A Prize of Arms (1962)

This a forgotten gem. The term "heist movie" should have been created for pictures like this one. A little known director hitting all the right notes, a great screenplay and a great cast (Stanley Baker is a favorite of mine). The movie is the heist, no prologue required; the characters are defined by the action (just brief dialogue to tell us something about the past of Stanley Baker and Helmut Schmid). The film grabs the viewer from the first scene, and never lets go. A nail bitter all the way. The ending is a Knock out; this one really ends with a bang. Today action directors should watch this movie. Maybe they would learn something.

A Prize of Arms is directed by Cliff Owen. The film stars Stanley Baker, Helmut Schmid, Tom Bell and Patrick Magee.This is a very gritty thriller that has you on the edge of your seat throughout. It's a puzzle to me as to why this one is not better known and held in high regard today. It's one of the best heist films I've ever seen along with The League of Gentlemen and the Gene Hackman film Heist.Turpin(Stanley Baker) is a former British soldier who is bitter at the army because they dishonourably discharged him. Turpin puts together a three man team, himself, Swavek(Helmut Schmid)and Fenner(Tom Bell)to pull off quite a robbery. They will get into an army base disguised as Soldiers and rob the large amount of money in the base safe. There are lots of twists in this film and it has an ending that is completely unexpected and truly unforgettable.The amount of planning the gang go to is incredible from getting army uniforms and coming up with a getaway plan. As with The League of Gentlemen part of you wants them to succeed because of how much effort they've put into their plan. Baker is excellent (as always)as the embittered Turpin. Helmut Schmid is solid as explosives expert Swavek and a young Tom Bell is suitably twitchy as Fenner the youngest member of the gang.Fine performances, a suspenseful story and lots of tension all help to make this a firs rate thriller. It would have been nice to have seen how the gang got together and why Turpin chose those Swavek and Fenner in the first place. That issue aside though this is a first rate thriller that deserves a great deal more attention than it has right now.

Turin a former officer in the British Army who was dismissed from the outfit sixteen years earlier decides to take his revenge on the military by planning and carrying out a payroll robbery at his former barracks British films from this period tended to lag behind their American counterparts on many levels and a common criticism was that "British cinema was radio with pictures" . It's interesting this film was released a couple of years before ZULU which even today is probably the epitome of what can be termed British Hollywood and that several cast members , Baker ,Magee and Edwards featured in both films , but in its own way A PRIZE OF ARMS is low key but an involving heist thrillerNow heist thrillers are rather formulaic and often rely on double cross and triple cross . Not so here where the characters are stealing money for themselves and are therefore reliant on themselves . Made in the early 1960s when National Service had just ended in Britain it's set in a time when people had an ambiguous mindset towards the military . You can see both viewpoints from this film . Pilfering was a common occurrence in a conscript army and the trio of thieves seen here are just taking things one step further , but at the same time the military isn't shown as stupid or inept either . Perhaps most tellingly there's little violence used and the heist is carried out via very careful planning just like you'd get in the military and just like in conflict the careful plans go out of the window as the first boot lands on hostile territory . This is what makes A PRIZE OF ARMS a memorable heist thriller - it's well written with several points where you gasp "How are they going to get out of this one ? " and when a film makes you worry that a bunch of spivs might get caught red handed this must be viewed as a success

A PRIZE OF ARMS - 1962 Stanley Baker, Tom Bell and Helmut Schimd headline this gritty heist film from the UK. The trio have a plan to hit an Army payroll office for a cool 100,000 pounds. The base troops are being shipped off to the mid-east on a political emergency.The group has acquired all the proper uniforms, vehicles etc they need to gain entry to the base. They figure with all the confusion on the base with the personal transfer, that no one will notice them. They get on the base and do a bit of recon work. They enter the payroll office under the guise of checking fire alarms and fire extinguishers. While doing this, they snip all the alarm wires and stash several duffel bags of tools etc in a storage room.Now all they need to do is lay low and wait for evening darkness. Before they can do this, Baker and Bell are grabbed up and told to report for their overseas medical shots. Staying in character, as Army types, they do as they are told. Bell, who then is out checking guard post times, is now nabbed by a Sergeant, Patrick Magee, to do washing up for the cook. Baker and Schimd hunker down at the gunnery range to wait for heist time.Bell, something of a hothead, spends a few hour doing pots. He then loses it and tosses them at the cook when asked to redo his work. He bolts out into the dusk to meet Baker and Schmid. They hot-wire a Military Police jeep and head off to a perimeter fence. There, they cut a hole in the barbed wire big enough for a truck to get through. This is to give the Army boys a false lead.The trio, now dressed as Military Police, burst into the payroll office. They tell the guard and staff that they had a call about smoke. They start to search the building grabbing up the extinguishers they brought in earlier. These are actually filled with gasoline. They start several fires in empty rooms etc. When the smoke hits the main office they tell everyone to exit and hit the alarm to the fire brigade. The alarm of course does not go through as the wires had been cut earlier.Once everyone is out, Schmid, the explosives man hits the safe while Baker pulls out a flamethrower that they had hidden beforehand with the gasoline filled extinguishers. Bell watches the outside door as Schmid blows the safe and Baker flames the place. Once they have the cash bagged up, they load it on a stretcher.By this time the duty officer has arrived and entered the payroll building. The crew knock him out with some chloroform and load him on the stretcher along with the cash and flamethrower. They toss a blanket over top and exit. Baker tells the just on scene Senior Officer that they need to get the man to the medical clinic. Baker and company grab a jeep and head off into the dark just as the finally alerted fire brigade arrives. They drop off the officer at an outlying building after giving him a bit more chloroform.Now they high tail it over to their truck with the cash and flamethrower to wait for morning. They plan on driving off base with the troops in the morning. All goes well as they attach themselves to a long convoy of trucks leaving the base. 10 miles down the road they take a turn down another road. They have a hideout where they plan on swapping the truck for a waiting van.Needless to say things start to unravel with the perfect plan. An escorting MP on a motorcycle notices them cut off on the other road. The MP follows thinking they had gotten lost. The MP follows them to the old barn where they plan on changing vehicles. The MP of course smells a rat. He roars back to the main road and flags down another group of MPs and Officers. Back down the country road the MPs go.Suffice it to say, Baker and his mob get something other than the results they wished for.This is a nicely done caper film with good work from cast and crew. Director Cliff Owen started off in British television in 1955 and by the early 60's was doing feature films. If you like this one, you should check out the director's 1961 noir like, OFFBEAT.