A Prize of Arms (1962) User Reviews

Good thriller with some nice twists.

[gerry1019 · 8/10 · 12 July 2006]

I was surprised that this film has not yet been reviewed here since it stars a major British talent, the late Sir Stanley Baker.

The film is set against a background of a Suez type military action. The main protagonists including Tom Bell of later Prime Suspect fame, decide this would be a perfect time to rob an army camp where there is lots of cash for the deployment and an overall atmosphere of confusion.

The plan is well thought out and feasible but, inevitably small things start to go wrong. The film is quite gripping and the whole business is resolved in a more than competent fashion.

The screenplay of the movie was co-written by Nicholas Roeg. The version I watched, a PAL disc viewed NTSC ran 102 minutes.

Superior British Thriller

[rstout3526 · 8/10 · 29 August 2012]

The long awaited DVD release cover gives equal billing to Rodney Bewes and Fulton McKay. Why? Bewes only has one line and I cannot recall Fulton McKay at all. Surely Patrick Magee should have taken a billing slot? Apart from that I consider this film to be on a par with the likes of Hell Drivers, Hell is a City, Villain and Robbery - all finely cast gritty crime dramas of that era. The tight direction, army camp locations, vehicles used and military discipline & bull all add to the reality. The film is gripping throughout and keeps you in suspense. Although Stanley Baker and Tom Bell are again typecast as villains, it would be difficult think of other actors who could have carried this off, except say for Michael Craig. Well recommended.

Classic British Noir

[eamole · 8/10 · 8 April 2017]

This film grabs you from the very start. Its simple bare-bones approach emphasises the clever plot, and engaging character development. The lack of soundtrack actually heightens tension appropriately, along with deft camera work, and tight dialog.

The plot itself is clearly the major player in this ensemble, not to denigrate the cast, who do a superb job of tense interaction, with appropriate support from typical British aloofness, and clipped military tones.

The plot ducks and weaves as it unfolds before your eyes. At times you wonder the significance of a particular action, only to later admire its genius as you appreciate its subtle significance. The tension is magnificently maintained throughout.

As another reviewer has commented - the movie has you rooting for the anti-heroes right to the end!! What a splendid achievement. Worthy of the 8 stars!!

Superior Crime Film

[malcolmgsw · 7/10 · 24 February 2021]

Stanley Baker made some excellant crime films in this period.Made on location,with an authentic feeling.Lots of well known actors appear in small parts.Excellent black and white cinematography,aided by tight editing.

Competent film with many well-known faces

[Marlburian · 7/10 · 18 May 2016]

I watched APOA courtesy of TalkingPictures TV channel, which is proving a treasure trove of little-known films, often low budget, of the 1960s.

The plot unfolded in a satisfying way, with a parade of familiar British actors of yesteryear in small parts, including,as noted, "Likely Lad" Rodney Bewes. Stanley Baker inevitably impresses in the starring role.

The film must have been made with the co-operation of the British Army and so shows officers and soldiers reacting to the raid in an efficient manner. (One or two of the actors could have worn their berets in a more military manner, and there was one sloppy salute - and what about the motor-cycle rider stopping off at a pub for a drink or two on duty?) One thing that did puzzle me was why the highly-strung Fenner was running in a panic through crowds of mocking soldiers and incurring the wrath of, I think, the regimental sergeant-major. Perhaps the clip that showed the reason for this was edited out?

Overall, very entertaining.

