Customer Reviews

The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

One of the first films of the King Of Cool the Great St. Louis Bank Robbery is not a bad heist film for its low budget and being made in 1959.Also the film is based on actual events in St. Louis with many of the police officers playing roles in the film.

The story is about George Fowler (Steve McQueen) he is hired to be the getaway driver in a bank robbery by a old friend Gino (David Clarke).He meets with the rest of the crew the methodical John Egan the boss (Crahan Denton) and Willie (James Dukas) the criminal that has past his prime and jealous of George's importance in the robbery.Throught the film we see the preparation for the robbery and George's involment with a past love.

What I liked about this film despite it being a old film and in black and white its that its good heist film.Its cool how they prepare the heist.Timing the runs and checking for cops close to the bank.Another thing is the film feels real and the plot doesn't go to extremes like some other films that we have today.Also there is a scene in the film that I especially liked was where Gino is in the bathroom shaving and George closes the door and Gino realises how small the bathroom is and claustrophobic of it reminding how jail is to locked up.Today in films criminals act like its nothing getting out of jail.

The DVD is a barebones release.Nothing at all.Dont expect in the near future any special edition.But if you really like this film get because just look at the price 4 dollars.Who can beat that.

A entertaining and quick film with good performances.Not a bad heist film with no happy ending for a change than most cliché films.Any Steve McQueen fans should see this to look at the start of this legend's career.

At 63, and a friend knowing I was from "Dago Hill" in St.Louis, we were chatting about how things had changed in our world. He being an avid Cardinals fan, as myself, we starting telling stories about Ole' St. Louis. When I told him about being an early teenager, my father owning the quick shop"Tom's Grill" and watching the making of the movie, meeting Steve McQueen,in person, seeing the behind the scenes operation, he was intrigued and asked me a lot about the story. As we sat talking my wife looked at me and suggested we go to Amazon.com, see if the movie was downloadable and watch it. Well, needless to say it brought back many memories, and since my father died in 1981, I got to see him, alive, young and in the movie in the restaurant scenes when Steve was timing things and had the argument with the girl.

My father obviously is "Tom", owner of the grill, I remember many of the actual police officers in the movie as well as those that were involved in the real robbery. In the scene where the police cars are coming out of the station to respond to the bank, they are coming out of the 2nd district police station on Hampton Ave. which was right behind my house. Since I used to go to the station, shoot my .22 rifle in the basement range, put the flag up on week-ends, I got to know many of the officers that also knew my dad. As well as sometimes sneaking a ride on the back of one of the police motorcycles from time to time.

Yes, it brought back many memories, the movie itself was of course low budget, black and white, a very young Steve and refreshingly not full of sex, and tons of profanity.

To Amazon, I can only say thank you, from my heart, I am now a semi-retired former police officer, on reserves, and a PhD meteorologist here in Carlsbad, New Mexico.

In missing old St.Louis, the movie actually reminded me of the times as a kid, crawdad fishing and bike riding in Tower Grove park, having sat under that very pagoda in the movie when the gang members met.

So, especially if your an old St. Louis resident or just want to see how it looked with the old 50's cars, cheap gas, and a nostalgic hamburger fast food shop, I highly recommend you watch this movie: "The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery"

Any comments or visitors you may e-mail me at: tpastorello@valornet.com

or feel free to visit my weather website: www.weatherwatchofnm.com .

The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery is an exciting movie featuring a young Steve McQueen. McQueen plays George Fowler, the getaway driver for a group of three robbers attempting to rob the Southwest Bank in the city of St. Louis. The four men must watch and observe the bank to see when the officers on duty change shifts, the amount of traffic on an average day, and when and where they will make their getaway. This is an exciting movie that I picked up because Steve McQueen was in it, but I enjoyed the whole movie, not just McQueen's performance(only a year after his first starring role in The Blob). This is a good example of film noir also with its dark mood, interesting camera angles/shots, and not so perfect characters. Very entertaining movie as the tension rises all the way until the exciting climactic bank robbery.

