This is a film that i remembered well from the time that i first saw it at my local cinema back in 1963.it has been shown on TV and now i am pleased to report it has been released on DVD.It was shot during the big freeze of 1963 which explains the fact that everything is covered in snow.The plot is very straightforward but with the extra twist of the bomb.Up until only a few years ago unexploded bombs were still being dug up in London,particularly in the EAST end.There were many delayed action bombs,designed to cause maximum inconvenience and blow up the bomb squad.Once reactivated there would only be a matter of minutes till they exploded.Of the cast only Warren Mitchell is familiar giving us a hilarious cameo.a really good B thriller.
12 Reviews
A Pound of cold sausages - cooked of course
Marqymarquis2 August 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Brilliant winter 1963 movie where the lead character and gang mastermind, played by William Lucas, comes unstuck by a combination of his greed for wanting his robbery to succeed and his sympathy for the partner in crime who suffers a last minute coronary and is therefore sidelined. Much attention is paid to the catering arrangements for our crooks: pork pies; gallons of tea; the pound of aforementioned sausages; and the poor Irishman gets his booze confiscated. All set in the stunning juxtaposition of literally snow white January 1963 and the dingy cellars and basements forgotten since WW2 where a great big UXB stands between our crooked heroes and their booty. A cautionary tale therefore: just enjoy the snow when you can and don't bother trying to dig up the past - maximum points to writer Edwin Richfield.
Top heist thriller executed well on a low budget
Leofwine_draca18 September 2016
CALCULATED RISK is a fine little British B-picture about a gang of criminals plotting a major heist. What's so special about that, you might ask; you'd be well within your rights to do so, given that the same set-up propelled about a hundred of these pictures during the era. Well, where CALCULATED RISK works is in the execution, which takes place within the claustrophobic confines of a ruined cellar for the most part.
An above-average script wrings maximum tension from the story and a largely unknown cast all do very well in their character roles. William Lucas is the master criminal behind the job and much more sympathetic than he was in THE BREAK, where he played a similarly but slightly more murderous character. Watch out for Warren Mitchell in a fun cameo as a market trader. The plot has some great twists thrown into it which really help build the tension, and the last ten minutes or so are quite extraordinary. CALCULATED RISK is the kind of film that reminds you that you don't need a high or even medium budget or any action to make a gripping and suspenseful thriller - just a good story, well told.
An above-average script wrings maximum tension from the story and a largely unknown cast all do very well in their character roles. William Lucas is the master criminal behind the job and much more sympathetic than he was in THE BREAK, where he played a similarly but slightly more murderous character. Watch out for Warren Mitchell in a fun cameo as a market trader. The plot has some great twists thrown into it which really help build the tension, and the last ten minutes or so are quite extraordinary. CALCULATED RISK is the kind of film that reminds you that you don't need a high or even medium budget or any action to make a gripping and suspenseful thriller - just a good story, well told.
Tightly plotted,suspenseful heist thriller
sayesele14 April 2001
Tightly plotted, suspenseful minor British crime thriller about an ex-con who leads a group of safecrackers to break into a bank vault through the cellar of an adjacent deserted building, only to find more than they had bargained for (namely an unexploded WWII bomb). Decent performances by Warren Mitchell and William Lucas, and a taut script by Edwin Richfield (a well known British character actor of the 60s) make this worth a watch.
Watchable B Movie Thriller
crumpytv16 February 2021
A bank heist set and shot during the freezing winter of 1963.
The thing is about the plot is that you knew it would never work out, it was just a question of how and why. The reason was an explosive twist.
An unfamiliar main cast was somewhat refreshing.
The Jinx
boblipton28 January 2023
John Rutland is released from prison. The brother of his dead wife, William Lucas, meets him and takes him to the dead woman's grave, and then home. He doesn't want to hear about the plan to rob a bank through the bombed-out home next door; Rutland's plans always fail. But the prospect of 200,000 pounds changes his mind, so he perfects the plan, makes all the preparations, and prepares to send Rutland and his crew off, while he sits at home for his share. Things start to go wrong when Rutland has a heart attack and has to sit it out. Lucas takes his place. Then the bad news starts to pile up.