Nice Little Nail Biter

[Theo Robertson · 7/10 · 9 June 2015]

Turin a former officer in the British Army who was dismissed from the outfit sixteen years earlier decides to take his revenge on the military by planning and carrying out a payroll robbery at his former barracks

British films from this period tended to lag behind their American counterparts on many levels and a common criticism was that "British cinema was radio with pictures" . It's interesting this film was released a couple of years before ZULU which even today is probably the epitome of what can be termed British Hollywood and that several cast members , Baker ,Magee and Edwards featured in both films , but in its own way A PRIZE OF ARMS is low key but an involving heist thriller

Now heist thrillers are rather formulaic and often rely on double cross and triple cross . Not so here where the characters are stealing money for themselves and are therefore reliant on themselves . Made in the early 1960s when National Service had just ended in Britain it's set in a time when people had an ambiguous mindset towards the military . You can see both viewpoints from this film . Pilfering was a common occurrence in a conscript army and the trio of thieves seen here are just taking things one step further , but at the same time the military isn't shown as stupid or inept either . Perhaps most tellingly there's little violence used and the heist is carried out via very careful planning just like you'd get in the military and just like in conflict the careful plans go out of the window as the first boot lands on hostile territory . This is what makes A PRIZE OF ARMS a memorable heist thriller - it's well written with several points where you gasp "How are they going to get out of this one ? " and when a film makes you worry that a bunch of spivs might get caught red handed this must be viewed as a success

Superior thriller with Stanley Baker

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 15 December 2015]

A PRIZE OF ARMS is quite similar stylistically to Stanley Baker's HELL DRIVERS, although not quite as good as that movie. It's an engaging little piece that tells of a trio of crooks who set an elaborate plan into action to rob an army payroll. The plan involves them infiltrating an army camp and posing as soldiers before they truly set the wheels in motion.

This makes for tight, focused story-telling throughout, with no time for the usual romantic sub-plots and the like to pad out the storyline. In fact, there are no actresses in the film whatsoever. The use of a flamethrower in some crucial scenes also makes for novelty value and this feels way ahead of its time in that respect.

Baker gives a dependable turn as the antihero lead and the supporting cast has also been well chosen. What's particularly interesting is the sheer quantity of future famous faces lining up to play the soldiers: Rodney Bewes, Patrick Magee, Stephen Lewis, Geoffrey Palmer, Fulton Mackay, and Michael Ripper are all present here and certainly add to the experience for British cinema fans.

Where can I find it ?

[p-jacksonturner · 8/10 · 8 September 2006]

I always thought this was a superb example of the tough British thrillers that were made in the 60's , along with The Helldrivers ( both of which star Stanley Baker )Gritty acting from Baker, and a great performance from a very young Tom Bell as the rather unhinged Fenner, no pop video soundtrack,no over the top special effects and filmed in black and white, perfect !

I'd love to get my hands on a copy of this movie in any format ( especially DVD ), as I only have a poor copy taped from the TV , many years ago and with the first 15 minutes missing !

Can anyone help ?

A criminally neglected film on its 1962 release now emerges as a pacy, exciting and very suspenseful heist thriller. A classic!

[jamesraeburn2003 · 18 August 2018]

A gang of criminals, Turpin (Stanley Baker), Fenner (Tom Bell) and Swavek (Helmut Schmid) plot to steal an army payroll worth £250,000 meant for soldiers serving in the Middle East. To this end they plan to impersonate soldiers and infiltrate an army camp using an old military vehicle. When the big day comes, they know that whatever happens there can be no turning back. Either they will pull it off and enjoy a life of vast wealth or it could go disastrously wrong and they will spend the rest of their lives in prison or worse. But what will fate decide for them?

