7.4 /10 1 Votes7.4
79% Rotten Tomatoes Produced by Martin McKeand Cinematography Peter Jessop Initial release 1979 Budget 364,000 GBP Written by Francis Megahy | 6.7/10 Directed by Francis Megahy Edited by Arthur Solomon Director Francis Megahy Music director Stanley Myers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Starring Ian McShaneWarren ClarkeStephen GreifChristopher Malcolm Cast Similar Ian McShane movies, Movies about banks |
The Great Riviera Bank Robbery, also known as Dirty Money and Sewers of Gold, is a 1979 British heist film written and directed by Francis Megahy and starring Ian McShane, Warren Clarke, Stephen Greif and Christopher Malcolm. In the film, based on a real incident in 1976, members of a neofascist group team up with professional criminals to rob the safe deposit vault of a bank in a French resort town.
Contents
Plot
Bert and Jean are members of a right-wing nationalist organisation closely connected to the Organisation armée secrète. Both are ex-military, and now find themselves on the wrong side of the law in Nice, France. Needing to raise cash to buy arms, Bert, an ex-paratrooper known as 'The Brain', devises a plan to dig their way into a bank vault.
Needing criminal expertise, they persuade some local French gangsters to join them, in return for a cut of the haul. The gangsters' interest is purely mercenary while Bert is at pains to point out that his interest is political. After several nights spent digging through a wall in a sewer, they break their way into the deposit boxes, and try to make their getaway without being caught.
Miscellanea
A French film based on the same events, Les Egouts du Paradis, directed by Jose Giovanni, was released the same year.
Media releases
The film was released on Region Two DVD in 2007.