The Good Die Young is an odd little heist film. It spends more time developing its characters – four men who are not career criminals, and their wives – than it does with the heister (or its preparation, or what happens after.)
As a character study, it is pretty interesting. The acting is good (Gloria Grahame is in it and you can never go wrong with Gloria Grahame). But it lacks that certain something that makes a film great.
You can read my full review here.
Jean-Paul Belmondo was one of my favorite French actors. He made some great films including Breathless from director Jean Luc Godard, Le Doulous from Jean-Pierre Melville, and Mississippi Mermaid from Francois Truffaut (if you are keeping count those are three great films from three of the greatest French directors ever). But even when he made not-so-great films from not-so-great directors Belmondo elevated the material. He was so charming, so full of life his mere presence made a film better.
Such is the case with The Burglars. It is a fairly average heist film, but Belmondo is wonderful and that makes it worth watching. You can read my full review here.
The League of Gentlemen is a British heist film that doesn’t do anything particularly original, nor does it set any high water marks, but it does what it does really well.
Jack Hawkins plays Lieutenant-Colonel Norman Hyde who has recently been forced into retirement from the military due to redundancies. Angry at this he decides to enact his vengeance upon the government by robbing a bank.
He essentially blackmails a group of former military officers who have since fallen on hard times, and either found themselves in embarrassing circumstances, or criminal ones. But there is really no need for blackmail as each man is more than willing to help with the caper and come away with a large wad of cash for their troubles.
Like the great French film Rififi, The League of Gentlemen spends a lot of time on the details. They discuss the heist, they train for the heist, they obtain weapons and supplies for the heist. Then they actually do the heist.
All of this is detailed in a very matter-of-fact manner. It never quite obtains the tension that Rififi accomplishes and there aren’t any scenes like the working the alarm scene or the actual heist in Rififi. In fact, I should stop comparing it to Rififi altogether because few films get anywhere near the greatness of that one.
But The League of Gentlemen is very well crafted and a joy to watch. The heist scene is also beautifully staged. At one point they ignite a bunch of smoke bombs in the streets of London creating this fabulously atmospheric fog.
I quite loved the whole thing.
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