A criminally underappreciated film, which received positive reviews from the critics at the time but failed to make much of an impact at the box office. Seen today it emerges as a pacy, exciting and very suspenseful heist thriller. The tension starts off very moderately; but it gradually builds up causing us to grip the arms of our seats tighter and tighter as a series of events occur that threaten to compromise the success of the gang's raid. For instance, having managed to convince everybody at the army base that they are regular soldiers, they find themselves being ordered into the medical centre to have inoculations since the officers there are being sent to serve their country abroad. There is also a really funny scene in which Tom Bell's Fenner gets purloined by Patrick Magee's RSM Hicks to a dirty job of cleaning pots and pans. Here, he falls foul of a supervising sergeant who takes pleasure in browbeating officers who are below his rank and Fenner retaliates by upsetting the table holding the pans he is cleaning and shouting a rude insult. This too threatens the success of the gang's plans because Fenner has drawn attention to himself since orders are given to find him so he can face disciplinary action. The tension finally reaches fever pitch as they finally succeed in raiding the chief cashier's office; creating a diversionary fire, blowing the safe open and carrying the loot out on a stretcher holding a wounded officer right under the noses of the camp's high command amid all the commotion. But, as they plan to slip out of the base in their military vehicle by sabotaging a breakdown truck and joining a departing convoy of arms, the military top brass begin to sort of see through all the ruses the gang has laid to make it appear an outside job. But they haven't, as yet, quite fitted all the pieces of the puzzle together to prove it for sure. Have Turpin and his mates pulled off the crime of the century, or will they be proven to have been too clever for their own good?

Cleverly directed by Cliff Owen, a film maker whose talents never really got the recognition they deserved. Here he displays a proficiency for the thriller genre (check out his debut feature, the crime 'B' -pic Offbeat) keeping the action moving at a cracking pace and artfully constructing mounting tension that culminates in a skilfully staged and fiery climax that will leave you stunned. Stanley Baker, Tom Bell and Helmut Schmid all deserve glowing reviews as the crooks attempting to pull off the final and biggest job of their lives while lots of unexpected people crop up in the supporting cast; including Michael Robbins, Rodney Bewes and Fulton McKay. Oh, and I think I spotted Geoffrey Palmer is in there somewhere too.

Happily A Prize Of Arms is now readily available on DVD for a new generation of fans to enjoy - it is something that all fans of good thrillers and of British cinema cannot afford to miss.

Gritty but not quite believable

[badajoz-1 · 7/10 · 4 August 2009]

A gritty thriller based on a heist from an army camp that is busy transiting people and equipment for a crisis war overseas. Typical of the period that was about to launch British neo-realism (film version of kitchen sink stage drama and TV), but it still looks and feels like a fifties postwar UK frayed around the edges and in the middle! With such a downbeat feel, with not enough backstory - Stanley Baker is getting back at the Army for dismissing him without honour some sixteen years earlier - what has he been doing in the meantime? - it does not quite work. Yes, the acting is good, the tension well maintained as one or two things start to go wrong, but why these three got together and what their particular current motivations are does not really come through. And how the plan was initially put together also remains elusive. But it is a good film with honest and straightforward intentions - something today's British post-modernist, cynical,deconstructionist, nothing's any good before last year filmmakers could learn a lot from!

Dry Heist

[writers_reign · 5/10 · 7 February 2017]

Okay, it's a rainy Thursday in Scunthorpe; your tele's on the blink, the chipshop's closed and all the badminton courts at the Leisure Centre are booked solid. The local flea-pit is playing this piece of cheese and at least it'll get you out of the rain. That's about the best you can say for it; someone connected with Film Production has seen a real heist movie - Jacques Becker's Touchez-pas au grisbi, perhaps, or Jules Dassin's Riffifi - and thinks they're easy to do. Wrong. It's like the dozens of Am-Dram outfits all over the country who think Hay Fever is a walk in the park. So, this bright spark wrote the word 'gritty' on a blackboard, signed up a team of second-rate talent and waited for the money to roll in. He's probably still waiting.

Gritty heist film with a superb Ending

[gordonl56 · 8/10 · 5 January 2015]

A PRIZE OF ARMS - 1962 Stanley Baker, Tom Bell and Helmut Schimd headline this gritty heist film from the UK. The trio have a plan to hit an Army payroll office for a cool 100,000 pounds. The base troops are being shipped off to the mid-east on a political emergency.

The group has acquired all the proper uniforms, vehicles etc they need to gain entry to the base. They figure with all the confusion on the base with the personal transfer, that no one will notice them. They get on the base and do a bit of recon work. They enter the payroll office under the guise of checking fire alarms and fire extinguishers. While doing this, they snip all the alarm wires and stash several duffel bags of tools etc in a storage room.

