Noir City: Strongroom
February 18, 2024
Crooks knock over a suburban London bank at Saturday closing, leaving two employees locked in the vault. Dissention spreads when the gang realizes Monday is Easter holiday and the captives will suffocate before being discovered. Not wanting murder on their résumés, the trio must break back into the bank while evading capture.
Individual Tickets: $16 | $11 SIFF Members - Select showtime to purchase
Passes: $150 | $125 SIFF Members
SIFF year-round passes and vouchers are not valid for this screening.
A low-budget programmer with no well-known actors, this obscurity exploits a unique premise to become one of the most suspenseful and uncompromising heist movies of all-time. A trio of amateur crooks knocks over a suburban London bank at Saturday closing and leaves the manager and his secretary locked in the vault. Dissention roils the gang, however, when they realize Monday is an Easter holiday and the captives will suffocate before being discovered. Not wanting to add murder their résumés, the crooks must improvise a way to break back into the bank while still evading capture. Director Sewell had been making efficient B movies since the 1930s, but hit his stride at the start of the sixties—The Man in the Back Seat (1961) and this nail-biter, which the British Film Institute called Sewell’s “most fully realized work.” Despite that, the film has been largely forgotten—until this Noir City debut! —Film synopsis courtesy of Noir City
- Director: Vernon Sewell
- Principal Cast: Colin Gordon, John Chappell, Ann Lynn, Derren Nesbitt, Keith Faulkner
- Country: United Kingdom
- Year: 1962
- Running Time: 80 min.
- Producer: Guido Coen
- Screenplay: Richard Harris, Max Marquis
- Cinematographers: Basil Emmott
- Editors: John Trumper
- Music: Johnny Gregory
- Filmography: House of Mystery (1961), Radio Cab Murder (1954), Frenzy (1945)
- Language: English