The First Great Train Robbery

Infobox Film | name = The First Great Train Robbery


image_size = 175px
caption = original movie poster
director = Michael Crichton
producer = John Foreman
writer = Michael Crichton
starring =Sean Connery
Donald Sutherland
Lesley-Anne Down
music = Jerry Goldsmith
cinematography =Geoffrey Unsworth
editing =David Bretherton
distributor = United Artists
released = February 2, 1979
runtime = 110 min.
country = UK
language = English
budget =
imdb_id = 0079240

"The First Great Train Robbery" is a 1979 film directed by Michael Crichton, who also wrote the screenplay based on his novel "The Great Train Robbery". In the U.S., the film was also known as "The Great Train Robbery".

The film starred Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland and Lesley-Anne Down.

The film features many picturesque characters and scenes of the Victorian era, particularly the criminal mobs of the time. Although set in London and Kent, most of the filming took place in Ireland. In particular, the final scenes were filmed in Parliament Square of Trinity College, Dublin and Kent Railway Station in Cork.

Origins of the plot

The story is loosely based on the Great Gold Robbery of 1855, in which a cracksman called William Pierce (named Edward Pierce in Crichton's book and film) engineered the theft of a train-load of gold being shipped to the British Army during the Crimean War. The plot was inspired by Kellow Chesney's 1970 book " 'The Victorian Underworld' ", which is a comprehensive examination into the more sordid aspects of Victorian society. The film's central theme, the robbery of the 'Crimean Gold' from a train, is closely based on Pierce's actual robbery of £12,000 in gold coin and ingots from the London to Folkestone passenger train in 1855 by Pierce and his accomplices, a clerk in the railway offices called Tester, and a skilled screwsman called Agar. The robbery was a year in the planning and involved making sets of duplicate keys from wax impressions for the locks on the safes and bribing the train's guard, a man called Burgess. [Chesney, Kellow 'The Victorian Underworld' Pub. Maurice Temple Smith Ltd (1970) p. 210]

Similarly, in his screenplay Crichton used another real-life character from Chesney's book, that of a housebreaker called Williams (or Whitehead) who, sentenced to death in Newgate Prison, managed to escape by climbing the 50 feet tall sheer granite walls, squeezed through the revolving iron spikes at the top and climbed over the inward projecting sharp spikes above them before making his escape over the roofs. Crichton based his character 'Clean Willy' Williams, played by dancer Wayne Sleep, on Williams. [Chesney, p.187]

Awards

*Edgar Award, Best Motion Picture Screenplay, 1980 — Michael Crichton

Deleted Scene

One of the deleted scenes in this film includes the former Miss Ireland and model Nuala Holloway. A brief scene which shows Sean Connery and Nuala Holloway running from a bedroom was filmed. The scene shows Connery's character rushing when his accomplice Donald Sutherland has fulifilled his task of copying a safe key and has a riot faked, was cut out to tone the promiscuity of Connery's character.

However, Nuala Holloway appeared in other scenes, including the climax set in a courtroom and starred as a double for Lesley-Anne Down. Coincidentally, some of the scenes in the movie were filmed at a disused railway station in Nuala's home town of Moate, Co. Westmeath in Ireland.

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0079240