A retired colonel invites seven former officers to lunch. He has a job in mind for all of them.
1960 · British heist comedy · Black and white
Synopsis
After leaving the Army, Lieutenant Colonel Norman Hyde recruits seven former officers for a bank robbery. Each man brings a different skill and a reason to take the risk. Hyde expects the same discipline he demanded in uniform, but civilian life has given his recruits habits and loyalties of their own.
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Meet the cast
Also featuring Robert Coote as Bunny Warren and Norman Bird as Weaver.
Crew
Director · Basil Dearden
Screenplay · Bryan Forbes
Based on the novel by John Boland
Producer · Michael Relph
Cinematography · Arthur Ibbetson
Editing · John D. Guthridge
Music · Philip Green
Art direction · Peter Proud
Production and film notes
This was the first film from Allied Film Makers, a partnership formed after Basil Dearden and Michael Relph left Ealing. Several of the new company’s partners appear in the cast, including Jack Hawkins, Richard Attenborough and Bryan Forbes. The film was one of Britain’s box-office hits of 1960. The Criterion Collection
Forbes adapted John Boland’s novel and gave himself a supporting role as Porthill. Watch the first lunch scene for the way Hyde falls back into the rhythms of a military briefing and the men slip into old patterns of deference and rivalry. Criterion film record
Related films
Timetable (1956) · Another heist film built around precise timing.
Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964) · Bryan Forbes directs Richard Attenborough in a very different British crime story.