It's a very nice little thriller, and Norman Harrison directs it very nicely, with underground sequences that are reminiscent of the same year's THE GREAT ESCAPE. The characters are barely sketches, but well presented by their performers, and William McLeod's camerawork captures the claustrophobia of their work space very well.
It's a very nice little thriller, and Norman Harrison directs it very nicely, with underground sequences that are reminiscent of the same year's THE GREAT ESCAPE. The characters are barely sketches, but well presented by their performers, and William McLeod's camerawork captures the claustrophobia of their work space very well.
Larceny Ice Meets The Frozen Jungle
TheFearmakers14 September 2020
Low-budget thriller has THE BREAK baddie and overall regular British New Wave actor William Lucas in CALCULATED RISK, a hybrid of THE ASPHALT JUNGLE as a newly-released older short guy has big plans for a big heist (John Rutland doing Sam Jaffe) and LARCENY INC since they must dig through a pair of locations to reach the targeted goal...
Which aren't stores but bombed-out houses from twenty-years past, leading to a lucrative bank vault while Lucas, as a sophisticated yet crooked businessman (like ASPHALT backer Louis Calhern), who really doesn't need the bread (unlike Calhern and more like shifty Marc Lawrence), heads up a group of thugs resembling dockyard barflies...
Yet for two-way eye-candy's sake, the tallest, most handsome (Terence Cooper as the Sterling Hayden muscle type) has a quick hookup with adorable local girl-next-door Dilys Watling...
Also peripheral is Warren Mitchell, stealing his one scene providing random exposition and, within the main gang's heavy-lifting phase, not much happens to distinguish each crook's role in the task (except that the initial idea-man's health has him sit it out)...
Instead what's really important is historic i.e. WHEN the heist takes place...
During England's infamous Winter of/Big Freeze of 1963, where CALCULATED composer George Martin (just starting work with The Beatles) makes ample use of an icy-sounding harpsichord...
And while the Noirish atmosphere is palpably bleak for the location it's not quite claustrophobic or suspenseful enough for the crime...
Which ultimately includes an actual buried buzz-bomb that may be active, and there's very little time left before... the movie's run-time is up because, after all, this RISK is merely a programmer.
Which aren't stores but bombed-out houses from twenty-years past, leading to a lucrative bank vault while Lucas, as a sophisticated yet crooked businessman (like ASPHALT backer Louis Calhern), who really doesn't need the bread (unlike Calhern and more like shifty Marc Lawrence), heads up a group of thugs resembling dockyard barflies...
Yet for two-way eye-candy's sake, the tallest, most handsome (Terence Cooper as the Sterling Hayden muscle type) has a quick hookup with adorable local girl-next-door Dilys Watling...
Also peripheral is Warren Mitchell, stealing his one scene providing random exposition and, within the main gang's heavy-lifting phase, not much happens to distinguish each crook's role in the task (except that the initial idea-man's health has him sit it out)...
Instead what's really important is historic i.e. WHEN the heist takes place...
During England's infamous Winter of/Big Freeze of 1963, where CALCULATED composer George Martin (just starting work with The Beatles) makes ample use of an icy-sounding harpsichord...
And while the Noirish atmosphere is palpably bleak for the location it's not quite claustrophobic or suspenseful enough for the crime...
Which ultimately includes an actual buried buzz-bomb that may be active, and there's very little time left before... the movie's run-time is up because, after all, this RISK is merely a programmer.
Classic unknown thriller deserves more appraisal/airtime
naseby17 July 2008
Warning: Spoilers
This one isn't that well known. It has to be caught every now and then (Probably in an obscure plot on a TV channel). A bunch of crooks plan a robbery. They break into the bank they have in mind. Looks like a standard thing. Will they get caught, shot, will the alarms go off? No. As they dig deeper they're confronted by a WW2 bomb! Worse still, they're trapped with it in the 'hole' - and of course, to add to the suspense, all along it's ticking...! A really good film and a shame that like a lot of the British comedy classics of the 1950's - 1960's the same attention isn't given to the classic B-movie dramas that really are excellent like this.
