phone box and tell the police where it is, leaving
Griff and Len enough time to go to ground with the loot.
That should be that but Alec doesn’t make it and the boys
are shocked when two policemen arrive to inform Len that he has been killed and
they need him to identify the body at the mortuary. Griff styles it out but Len
is not only heartbroken but starting to panic and blame the bank workers for
his loss. The story is now all about the push and pull between these two
characters as they weigh up their options whilst Rose and Spencer try to figure
out a way out for themselves having calculated that they only have a finite
amount of air left…
It's a tense watch and well played by the four with
twists and turns still to come: will their conscience outweigh their greed and
will they make up their minds in time? It’s a near perfect ride with enough
discomfort and delay to keep you on the edge of your seat.
Strongroom is screening at the BFI this month and also elsewhere and I strongly recommend you see it in cinema if you can. There are screening details on the BFI website here.
If not, it is also coming on BFI Blu-ray on 23rd February and you can buy it in the BFI’s Southbank shop or from the usual online suspects. This too is recommended – obviously – as it comes with the top of the range extras you’d expect but especially another tense Vernon Sewell Brit B-movie, this time for Anglo-Amalgamated, The Man in the Back Seat (1961) which not only has a similar Crime and Punishment guilt-trip but also features the same actors as partners in crime: Derren Nesbitt (Tony) and Keith Faulkner (Frank). They rob a dog track manager of his takings but, as he’s attached by handcuff to the locked bag, they have to knock him out and take him with them.
Things are further complicated by Frank’s wife Jean, played
by the 18-years old Battersea Bardot, Carol White, who wants her man to walk
the straight and narrow and is deeply distrustful of his mate Tony. As with Strongroom,
a lot of the action is in the form of ongoing debate between the men in the car
as they drive around trying to think of the safest way to off-load their
seriously injured passenger: if he dies their crime will have been much worse
and might possibly get them killed.
Nesbitt and Faulkner are excellent and the former
especially has something of Oliver Reed’s unusual and unsettling screen
presence. It’s worth the price of admission alone but there are many other reason
to buy this set:
Strongroom (1962) newly
remastered in 2K and presented in High Definition
Newly recorded audio
commentaries by film historians Dr Josephine Botting and Vic Pratt
The Man in the Back Seat
(1961, 57 mins): featuring many of Strongroom’s cast and crew – see above!
John Trumper BEHP interview
(1992, 158 mins, audio): the Strongroom editor discusses his career
Footpads (1896, 1 min):
one of the earliest British crime films
A Test for Love (Vernon
Sewell, 1937, 27 mins): a public information film on the perils of STDs
The Awakening Hour
(Donovan Winter, 1957, 21 mins): a robbery goes wrong as morning breaks in
London
After Dark (Mike Dodds,
1979, 14 mins): a road safety film edited by John Trumper
The First pressing only includes a fully illustrated
booklet with new essays by James Bell, Barry Forshaw and Tony Dykes, along with
notes on the special features and credits.
DOI: 10.1080/01439685.2017.1285150
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