Sun 13 Mar 2011
CALCULATED RISK. Bry/McLeod, UK, 1963. William Lucas, John Rutland, Dilys Watling, Warren Mitchell, Shay Gorman, Terence Cooper, David Brierly. Screenplay: Edwin Richfield. Director: Norman Harrison.
As you may have noticed already, except for Dilys Watling, who plays the young factory worker who undresses at night in a second story apartment overlooking the bombed-out lot where a gang of safecrackers are digging their way under ground into the bank building next door, everyone else in this movie is male.
Even so, Miss Watling’s part is almost a cameo role, almost but not quite, and as caper movies go, even though very few people will have seen it, this one’s a good one.
It begins with a gent named Kip (John Rutland) getting out of prison and being picked up in a car by his brother-in-law Steve (William Lucas). Kip is a crook, but not a very good one. He’s been in and out of jail most of his life. He even missed his wife’s funeral while he was in this last time.
But now that he’s out, he has a plan and to pull it off, he needs some help. He’s been told about an undisturbed underground WWII air raid shelter that’s only two walls away from a bank vault, and inside the vault is a fortune in cash. Even though Kip is considered something of a Jonah on the job, it isn’t difficult for Steve to come up with a small crew of others to add their talents in.
All things considered, it’s a good plan, and it’s one that might actually work, but plans and the carrying out of them are hardly ever the very same thing. Small things can be adjusted for – Kip’s heart problems, for one, but I won’t tell you about the big one, but if you read the first paragraph above again, maybe you can figure it out on your own.
The script is tight, the vivid black-and-white photography perfect for the tale that’s told, and even though none of the actors are known in this country – and maybe not even in England – they all fit their characters well, and what more could you want?
Perhaps a little longer running time — it’s only 72 minutes long — but with anything longer you run the risk that the tension is going to be as big a fizzle as the… Or does it?
March 13th, 2011 at 2:41 am
Not only have I never heard of this one I have never heard of anyone in it.
Sounds interesting though.
I admit I have a taste for caper films — it’s always fun trying to guess exactly how and at what point they are going to go wrong.
It’s ironic too, that straight caper films and comic ones are structured almost exactly the same — they just approach the subject differently.
And is it just me, or are little British films like this with unknown casts and low budgets always better than the American equivalent?
March 13th, 2011 at 12:06 pm
I never heard of this one but will now search it out.
Thanks.
March 13th, 2011 at 1:07 pm
David V.
Regarding low budget British films, it’s not just you who feels the same way — they ARE much better than the US equivalent, almost always. Maybe it’s the case of “the grass is greener,” but I don’t think so.
In CALCULATED RISK you not only get a nifty black-and-white caper film, but a fine incisive inside look into the low-class criminal underworld in England at the time.
That you don’t recognize any of the players as actors may even be a plus, in that you don’t have to mentally snap their faces into the roles. It’s as if they are the roles they are playing.
David C.
You can buy the movie on DVD from Amazon.uk, but you need a multi-region player to watch it. It’s also easily available as a all-region collector-to-collector DVD in a white envelope.
It shouldn’t set you back more than $5 or $10, and while it’s not a major film by any means, it’s well worth seeking out.
March 13th, 2011 at 6:17 pm
Steve
I notice one of the actors is named David Brierly, and there was a spy novelist named David Brierly — conicidence or the same guy? Quite a few British actors also wrote including Dirk Bogarde, Bryan Forbes, Laurence Payne, and Roland Pertwee.
March 13th, 2011 at 7:32 pm
David Brierley the author was born in 1936. The dates IMDB gives for David Breirly the actor are 1935-2008. Also note the extra e in the author’s last name. I’d heard of neither before this reply!
I see, also from IMDB, that Brierly the actor is “best-known to Dr.Who aficionados as the voice of K-9 during season seventeen (with Tom Baker).” Other than that, looking through his list of credits, I don’t see anything that anyone in this country might have seen him in.
March 13th, 2011 at 10:06 pm
Since K-9’s voice is made to sound mechanical it would be hard to recognise him from that, still, at least that’s someone I’ve heard of.
March 13th, 2011 at 10:25 pm
You caught me there. I said “seen” with a smile!
March 14th, 2011 at 4:03 am
Re the low budget British movies, it may be that most of them were done by professionals where you get a good deal of amateur film making in American low budget efforts, but I think too that even low budget American films done by the pros have a tendency to look shoddy and cheap (and often be shoddy and cheap).
You get a feeling even with what the British called ‘Quota Quickies” there was some effort being made to do a bit more than just get something in the can.
But thinking about it logically it strikes me the difference is that the British film industry has always been able to call upon a huge built in cast of stage trained actors from the West End, the music halls, and the Royal Academy, whereas the distance from Hollywood to Broadway meant it was more difficult for actors to do both.
If you notice in the late fifties and early sixties the low budget films and television shows filmed in New York always seemed grittier and better acted than similar product out of Hollywood. I don’t know if you ever saw COP HATER, the Ed McBain movie with Robert Loggia as Steve Carella, but even in the minor roles you have Vincent Gardenia as a junkie and Jerry Orbach as a juvenile delinquent.
Maybe it is as simple as what you had to work with.
March 14th, 2011 at 11:52 am
Yes, you’re quite right about the training the British actors had, no matter how unknown they were over here. That’s an excellent point. They often had more credits on the stage than they did in films. Your last line is relevant also. In the 50s and early 60s they (in England) made good movies with very little, much as the noir directors did in this country back in the 1940s.
I’ve been accumulating a small stack of movies like this one on DVD, and you’ll see my comments on them every so often as time goes on.
December 12th, 2011 at 1:50 pm
Just got around to viewing this film and was very surprised at the high quality of the acting. Very atmospheric and it is included in the book, BRITISH FILM NOIR. I liked it alot more than they did and highly recommend it.
September 27th, 2016 at 1:23 pm
Have just seen this on British TV. It certainly held my attention. The characterisation and acting are way above average, and the villains seem like real people who actually care for each other.
April 12th, 2020 at 3:43 am
Watching this movie at the moment, good plot, great acting and nostalgic setting. Also enjoying seeing Warren Mitchell from Til Death Do Us Part, altogether very watchable movie
June 11th, 2021 at 2:09 pm
Just watched this movie on the excellent Talking Pictures here in UK.
Surprisingly good little 1960s British b-movie. (The winter of 1962-3 was a severe one in U.K., hence the early location scenes shot in deep snow).
Pretty good acting and script. Of the – at the time – largely unknown cast, Warren Mitchell of course later became famous playing Alf Garnett in Till Death Us Do Part, William Lucas later played the father in ITV’s excellent early 1970s TV series adaptation of the classic novel Black Beauty, and Dylis Watling was a daughter of fellow actor Jack Watling.
All in all, an excellent well-acted little crime caper. Well worth catching.
It went down a bomb with me, anyway !