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Why do crime caper films have so much appeal? Are we all closet criminals, eager to watch less timid souls risk life and limb to get the big payout and live happily ever after? Peter Yates’ stylish re-telling of England’s Great Train Robbery makes for an excitingly detailed, nonsense-free heist straight from real life, with a just-the-facts clarity. The show begins with an influential car chase — straight through the heart of London.

Robbery

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1967 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 110 min. / Street Date May 21, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Stanley Baker, Joanna Pettet, James Booth, Frank Finlay, Barry Foster, William Marlowe, Clinton Greyn, George Sewell, Glynn Edwards, Julie Ege.

Cinematography: Douglas Slocombe

Film Editor: Reginald Beck

Original Music: Johnny Keating

Written by Edward Boyd, George Markstein, Peter Yates, from a story by Gerald Wilson

Produced by Stanley Baker, Michael Deeley

Directed by Peter Yates

I’d always heard about Peter Yates’ Robbery,...

The Bond franchise which has been with us so long, has become so deeply entrenched in popular culture, that we often forget what it was that first distinguished the Bonds a half-century ago. Skyfall might be one of the best of the Bonds, and even, arguably, one of the best big-budget big-action flicks to come along in quite a while, but it’s not alone. The annual box office is – and has been, for quite some time – dominated by big, action-packed blockbusters of one sort of another. The Bonds aren’t even the only action-driven spy flicks (Mr. James Bond, I’d like you to meet Mr. Jason Bourne and Mr. Ethan Hunt).

That’s not to take anything away from the superb entertainment Skyfall is, or the sentimentally treasured place the Bonds hold. It’s only to say that where there was once just the one, there are now many.

On a number of past occasions, I’ve written, in various contexts, about what I consider to be that most elusive of on-screen elements: a sense of place. “Sense of place” is the difference between a location serving as mere background, and being a character in its own right. It’s about getting the viewer’s head there, getting us to feel like we know what it’s like to walk that ground, smell those smells, feel the chill or suffocating heat in the air. When I talk “sense of place,” I think of the autumnal Boston of Peter Yates’ The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), the bracing, exhilirating chill of the Rockies in Sydney Pollock’s Jeremiah Johnson (1972), the urban grit I feel on the back of my neck watching John Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy (1969), the musty, dusty stale-beer-and-cigarette-smoke feel of Robert Rossen’s The Hustler (1961). It’s a special...

(*My apologies for this coming so long after Sound on Sight’s celebration of 50 years of James Bond, but I’ve been swamped with end-of-semester work and only just now managed to finish this. Hope you all still find this of interest.)

As a coda to the Sos’s James Bond salute, there’s still a point I think deserves to be made.

The Bond franchise which has been with us so long, has become so deeply entrenched in popular culture, that we often forget what it was that first distinguished the Bonds a half-century ago. Skyfall might be one of the best of the Bonds, and even, arguably, one of the best big-budget big-action flicks to come along in quite a while, but it’s not alone. The annual box office is – and has been, for quite some time – dominated by big, action-packed blockbusters of one sort of another.

Chicago – Patrick McGoohan was ready to quit. After playing secret agent John Drake in over eighty episodes of the British TV show “Danger Man” (known in the Us as “Secret Agent”), McGoohan was clearly in need of a change. Luckily, his script editor George Markstein had a great idea up his sleeve. What if Drake suddenly resigned, and his employers wouldn’t let him go? What if they kidnapped Drake and sent him to a secret location where he couldn’t escape? Markstein was clearly inspired by the actual incidents during WWII where people were incarcerated and under constant surveillance in resort-like prisons. McGoohan loved the idea, and together they created one of the most astoundingly original and richly entertaining programs in television history in “The Prisoner,” recently released on Blu-Ray to coincide with the AMC remake starring Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellen.

Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0

“The Prisoner” debuted in...

Do you like Lost? If the answer is yes you might want to take a moment and write Patrick McGoohan a quick, albeit posthumous ‘Thank you.’ Because without the influence of this groundbreaking series telling of one man trapped in a seemingly idyllic yet sinister locale from which there appears to be no escape you might not have it. From the tranquil setting, the roaring, otherworldly security system, to the sprawling Machiavellian conspiracy to guard its secrets, the influence of The Prisoner on ABC’s flagship drama and shows like it is undeniable.

Modeled after McGoohan’s previous and successful spy drama Danger Man and co-created with former series script editor George Markstein, The Prisoner played like a trippy espionage thriller. Yet the self-contained format of a serialized episodic drama meant that it could diverge each week into some heady, cerebral territory, tackling themes of philosophy, metaphysics, and the nature of ideology.