Director – Vernon Sewell – 2025 – UK – Cert. 12a – 80m
*****
Three men have planned the perfect bank robbery… but then, everything goes wrong – out in UK cinemas on Friday, January 30th, BFI Blu-ray Monday, February 23rd, and BFI Player Monday, March 23rd
Strongroom doesn’t hang around. It opens with a strongroom door which must be locked at close of business by two separate keys, one looked after by the bank manager Mr. Spencer (Colin Gordon from Oh Brother!, TV series, 1968; The Pink Panther, Blake Edwards, 1963; Heavens Above!, The Boulting Brothers, 1963; The Man in the White Suit, Alexander Mackendrick, 1951) and the other by his secretary Miss Taylor (Ann Lynn from Just Good Friends, TV series, 1984-86; A Shot in the Dark, Blake Edwards, 1964). This Saturday, she’s agreed to work late as no-one will be in until the Tuesday after Easter.
What neither of them know is that sitting outside the bank in their small van, waiting for the bank employees to leave as per their usual schedule, is a gang of three criminals Griff (Derren Nesbitt from Tucked, Jamie Patterson, 2018; Where Eagles Dare, Brian G. Hutton, 1968; Emergency-Ward 10, TV series, 1963), Len (Keith Faulkner) and Len’s brother Alec (W. Morgan Sheppard from Transformers, Michael Bay, 2007; Gettysberg, Ronald F. Maxwell, 1993; Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Nicholas Meyer, 1991; Wild at Heart, David Lynch, 1990) intent on robbing the bank. They’ve been watching the bank and know how many people work there and who comes and goes when. So they’re somewhat put out when the manager and secretary don’t leave the place on time. They have to reconsider their plans, and go in guns at the ready, Griff going in first disguised as a postman followed by the other two, all three with stockings covering their faces.
Inside, they surprise manager and secretary, gag them, take them downstairs, unlock the strongroom and take the money (except the easily traceable new notes) and then lock the pair in the strongroom. Then the two cleaning ladies (Hilda Fenemore and Diana Chesney) not due in ‘til early Tuesday morning turn up unexpectedly to clean the place, forcing the robbers to sneak past them before they are noticed. This also gives our two trapped persons the chance to attempt to attract the cleaning ladies’ attention.
The secretary has done an underwater swimming course, and knows how to calculate the amount of time they have before the air runs out in the airtight vault: 12 hours. In the getaway car, Griff, too, has worked out there’s a problem, if they don’t get air into the vault before Tuesday, they’ll be guilty of murder… So, they need to go back and somehow get an air supply to the two incarcerated employees…
All of which gives some indication of the ingenuity with which this film is plotted: director Sewell was a Michael Powell protégé of whom the latter wrote in his autobiography that Sewell was “the most competent man I have ever known. When consulted about an estimate for anything… Vernon tears up the estimate and does the job himself… Men such as Vernon are invaluable around a film studio. They are at home in all departments….” What Sewell does here, working from a screenplay by Max Marquis (who went on to write episodes of The Avengers and Z Cars and Crossroads on TV) and Richard Harris (who went on to write episodes of The Avengers and Z Cars), is essentially simple: he gives his villains a task and then puts plausible obstacle after plausible obstacle in their way. He does this so brilliantly that audience expectations are constantly overturned, leading to a taut thriller that never misses a trick, right up till its final moments. It’s essentially a film about the perfect crime which goes badly wrong.
Sewell had previously teamed Nesbitt and Faulkner in The Man In The Backseat (1961, available on the BFI’s Strongroom Blu-ray) and their onscreen pairing worked so well he decided to repeat it, to great effect. They aren’t the only game in town, however; the film stands or falls equally on the couple locked in the vault, and both Colin Gordon and Ann Lynn deliver memorable performances. Sewell takes equal care casting the various bit parts: When the police are trying to identify the keys (to the bank vault), they visit a night watchman at a locksmith’s company who used to work on the factory floor, and actor Frank Seton, playing the part, is a wonder to behold.
It’s an unfussy British B-picture which doesn’t attempt to do any more than be an excellent, thoroughly entertaining crime movie, doing so with a minimum of sets and production expense to deliver exactly what’s needed, but nothing more. This precision extends to everything about the picture which, consequently, proves a real treat.
In addition, the BFI’s restored print looks peerless, which adds considerably to the viewer’s enjoyment.
Strongroom is out in cinemas in the UK on on Friday, January 30th, BFI Blu-ray Monday, February 23rd, and BFI Player Monday, March 23rd.
Trailer: