The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery (1959)

Strong and Moving!

Instant Favorite.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

It is written at the beginning of the film that it is based on a true incident happened exactly where it is filmed. True or not, the movie is well done (two directors have given their strength ...), well played. Steve McQueen, after "The Blob", which is awkward, makes a very good part, is natural, convincing. The same Crahan Denton. David Clarke, James Dukas and Molly McCarthy are also credible. Most of the other films directed by Charles Guggenheim are documentary, which is also felt here somewhat. John Stix, the other director, has only 5 credits, the other four being TV productions.

Plenty good ol' cars in this flick. Steve McQueen, a very well known car guy, is a would-be bank robber. He falls in with some hard cases and they all come to a bad end as a result of a botched robbery. The best laid plans, etc.Now, having read some of the other reviews, I have to wonder: where is all this "gay" stuff coming from? I didn't see anything like that. Maybe I'm just not apt to be jumping to conclusions. Maybe I don't have any "gaydar" at all. Whatever. I guess if you want to see homosexual stuff insinuated you will see it. Besides which, naw, I just can't see Steve McQueen appearing as a homosexual, especially back in the 50s when there was all kinds of approbation attached to that particular lifestyle.I'm not much of a Steve McQueen fan. I couldn't tell you if this was good acting or bad acting from him. He always seemed very.. low key. I guess some folks find that to be good acting. Me, not so much. I saw him as an action star not necessarily an actor. A star doesn't actually have to act much, just do action stuff, shootouts, car chases, punchups, making out with hot babes, etc. But acting? Naw.The best part of these lo-budg genre flicks is taking a tour around town back in the day. That's what this is about: St Louis in 1959 and a bunch of good ol' US iron rolling through the streets. If that ain't good enough for you, I guess you ain't gonna like this movie. Oh well. I liked it just fine.

Little known, but quite extraordinary independent movie from the tail end of the fifties, that is as good as any of the great heist movies from the post-war noir era. It's a stunning exercise in naturalistic movie making, using only real locations with natural lighting and sound that would grace an Italian neo-realist classic. Continuing that theme the actors are all either amateurs; down the list character actors; or,like STEVE McQUEEN and MOLLY McCARTHY, very inexperienced. The 4 gang members are all seedy losers with no redeeming features, but lots of psychological flaws that the bleak, uncompromising script lays bare, giving the audience no respite as they stumble towards their sordid oblivion. The raw method of McQUEEN in his scenes with MOLLY is sub-Brando, but interesting and unsympathetic, and of considerable historical interest; and the 3 C-list actors playing the other gang members seize their opportunities in lead roles, that in the case of CRAHAN DENTON especially, but also JAMES DUKAS, involve a startlingly blatant homosexual theme that would have had 50's audiences fainting in the aisles if they had known what they were watching. It is homosexual jealousy and angst that leads DENTON to commit the appalling killing of the girl, and an earlier scene in the hotel room with his henchman DUKAS reveals their dominant/submissive homosexual relationship quite openly. Don't be put off by the low production values - this movie has much to say, and much to offer.

Here's an interesting little noir style thriller starring Steve McQueen, who through a series of bad choices winds up as the fall guy for a trio of hoods that plan the robbery of the St. Louis Southwest Bank. His senior partners are portrayed by Crahan Denton, James Dukas, and David Clarke, all of whom garnered a reasonable amount of film recognition during their heyday, but are all but unknown today. The story recounts the planning and strategy for the big heist, primarily by Boss Egan (Denton). It seems to me though, with his experience, Egan should have shut things down at any number of points along the way, as the petty jealousies of his main henchman Willie (Dukas), and the inexperience of McQueen's character stood directly in the way of a successful robbery. The other hitch in the caper relates to the sister of Gino (Clarke), the remaining member of the quartet; she was a former girlfriend of George Fowler (McQueen). If this weren't a true story, I would have found the coincidence to be extremely contrived, but I'll have to assume her inclusion in the story to be portrayed as it actually occurred.Curiously, Steve McQueen's performance seems somewhat awkward, even unsure at times. A good example is the conversation in the bar with his old flame Ann (Molly McCarthy); it's disjointed and reaches a point where he just walks away, almost like he didn't want to be in the scene anymore. Though this was one of his first big screen appearances, he was doing the Western TV series "Wanted: Dead or Alive" during the same period, and there he seemed perfectly natural and comfortable as bounty hunter Josh Randall.Getting back to the story, it made me wonder why nothing ever came of Ann's lipstick rendered warning on the bank's window. The only follow up we ever see is a window cleaner removing it, though one might have expected some investigation from authorities, even if there was no conclusion.The bank job goes awry once a teller triggers an alarm, and from there, the bandits literally fall apart. For those who haven't seen the film, I won't spoil it here, but you'll wind up saying to yourself, 'boy, what a bunch'! It would have been nice if a trailer had been provided to explain what happened to the surviving principals after the legal proceedings.Steve McQueen fans would do well to get a hold of this one for an early look at the film legend's career, however beyond that, the movie itself isn't especially noteworthy. Generally somber to the point of being depressing at times, it's nowhere near as entertaining as 1975's bank robbery caper, "Dog Day Afternoon".