Steve McQueen, in his second starring role, is excellent as getaway driver, George Fowler, a naive college student who finds himself wrapped up in the world of crime. Even here in only his second major role, McQueen has already perfected the quiet, loner type. Crahan Denton plays John Egan, the emotionally fragile leader of the bunch who wants this to be his last job. David Clarke plays Gino, the ex-con who refuses to go back to prison. James Dukas stars as Willie, the member of the bunch who takes pleasure in antagonizing the rest of the gang. Molly McCarthy plays Ann, a girl George used to date who gets unwillingly involved with the heist. The DVD contains a small biography about McQueen and the standard presentation of the movie which doesn't look too bad. For a surprisingly good heist movie with an excellent performance from a young Steve McQueen, check out The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery!

Roan has done a commendable job in restoring this movie, given that the first and last reels of 35mm fine grain were lost, and negatives had to be used for those reels. The picture, while technically widescreen, is a 1.66:1 ratio, so in viewing it on a 16x9 television, the viewer is either left with a slightly trimmed (top and bottom) full frame, or it can be viewed using the "zoom" function, sacrificing small amounts of information at the top and bottom. This is unfortunate, as viewing the movie in the latter manner, the picture appears somewhat soft. The picture is quite dark, until the last reel. However, grain and damage are minimal. Sound is probably the weak point of this release....however, I assume Roan did everything it could with the source materials that remained of the film. This is the only reason I leave them off the hook on this DVD.

If you're interested in seeing early Steve McQueen, this is a great place to start. I actually found him to be more similar in this movie to the persona he would become known for, than in his early role in "The Blob".

Recommended, but with hesitation.

A rather standard heist flick, maybe a bit above average. One of Steve the Loner's early roles as Steve the Loner, and he's the best thing about the film, though the other character actors are all decent, if not outstanding.

This may be a true story, etc, but it all looks like an episode of Dragnet in many ways. With all the great bank robbery films out there it's hard to say watch this one first; once you've run out of heist flicks, this one will do. It would have been perfect finding this black and white chestnut in 1977 on tv at 3 am, but in the dvd age we have endless options. Go for the classics of this genre first, unless you are a major McQueen fan.

And even then, he doesn't do much but mumble and look distracted. Tough, but distracted. Careers have been carved from less...

Steve McQueen always was involved in bending the law, both on the screen and in his private life. He was born in Missouri; this one takes place in Missouri, and it uses the same policemen in the cast that were there in the original robbery. One thing about McQueen is that he has actor friends that appear in several films with him. It is interesting to see all of them as they get older. If you watch this one a few times, you can appreciate that each of the robbers contributes a significant part to the whole that makes the robbery organized. But a more subtle question is: what did the group of robbers have that caused their downfall ? To contrast this one, early in McQueen's career, see "The Getaway" and "The Thomas Crown Affair." By then, McQueen has discovered that maybe a robbery can be successful !!

Not a particularly bad film, just not particularly good either. It's a bit like watching The Sopranos. You can start counting the bad decisions made by the criminals from the moment the first frame hits the screen, so the film has something of the appeal of a train wreck being screened in slow motion. Unfortunately, this film lacks The Sopranos' gallows humor. The criminal "mastermind" of the robbery states early on that he doesn't like working with people he doesn't know, and yet he includes McQueen's character in the job anyway, even though that character has apparently never been to prison, has apparently never even committed a crime previously, and has a fairly difficult time just trying to steal a license plate from a parked car.

Then it turns out that the McQueen character's former girlfriend lives right there in town. I expected that she would be the seed leading to the ruination of the robbery and the destruction of everyone involved, and the main surprise of the film is that she is not. She is the unwitting key to the fate of McQueen's character, but otherwise does not affect the overall outcome.

I'd have to say that this is a film for real die-hard fans of Steven McQueen, and black and white movies, and caper films. Kansas City Confidential, from 1952, while only a caper film in part, is far more entertaining. So is the original D.O.A. with Edmund O'Brien.

