Thursday 21 June 2018

PAYROLL

Shot largely on location in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Sidney Hayers'  "Payroll" is a remarkably good British heist movie dealing, not just with a robbery, but with dishonour amongst thieves. It's not quite "The Asphalt Jungle" or "Rififi" but it's an outstanding example of its kind with a first-rate script by George Baxt, excellent cinematography from Ernest Steward and sterling direction from Hayers. It's also got a great cast that includes Michael Craig, Tom Bell, Billie Whitelaw (superb), Kenneth Griffith and the French actress Francoise Prevost while the robbery itself is brilliantly handled, if only by the film-makers and not the robbers. Something of a small genre classic.

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7 WOMEN

 Now considered in some quarters to be a masterpiece and one of his finest films, John Ford's final film "7 Women" was neither...