This was a glossy television movie shown on ITV as Dirty Money. It was made by its then ATV subsidiary ITC.
Dirty Money has a charismatic turn from Ian McShane. He plays an ex soldier knows as The Brains who teams up with another ex soldier Jean (Warren Clarke) who has fascist sympathies to rob a bank vault in Nice.
Although Jean and The Brains have a right wing agenda to rob the vaults as they intend to buy arms for their struggle. They have to recruit local criminals whose sole interest is money and a greater share of the proceeds.
Based on a true incident; the gang had to several nights spent digging through a wall in a sewer. Hence why the film is also known as Sewers of Gold.
As the film was based in Nice and shot on location. There are lots of glamorous women but also lots of power tools. This is a great movie if you like to see men digging through walls or blow-torching safes.
The political angle is murky. The Brains is a neo fascist but he is keen to stress that no violence was used in the robbery and draws a CND insignia before leaving. His motive for the robbery was to incite an armed revolt by nationalists, something that does not go unnoticed by one of the hired criminals.
It is a straightforward and glossy television movie. You have the planning, too much time with the digging. After the robbery the focus moves to the police who hunt for the robbers and a daring escape. Although your mileage might vary about how much you want to cheer on neo nazis trying to escape from the police.
