Watch The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery For Free

Such a frustrating disappointment

Admirable film.

A Disappointing Continuation

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

If you are a Steve McQueen fan this is a must on your check off list. Steve's second major role before Wanted: Dead or Alive where he honed a lot of his skills on camera. Movies like this are similar to Kansas City Confidential where is has that minimalist feel, like you are revisiting time gone by. No extras and low budget give a very realistic sense of time. I would show this movie to a class to unpack what 1959 looked like. From a historical perspective, these films are worth the free YouTube experience. What I find annoying is how a bank robbery with such effort to plan and execute never mentions how easily it would be to get extra time in the bank to pull off the heist. Maybe if a screenwriter inserted this the movie would fall apart. A simple call or riot in a part of time far from the bank would pull all the small town cops to that location giving the robbers the needed extra time to secure their heist. Pay some kids to shoot a gun off, to smash a car, to harass a woman--man with a gun call--and BOOM, they're off! Yet, we never see this in a movie.Recommend this film for the noir quality and to realize CGI, big budget is not needed to entertain.

If you were to ask me, I'd definitely say that the word "Great" really ought to be forever deleted (like, pronto!) from this shoddy film's title, 'cause once you see what a ridiculously bungled job that this "St. Louis" bank robbery was you'll clearly realize that it was anything but great.... (Unless, of course, the word "great" is used in reference to what a laughable mess the whole criminal operation was from start to finish) If you're like me, you'll quickly find this 1959 Crime/Drama so fricking amateurish (on every level) that you'll swear it was an Ed Wood production.I thought "St. Louis" story sucked, the acting stank, and the dialog puked. About the only thing in this totally lame picture that sparked any of my interest were the spiffy, vintage automobiles. Yeah. They were very cool.Had this picture's running time of 90 minutes been edited down to, say, 60 minutes, then, yes, perhaps that might have helped things somewhat by moving the story along at a much quicker and more lively pace.But, as it stood (especially with its intense focus on the super-dumb romance that took place between Steve McQueen's character, George Fowler, and Ann, a real dizzy, small-town bimbo), this film lost my interest long before the robbery actually took place (which didn't happen until the last 15 minutes of the story). And by that time I was too bored and tired to care what the hell happened to anybody or who ended up double-crossing who.Filmed in b&w, this movie was directed by Charles Guggenheim, a dude who was noted for his documentaries.

Little known, but quite extraordinary independent movie from the tail end of the fifties, that is as good as any of the great heist movies from the post-war noir era. It's a stunning exercise in naturalistic movie making, using only real locations with natural lighting and sound that would grace an Italian neo-realist classic. Continuing that theme the actors are all either amateurs; down the list character actors; or,like STEVE McQUEEN and MOLLY McCARTHY, very inexperienced. The 4 gang members are all seedy losers with no redeeming features, but lots of psychological flaws that the bleak, uncompromising script lays bare, giving the audience no respite as they stumble towards their sordid oblivion. The raw method of McQUEEN in his scenes with MOLLY is sub-Brando, but interesting and unsympathetic, and of considerable historical interest; and the 3 C-list actors playing the other gang members seize their opportunities in lead roles, that in the case of CRAHAN DENTON especially, but also JAMES DUKAS, involve a startlingly blatant homosexual theme that would have had 50's audiences fainting in the aisles if they had known what they were watching. It is homosexual jealousy and angst that leads DENTON to commit the appalling killing of the girl, and an earlier scene in the hotel room with his henchman DUKAS reveals their dominant/submissive homosexual relationship quite openly. Don't be put off by the low production values - this movie has much to say, and much to offer.

Here's an interesting little noir style thriller starring Steve McQueen, who through a series of bad choices winds up as the fall guy for a trio of hoods that plan the robbery of the St. Louis Southwest Bank. His senior partners are portrayed by Crahan Denton, James Dukas, and David Clarke, all of whom garnered a reasonable amount of film recognition during their heyday, but are all but unknown today. The story recounts the planning and strategy for the big heist, primarily by Boss Egan (Denton). It seems to me though, with his experience, Egan should have shut things down at any number of points along the way, as the petty jealousies of his main henchman Willie (Dukas), and the inexperience of McQueen's character stood directly in the way of a successful robbery. The other hitch in the caper relates to the sister of Gino (Clarke), the remaining member of the quartet; she was a former girlfriend of George Fowler (McQueen). If this weren't a true story, I would have found the coincidence to be extremely contrived, but I'll have to assume her inclusion in the story to be portrayed as it actually occurred.Curiously, Steve McQueen's performance seems somewhat awkward, even unsure at times. A good example is the conversation in the bar with his old flame Ann (Molly McCarthy); it's disjointed and reaches a point where he just walks away, almost like he didn't want to be in the scene anymore. Though this was one of his first big screen appearances, he was doing the Western TV series "Wanted: Dead or Alive" during the same period, and there he seemed perfectly natural and comfortable as bounty hunter Josh Randall.Getting back to the story, it made me wonder why nothing ever came of Ann's lipstick rendered warning on the bank's window. The only follow up we ever see is a window cleaner removing it, though one might have expected some investigation from authorities, even if there was no conclusion.The bank job goes awry once a teller triggers an alarm, and from there, the bandits literally fall apart. For those who haven't seen the film, I won't spoil it here, but you'll wind up saying to yourself, 'boy, what a bunch'! It would have been nice if a trailer had been provided to explain what happened to the surviving principals after the legal proceedings.Steve McQueen fans would do well to get a hold of this one for an early look at the film legend's career, however beyond that, the movie itself isn't especially noteworthy. Generally somber to the point of being depressing at times, it's nowhere near as entertaining as 1975's bank robbery caper, "Dog Day Afternoon".