Now all they need to do is lay low and wait for evening darkness. Before they can do this, Baker and Bell are grabbed up and told to report for their overseas medical shots. Staying in character, as Army types, they do as they are told. Bell, who then is out checking guard post times, is now nabbed by a Sergeant, Patrick Magee, to do washing up for the cook. Baker and Schimd hunker down at the gunnery range to wait for heist time.

Bell, something of a hothead, spends a few hour doing pots. He then loses it and tosses them at the cook when asked to redo his work. He bolts out into the dusk to meet Baker and Schmid. They hot-wire a Military Police jeep and head off to a perimeter fence. There, they cut a hole in the barbed wire big enough for a truck to get through. This is to give the Army boys a false lead.

The trio, now dressed as Military Police, burst into the payroll office. They tell the guard and staff that they had a call about smoke. They start to search the building grabbing up the extinguishers they brought in earlier. These are actually filled with gasoline. They start several fires in empty rooms etc. When the smoke hits the main office they tell everyone to exit and hit the alarm to the fire brigade. The alarm of course does not go through as the wires had been cut earlier.

Once everyone is out, Schmid, the explosives man hits the safe while Baker pulls out a flamethrower that they had hidden beforehand with the gasoline filled extinguishers. Bell watches the outside door as Schmid blows the safe and Baker flames the place. Once they have the cash bagged up, they load it on a stretcher.

By this time the duty officer has arrived and entered the payroll building. The crew knock him out with some chloroform and load him on the stretcher along with the cash and flamethrower. They toss a blanket over top and exit. Baker tells the just on scene Senior Officer that they need to get the man to the medical clinic. Baker and company grab a jeep and head off into the dark just as the finally alerted fire brigade arrives. They drop off the officer at an outlying building after giving him a bit more chloroform.

Now they high tail it over to their truck with the cash and flamethrower to wait for morning. They plan on driving off base with the troops in the morning. All goes well as they attach themselves to a long convoy of trucks leaving the base. 10 miles down the road they take a turn down another road. They have a hideout where they plan on swapping the truck for a waiting van.

Needless to say things start to unravel with the perfect plan. An escorting MP on a motorcycle notices them cut off on the other road. The MP follows thinking they had gotten lost. The MP follows them to the old barn where they plan on changing vehicles. The MP of course smells a rat. He roars back to the main road and flags down another group of MPs and Officers. Back down the country road the MPs go.

Suffice it to say, Baker and his mob get something other than the results they wished for.

This is a nicely done caper film with good work from cast and crew. Director Cliff Owen started off in British television in 1955 and by the early 60's was doing feature films. If you like this one, you should check out the director's 1961 noir like, OFFBEAT.

Slow Start For a Strong Pay-Off

[boblipton · 6/10 · 15 November 2019]

Foreign policy is about to send a division of soldiers overseas to a hot spot. This means, of course, that a sizable sum of money is assembled at the base camp -- you may send a British soldier to die, but you don't hold up his pay. Stanley Baker, Helmut Schmid and Tom Bell have assembled to rob the army with an enormously clever plan.

The first half of the movie, which is all about the three criminals on the base in Her Majesty's uniforms, going about preparing their job, is very slow, so slow, in fact, that I considered the possibility that this had been written to be a comedy in the first half; officious officers and red tape alternately impede and help the three crooks. It's in the second half, when the plan is executed, that the movie comes alive. Playing the start for comedy probably would have rendered the second half mush; instead, the audience gets hints as to what will happen, with enormous pay-offs.

Nicholas Roeg co-wrote the original story, still trying hard to get into the director's chair. That would take another eight years. Roeg didn't even get to be cinematographer here, but Gerald Gibbs and Gilbert Taylor manage very nicely, particularly with the finale.

A prize indeed!