Acceptable British 'B'-pic.
jamesraeburn200313 September 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Kip (played by John Rutland) is released from prison and is determined to pull off a £200,000 bank job. He talks his brother-in-law Steve (William Lucas) into helping him. Initially Steve is reluctant since nearly every job Kip has done in his life has gone wrong and ended up with his doing time in jail. However, its the money that finally convinces him and he agrees so long as he is allowed to take charge of the job. Steve and his men succeed in tunneling through an old air raid shelter and through the cellar of a ruined house on a bombsite that neighbours the bank. However, they make a hideous discovery: hidden among the rubble is an unexploded wartime bomb...
Acceptable British 'B'-pic that fails to generate much tension, but there are pleasures to be had from watching it such as the realistic working class settings and the concerns and frustrated ambitions of the crooks that provide an emotional centre to the story. The film was shot during the hard winter of 1963 and the snow covered landscapes (beautifully lensed by producer-cameraman William McLeod) add much atmosphere and production value to the proceedings. An interesting cast includes the ever reliable William Lucas and Warren Mitchell.
Acceptable British 'B'-pic that fails to generate much tension, but there are pleasures to be had from watching it such as the realistic working class settings and the concerns and frustrated ambitions of the crooks that provide an emotional centre to the story. The film was shot during the hard winter of 1963 and the snow covered landscapes (beautifully lensed by producer-cameraman William McLeod) add much atmosphere and production value to the proceedings. An interesting cast includes the ever reliable William Lucas and Warren Mitchell.
Neat little thriller!!
gordonl5615 August 2007
Warning: Spoilers
A neat little perfect plan gone awry film. At first one thinks you are watching a low rent re-hash of "THE ASPHALT JUNGLE". It is not, there are more than enough changes to keep it interesting. A con just out of prison needs some cash to set up the perfect heist. He goes to a fence he knew from his early days. The fence agrees to finance the set-up and get a crew together. The target? A bank which is next door to several houses that had been bombed out during the Blitz. They plan to dig through the foundations of the ruined houses and right into the vault. The plan goes perfect except for one thing. After digging all the way through to the vault, they find an unexploded 1000 lb. bomb. And where is the bomb? Right in front of where they need to use their explosives to get into the bank. They decide that after all these years the bomb must be a dud and continue with the plan. They blow a hole into the vault and fill their bags with the cash. As they are getting ready to leave they hear a ticking. The bomb! It seems its timer has started. The crew look at the bomb, then at the way out and then at each other! Need I say more. Nice hour and a bit thriller.
piggin it on two quid a week
fillherupjacko6 July 2015
Warning: Spoilers
Relentlessly grim Brit caper movie, from the dying days of the black and white B era.
A gang of villains plot to rob a bank by tunnelling through the cellar of an adjacent bombed house.
Spoiler
Unfortunately for them there's an unexploded German bomb down there, a reminder that they are still living under the shadow of the second world war - 60s London in this film is all snow, cups of tea and frowzy parlours, the only character with any life left in them the would be girlfriend of one of the villains, who proves too clumsy to accept what she wants to give.
One point of note is the soundtrack by none other than George Martin. It's sort of half way between Johhny Dankworth and the Ipress File score.
A gang of villains plot to rob a bank by tunnelling through the cellar of an adjacent bombed house.
Spoiler
Unfortunately for them there's an unexploded German bomb down there, a reminder that they are still living under the shadow of the second world war - 60s London in this film is all snow, cups of tea and frowzy parlours, the only character with any life left in them the would be girlfriend of one of the villains, who proves too clumsy to accept what she wants to give.
One point of note is the soundtrack by none other than George Martin. It's sort of half way between Johhny Dankworth and the Ipress File score.
Should be considered a noir
Delrvich13 May 2021
9 for noir with a moral. Oftentimes high stakes risks should better be left alone. Or something like that.
---------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Deliberately botched (for the "it's so bad it's good" crowd) 2 I don't want to see it 3 I didn't finish and or FF'd through it 4 Bad 5 I don't get it 6 Good 7 Great but with a major flaw 8 Great 9 Noir with moral 10 Inspiring with moral.
---------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Deliberately botched (for the "it's so bad it's good" crowd) 2 I don't want to see it 3 I didn't finish and or FF'd through it 4 Bad 5 I don't get it 6 Good 7 Great but with a major flaw 8 Great 9 Noir with moral 10 Inspiring with moral.
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