The First Great Train Robbery
The First Great Train Robbery | |
---|---|
Directed by | Michael Crichton |
Screenplay by | Michael Crichton |
Based on | The Great Train Robbery 1975 novel by Michael Crichton |
Produced by | John Foreman |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Geoffrey Unsworth |
Edited by | David Bretherton |
Music by | Jerry Goldsmith |
Production company | Starling Films |
Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date |
|
Running time | 110 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | $7 million[1] |
Box office | $13 million[2] |
The First Great Train Robbery (known in the United States as The Great Train Robbery) is a 1978 British heist comedy film directed by Michael Crichton, who also wrote the screenplay based on his 1975 novel The Great Train Robbery. The film stars Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland and Lesley-Anne Down.
The story is based on an actual event, the
Plot
In 1855
Pierce ingratiates himself with Trent by feigning a shared interest in ratting. He also begins courting Trent's daughter, Elizabeth, and learns from her the location of her father's key. Pierce and Agar break into Trent's home at night, locate the key and make a wax impression before making a getaway.
Pierce targets Fowler through his weakness for
The keys at the train station prove a much harder challenge. After a daytime diversionary tactic with a child pickpocket fails because Agar cannot wax them in the time available, Pierce decides to "crack the crib" at night. The operation is a matter of timing, because the officer guarding the railway office at night leaves his post only once, for seventy-five seconds, to go to the toilet. Pierce plans to use "snakesman" (cat burglar) Clean Willy to climb the station's wall, climb down into the station, enter the office via a skylight in the ceiling, and open the key cabinet from within. Because Clean Willy is incarcerated at Newgate Prison, Pierce and Agar first have to arrange for him to break out, using a public execution as a distraction. With Willy's help, the criminals succeed in making impressions of the keys without detection.
Clean Willy is subsequently arrested after being caught pick-pocketing and informs on Pierce. The police use Willy to lure Pierce into a trap, but the master cracksman eludes capture. Clean Willy escapes from his captors, but is murdered by Barlow on Pierce's orders. The authorities, now aware that a robbery is imminent, increase security by having the baggage car padlocked from the outside until the train arrives at its destination and forbidding anyone but the guard to travel in the baggage van. Any container large enough to hold a man must be opened and inspected before it is loaded on the train.
Pierce smuggles Agar into the baggage car disguised as a corpse in a coffin. Pierce plans to reach the car across the coach roofs while the train is under way, but he and Miriam encounter Fowler, who is riding the train to Folkestone to accompany the shipment. After arranging for Miriam to travel in the same compartment as Fowler to divert his attention, Pierce travels down the roof of the train and unlocks the baggage van's door from the outside. He and Agar replace the gold with lead bars and toss the bags of gold off the train at a prearranged point. However, soot from the engine's smoke has stained Pierce's skin and clothes, and he is forced to borrow Agar's suit, which is much too small for him. The jacket splits across the back when he disembarks at Folkestone. The police become suspicious and arrest him before he can rejoin his accomplices.
Pierce is put on trial for the robbery. While exiting the courthouse, he receives the adulation of the crowds, who consider him a folk hero for his daring act. In the commotion, a disguised Miriam kisses him, slipping a key to his handcuffs from her mouth to his. Agar is also present, disguised as a police van driver. Before he can be put into the wagon, Pierce frees himself and escapes with Agar, to the jubilation of the crowd and the chagrin of the police.
Cast
- Sean Connery as Edward Pierce / John Simms
- Donald Sutherland as Agar
- Lesley-Anne Down as Miriam
- Alan Webb as Edgar Trent
- Malcolm Terris as Henry Fowler
- Robert Lang as Sharp
- Michael Elphick as Burgess
- Wayne Sleep as William "Clean Willy" Williams
- Pamela Salem as Emily Trent
- Gabrielle Lloyd as Elizabeth Trent
- George Downing as Barlow
- James Cossins as Harranby
- André Morell as Judge
- Peter Benson as Station Master
- Janine Duvitski as Maggie
- Peter Butterworth as Putnam
- Brian Glover as Captain Jimmy
- Geoffrey Ferris as Pickpocket
Production
Film rights to the novel were bought in 1975 by
Crichton deliberately varied the film from his book. He said "the book was straight, factual but the movie is going to be close to farce."[1]
Sean Connery originally turned down the film after reading the script, judging it "too heavy." He was asked to reconsider and read the original novel. After meeting Crichton, Connery changed his mind.[7]
Sean Connery performed most of his own stunts in the film, including the extended sequence on top of the moving train.