Having visited St. Louis several times over the years, this time-capsule shows the place before the arch when Stan Musial reigned the city. I must say I bought this DVD more out of curiosity with low expectations than rounding out my McQueen collection and then I sat mesmerized by the noir-ish feel of this building surprising caper movie. This nugget falls into the Asphalt Jungle type of drama, which is very high company. Some of the reviewers did not catch this because of its subtle resemblance. In other words as you are in with the hoods and their caper, you begin to experience the danger of involvement with "associates" you don't really know. Like in "Asphalt", the tension builds as the character flaws of the participants unravel before your eyes. The cover artwork captures the Peckinpah ("Getaway") look to McQueen. This does not disappoint. Although this seems low-budget, the script is brilliant from beginning to end. McQueen, surprisingly has all his chops. Hot-headed, moody, conceited(put-on) and romantic. The "unknown" character actors keep it real. The boss, "John Egan",(Crahan Denton)brings loads of experience to his dark persona as the hardened boss. Then we meet McQueen's buddy, Gino(David Clarke)not sharply-drawn, his sister (played well by a Shirley Maclaine-type) in all her scenes, and the sociopathic sickie(James Ducan)rounds out this thrown-together gang.This movie should be seen by any teenager today who does not know what you mean by being careful about whom you associate. The screenwriter was certainly aware of Theordore Dreiser's work on the American Dream and brings this film to its surprising climax with tremendous impact,utilizing even true participants in this robbery. The robbery here is two-fold, the bank job and a squandered American Dream. The only reason it did not deserve 5 stars in my opinion was the locale-lighting did not measure up to the script that was just a hair away from Kubrick quality. I would also venture that this seldom-seen gem is ripe for a make-over by a Quentin Tarantino. You can see by this movie how McQueen shot into "Wanted-Dead or Alive" so quickly. An overlooked gem.

The first time I watched the Great St. Louis Bank Robbery I didn't know what to expect. I had never heard of the historic events that form the basis of the movie, and frankly I had never heard of this movie either.

This movie feels more like a play or graphic novel. There are no fancy stunts or even fancy camera work. It's a simple story about a disastrous set of decisions that leads to a lousy day in St. Louis.

As for acting, well, the actors over reach and clearly Steve McQueen was still developing his cool guy persona. What makes this movie compelling is the downward spiral of Steve McQueen's character (and the weird "time capsule" feel the movie projects to modern audiences). In this movie, McQueen could project tough, but cool ... not so much.

In keeping with the low budget feel of the movie, the transfer to DVD is low budget too. Don't bother placing this on a high def TV. An old analog TV is this movie's proper home.

The tagline to this film's advertisement boasts "Real as the Screaming Headlines! True as the Bullets that Wrote Them!" These lines promise more that the film can fulfill. In this "true crime" drama, the actual St. Louis policemen involved in the "Great St. Louis Bank Robbery" played the same roles they did on that fateful day, when three desperate men (plus the getaway driver) attempted the broad-daylight robbery of the Southwest Bank. A young Steve McQueen, very early in his film career, is George Fowler, the youngest of the hold-up men. His relationship with a partner's sister stood to endanger the whole plan, and hardened criminal John Egan (Crahan Denton) must make sure everything goes as planned. This created a tension between the men that may derail the job. This all sounds better than what is actually in the film. The low budget black & white look of the film can't even muster a semi-documentary feel to the "true-life" events. The actors all gave lackluster performances, either overplaying, underplaying, or just not playing. The addition of the "real-life" policemen added nothing to the proceedings: anyone could have portrayed them, for all the importance they play in the film. If anything, they may have posed the question of whether or not the situation was handled properly. McQueen is the only saving grace, playing George as a young man caught up in events beyond his control. McQueen worked hard, giving George a shot of teenage angst so popular at the time, and displayed a hint of the acting prowess that would serve him well in the better films to come. All in all, a "caper" film that, at once, seems very short (88 minutes), and too long.