[JohnHowardReid · 8/10 · 14 October 2016]

An exciting, suspenseful, ingenious thriller, this one makes very inventive use of the author's obviously first-hand knowledge of military red tape. The direction has pace and flair and actual locations are very effectively employed. The film has obviously been produced on an an unusually lavish budget, including an enormous cast. All roles from the largest to the smallest are superlatively played in a solidly realistic manner. The movie also excels with a great number of extras, including loads of location filming and even a sequence in which a whole army building is spectacularly burnt to the ground. As usual in this type of film, our sympathies are directed firmly to the robbers and we feel with them as they collectively and individually make one hairsbreadth escape after another, The screenplay is superbly constructed to extract the utmost suspense and tension and while it seems to be light on characterization, the personable playing by Baker, Bell and others makes up for this deficiency. The Greek unities are observed and fortunately there is no romantic interest whatever to dissipate the film's grip and tension. True, the climax is a bit extravagant and clichéd, but this is the one sour note in an otherwise excellent thriller.

Never heard of this

[coreyjmesler · 8/10 · 7 November 2018]

I love a good heist film and this is a good one. Those understated Brits make these quiet (note the lack of music to pump up the action) thrillers look easy. Great script, great acting, clever plot. What is it about crime films that make you root for the bad guys?

Baker's Trio (Nerve Not Nerves)

[TheFearmakers · 10/10 · 28 January 2022]

The most suspenseful parts of the final act from THE GREAT ESCAPE a year after A PRIZE OF ARMS and the middle of the original decade-later STAR WARS had nothing to do with prison or space battles but hiding in plain site, behind enemy lines, while keeping everything in perfect surreptitious motion without getting noticed and thus, caught and captured...

Which ARMS is, from beginning to end, epitomizing the heist thriller where two British crooks with one German undercover-infiltrate a British military compound before an overseas mission since the armory will be loaded with cash... all for the taking...

That's the plan anyway, led by square-jawed no-nonsense Stanley Baker as a stern ex-officer partnered with British bad boy (and new guy/wiring expert) Tom Bell, who usually fitfully portrays thugs that argue with their superiors...

Herein Bell's bitter thus unpredictable personality enhances an already built-in nervy pace that... directed by veteran Cliff Owen with a story by Nicolas Roeg... has very little downtime as the eclectic uniform-clad gang shuffle through separate sections of the compound to undo various contraptions -- for the overall mission to work as a whole...

All the while dealing with various officers and their sporadic bulwarks (from providing paperwork for clearances or getting randomly questioned on the spot) to wind up in the right place at the ONLY time since every second counts...

Ending with how the initial freezing-nighttime practice-run prologue began, testing cinema's coolest weapon, the flamethrower, but the overall action is more subtle, providing Baker yet another strong yet equally vulnerable role while third banana Helmut Schmid, the mellow middleman with an accent to conceal, solidifies this perfect different kind of criminal trio.

A little known movie that deserves much better.

[hsequeira77 · 8/10 · 4 September 2016]

This a forgotten gem. The term "heist movie" should have been created for pictures like this one. A little known director hitting all the right notes, a great screenplay and a great cast (Stanley Baker is a favorite of mine). The movie is the heist, no prologue required; the characters are defined by the action (just brief dialogue to tell us something about the past of Stanley Baker and Helmut Schmid). The film grabs the viewer from the first scene, and never lets go. A nail bitter all the way. The ending is a Knock out; this one really ends with a bang. Today action directors should watch this movie. Maybe they would learn something.

Convoy

[richardchatten · 8/10 · 1 April 2022]

If you look quickly you'll spot Nicolas Roeg's name in the opening credits as co.author of the original story for this tense, well-acted drama shot mainly at night in a wintry Sussex with a story that resembles 'The League of Gentlemen' for the lower orders and anticipates the next year's Great Train Robbery with an even more spectacular finale.

Curiously enough it gains unsettling topicality from being set against the unnerving backdrop of an international military crisis and vaccination forms a crucial component in the plot.

