Assault on the Pay Train (1962)
"Assalto ao Trem Pagador" (original title)

Film about the true events in Rio de Janeiro, in 1960, when a gang having the infamous outlaw Tião Medonho as a leader performed a sensational railroad hold-up on a train carrying a small fortune.

Director:

Roberto Farias

Writers:

Alinor Azevedo (story), Luiz Carlos Barreto (story),

Stars:

Eliezer Gomes, Reginaldo Faria, Jorge Dória

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Eliezer Gomes	...	Tião Medonho
Reginaldo Faria	...	Grilo Peru
Jorge Dória	...	Delegado
Átila Iório	...	Tonho
Ruth de Souza	...	Judith
Helena Ignez	...	Marta (as Helene Ignês)
Luiza Maranhão	...	Zulmira
Dirce Migliaccio	...	Edgar's Wife
Miguel Rosenberg	...	Edgar
Grande Otelo	...	Cachaça
Clementino Kelé	...	Lino (as Kelé)
Oswaldo Louzada	...	Miguel's tenant (as Osvaldo Louzada)
Miguel Ângelo	...	Miguel
Antônio Pereira	...	(as Antonio Carlos Pereira)
Mozael Silveira	...	Reporter

Storyline

The gang composed by small-time thieves from the slum and leaded by the criminal Tião Medonho (Eliezer Gomes) plans and successfully executes the robbery of the train with the payments of the Banco do Brasil ("Bank of Brazil"). The police has no leads and believes that the heist was committed by an international gang. Meanwhile, Tiao imposes that each outlaw can only spend 10% of the share, but the poor reality and the greed of most of them spoil the planning.

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Plot Keywords:

train | heist | slum | rio de janeiro brazil | bandit | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Details

Country:

Brazil

Language:

Portuguese

Release Date:

June 1965 (USA)

Also Known As:

Assault on the Pay Train

Filming Locations:

Japeri, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Company Credits

Production Co:

Produções Cinematográficas Herbert Richers

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Protagonist Eliezer Gomes (Tião Medonho) was an ambulance driver with no former acting training. He was chosen over 300 candidates.

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Connections

Featured in Mulheres de Cinema (1978)

User Reviews

My favorite Brazilian movie

One good piece of my country's film making, "O Assalto ao Trem Pagador" is a story about a train robbery that focus on the relationship between the robbers after a successful action. The authorities are certain that a so well organized assault was carried out by professionals, probably foreigners. So the bunch is apparently out of risk. But the wish to spend the money is too strong and the gang leader, Tião Medonho (Eliezer Gomes), uses his feared reputation and disposition to kill to restrain and protect his group. Tião Medonho is a well-built character: a natural leader in the slam, he is at the same time fair, generous and brutal. The real matter is that only one of the robbers that looks like a out-of-the-slam type (Grilo Peru, played by Reginaldo Farias), he is white, blonde and has blue eyes, while the majority is black or looks too poor. Because of that, Grilo is the only one who can spend his share of the money as he wishes, without raising any suspicion. Beside of the fact that he is quite untouchable, because he is the only contact of the group with the "engineer": the brains of the gang. Looking quite American, it's not yet contaminated with socialist clichés that overtook almost 100% of Brazilian movies in the years to come. The shooting is very good and the Brazilian contradictions, both social and psychological, are well shown by the competent direction of Roberto Farias.