The Great Riviera Bank Robbery (1979)A group of fascists plan to finance their work by pulling off a bank robbery. Director:Francis Megahy |
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The Great Riviera Bank Robbery (1979)A group of fascists plan to finance their work by pulling off a bank robbery. Director:Francis Megahy |
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Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Ian McShane | ... | ||
Warren Clarke | ... |
Jean
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Stephen Greif | ... |
Rocco
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Christopher Malcolm | ... |
Serge
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Nigel Humphreys | ... |
Alex
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Eric Mason | ... |
Fernand
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Matthew Long | ... |
Michel
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Alain Guano | ... |
Alain
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Barry Lowe | ... |
Lawyer
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Jonathan Elsom | ... |
Magistrate
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Arnold Diamond | ... |
Town Hall Man
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Christopher Burgess | ... |
Policeman
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Kevin Brennan | ... |
Customer
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Sheila Ruskin | ... |
Bank Girl
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Adrian Shergold | ... |
Young Leftie
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A group of fascists plan to finance their work by pulling off a bank robbery.
This movie really lacks a good director, one with a sense of suspense. The Great Riviera Bank Robbery, aka Sewers of Gold, aka Dirty Money (they definitely were at a loss for ideas to market this unexciting movie) tells the story of the July'76 Société Générale Bank robbery in Nice. It is very much inspired by facts, and the book by self-proclaimed Brain Albert Spaggiari (Sewers of Paradise - 1978) and sticks closely to that line.
Unfortunately all the technical elements of the Master Heist are not enough to make the great premise into a great movie. Reality is less interesting than the make believe art of cinema, especially if your heroes are nationalist wingnuts (and if you deem useful to drive this point home with a Hitler portrait and other Third Reich memorabilia). So we've got a Master Heist being re-enacted with very little tension, and no change in rhythm whatsoever.
A weak movie that does a clean job of putting all the pieces together, it actually feels like the ITV movie of the week it was meant to be, with everything just shot and edited together without much thought.
The 2007 region 2 DVD is a cheap release, sporting a 4:3 ratio which I guess is the original TV framing, so be aware that the "Best Heist Movie ever" other reviewers chuckle over is just a good TV movie.