A masterpiece of planning on the verge of success if it wasn't for what couldn't be foreseen

[clanciai · 10/10 · 13 December 2021]

The tightness of this unique thriller in its extreme concentration both in imagery, plot, environment and sinister cinematography in black and white in mostly dark hours makes it an extraordinary experience different from anything else - there is not even any picture of any lady in it. It is all hard masculine to the extreme, like so many of Stanley Baker's films are. He is one of the hardest actors ever on the screen, out-distancing both Jack Palance and James Cagney by his mere appearance which vibrates of concealed and well controlled brutality. In addition to this, the script is a masterpiece of an intricate plot involving any amount of details everyone being vital for the heist not to break on any point. Of course, it breaks anyway, even the most perfect plot always does, but not because of any human factor but here mainly by bad luck, the most incalculable factor of all. It's a treat for relishers of noirs, in which genre this should be something of a choice bonus.

Best and underrated of the UK crime film industry.

[searchanddestroy-1 · 10/10 · 25 April 2021]

Taut, sharp, fast, accurate and pulled by terrific acting and directing. Stan Baker has here a role very close to the one he'll have four years later in Peter Yates' ROBBERY. But the problem is,, as Lenny Maltin said in his dictionnary, the too much British accents, I could not understand each sentence entirely. I rarely had noticed this in any British film. But who cares, any one can follow this superb cime thriller where there is no good vs evil scheme. I highly recommend it. Unfortunately never shown in France since its treater relase in 1963, before I was even born. Abrupt ending.

Solid Thriller!

[RodrigAndrisan · 9/10 · 8 December 2019]

Thrilling from the first second and until the last moment! Stanley Baker was a fantastic actor, unique, no one has had such personality and his talent. In my opinion, he would have been the best choice for the role of James Bond. Not that I wouldn't like Sean Connery, no. But Stanley Baker had something extra, something Connery doesn't have. Helmut Schmid is also very good here. Same Tom Bell. The whole distribution is very good. An exemplary film. The ending is disappointing, the three die due to a stupid mistake, difficult to accept given how intelligent the initial plan was. That's why 9 stars instead of 10.

Stanley does it again.

[plan99 · 10/10 · 8 September 2022]

Robbery/Army type films are always enhanced by the presence of the great Stanley Baker which is probably why he appears in so many films of this type being the best man for the job.

This film has many interesting twists and turns and it holds the viewers attention and builds the tension from start to finish and it's also possible to play "spot the up and coming actor", I managed to spot a few but missed some of them. The baddies' weapon was an unusual choice which became essential to the plot. The very dependable MIchael Ripper makes and appearance, he appeared in more Hammer Films than anyone else, which surprise most people. Highly recommended.

Superb British heist flick with in form Baker, Schmid, Magee

[adrianovasconcelos · 9/10 · 20 April 2024]

I really liked this well constructed, fast moving, credible heist film. It is no accident that not yet famous, future film director Nicholas Roeg scripted the excellent screenplay.

I had never heard of Director Cliff Owen, and even IMDB does not carry that much information on him, but on the strength of A PRIZE OF ARMS, I hope to watch more of Owen's work. He extracts a phenomenal performance from Stanley Baker as the quick-thinking heist planner; and very good ones from Austrian-born actor Helmut Schmid, from the hot-tempered, nervous Tom Bell, and John Philips, as the beffudled camp commander who keeps his nerve in spite of the large sum taken from his unit's coffers.

In fairness to the great thespian that Baker was, I had the misfortune to first see him in GUNS OF NAVARONE, in which he played a rather minor, even dislikable part, causing me to underrate him for many years. I have upped that rating exponentially after watching A PRIZE OF ARMS, HELL DRIVERS, BLIND DATE, ROBBERY, ACCIDENT, among others.

Excellent cinematography by Gerald Gibbs and editing by John Jympson.

Sole regret: no ladies. Otherwise, a definite must-se for anyone interested in the military and in a credible heist. 9/10.