Heuston Station in Dublin stood in for 'London Bridge Station' in the film.[10] During the filming at the station, a diesel locomotive leaked a large quantity of fuel onto the tracks by the platform. When the production company's steam engine rolled onto the same tracks, embers dropping from the underside of the locomotive ignited the fuel soaked track, momentarily producing a very large fire within the station.[11]
Origins of the plot
The film's plot is loosely based on the
In his screenplay Crichton based his character "Clean Willy" Williams on another real-life character from Chesney's book, a
The film also draws loose parallels to the 1903 film of the same name. The 1903 film has just 18 shots, but the film borrows two scenes, one in which Pierce (the 1903 characters are unnamed) is on top of the train, and another when a person is thrown off the moving train.
Filming locations
Although set in
The two locomotives featured were both J-15 0-6-0s, No 184 of 1880, and No 186 of 1879.[14][15]
Music
The film's soundtrack was written by
Reception
The Great Train Robbery has a critical rating of 76% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 29 reviews.[16] The site's critics praised the film's comedic tone, action sequences, and Victorian details. Variety wrote that "Crichton's film drags in dialog bouts, but triumphs when action takes over."[17] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four and singled out Connery, writing that the actor "is one of the best light comedians in the movies, and has been ever since those long-ago days when he was James Bond."[18] Vincent Canby of The New York Times praised director Crichton's "amplitude...in this visually dazzling period piece,"[19] and that "the climactic heist of the gold, with Mr. Connery climbing atop the moving railroad cars, ducking under bridges just before a possible decapitation, is marvelous action footage that manages to be very funny as it takes your breath away."[19] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote that it "takes too much time to get to the robbery itself." He found very little suspense in the first half of the movie "because we know that Connery's gang must get the keys or we won't be able to see the big robbery of the film's title."[20] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times called it "an intelligent and handsome work. It is just a little slow, dull and bloodless—pure Victorian, when a dash or two of Elizabethan vivacity couldn't have hurt."[21] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote that "While the movie boasts an undeniably exciting highlight, it lacks an undercurrent of excitement ... It's beginning to look as if Crichton's filmmaking carburetor is tuned a bit low. Perhaps his approach is too dry and cautious to produce an explosive, uninhibited mixture of thrills and humor."[22]
Accolades
- Edgar Award, Best Motion Picture Screenplay, 1980 — Michael Crichton
References
- ^ a b c Owen, Michael (28 January 1979). "Director Michael Crichton Films a Favorite Novelist". New York Times. p. D17.
- ^ The Great Train Robbery at Box Office Mojo
- ^ The Great Gold Robbery Wikipage
- ^ Ebert, Roger. "THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY". rogerebert.com/. Ebert Digital LLC. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
- ^ Thomas, Bob (21 September 1975). "Movies: Director Dino hits the shores of America". Chicago Tribune. p. e16.
- ^ Fitzsimons, Godfrey (10 June 1977). "Hollywood company to make $5m. film here". The Irish Times. p. 13.
- ^ Sterritt, David (3 April 1979). "Sean Connery: Ex-Milkman with a Famous Face". Christian Science Monitor. p. B24.
- ^ Mann, Roderick (19 December 1978). "The Diagnoses of Dr. Crichton". Los Angeles Times. p. f16.
- ISBN 978-1-4532-1770-2.
- ^ McCormack, Stan (13 August 2020). "When the movies came to town". Westmeath Examiner. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
- user-generated source]
- ^ ISBN 0-85117-002-1.
- ^ David Ingoldsby. "The Great Train Robbery (1978)". Shot at Trinity. Trinity College Dublin. Archived from the original on 22 May 2015. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
- ^ 31interactive.co.uk. "No. 184". www.steamtrainsireland.com.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ 31interactive.co.uk. "No. 186". www.steamtrainsireland.com.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "The Great Train Robbery (1979)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 17 June 2023.
- ^ "Review: 'The First Great Train Robbery'". Variety. 31 December 1978.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (9 February 1979). "The Great Train Robbery". Chicago Sun-Times.
- ^ a b Canby, Vincent (2 February 1979). "The First Great Train Robbery (1979)". New York Times.
- ^ Siskel, Gene (12 February 1979). "'Train Robbery' action languishes in preliminaries". Chicago Tribune. Section 3, p. 2.
- ^ Champlin, Charles (2 February 1979). "A Stickup in Slo Mo". Los Angeles Times. Part IV, p. 1.
- ^ Arnold, Gary (9 February 1979). "The Great Train Robbery". The Washington Post. C12.
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