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The Big Caper

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6.2/10 • 21

1957-03-281h 24m

DramaThrillerCrime

The Big Money... $1,000,000 was up for grabs!

A con artist moves into a small town to spearhead a payroll robbery.

Directors
Robert Stevens
Editors
George A. Gittens

Top Billed Cast

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  1. Rory Calhoun

    Rory Calhoun

    Frank Harper

  2. Mary Costa

    Mary Costa

    Kay

  3. James Gregory

    James Gregory

    Flood

  4. Robert H. Harris

    Robert H. Harris

    Zimmer (as Robert Harris)

  5. Roxanne Arlen

    Roxanne Arlen

    Doll

  6. Corey Allen

    Corey Allen

    Roy

  7. Paul Picerni

    Paul Picerni

    Harry

  8. Patrick McVey

    Patrick McVey

    Sam Loxley

  9. Florenz Ames

    Florenz Ames

    Dutch Paulmeyer

Reviews1

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CinemaSerf Avatar

CinemaSerf

Mar 13, 2025

6/10

I quite liked the premise of this heist caper, as the down-at-heel “Harper” (Rory Calhoun) comes up with the idea of robbing a small bank that just happens to house the wages of a nearby military base. He can’t do it on his own, though, so taps up the ruthless “Flood” (James Gregory) for resources. There’s $1 million at stake here so he and his new investor’s gal “Kay” (Mary Costa) move into the town and pretend to be the married owners of the petrol station. It’s a friendly enough town, loads of chatty neighbours and family BBQs so the question is: will their sinister motives be spotted in a town where butter wouldn’t melt? Unfortunately, this doesn’t really come alive until the end, and then only just. For the main part, it’s more of a character study of their eclectic gang and of a quiet American township. “Roy” (a solid effort from Corey Allen) is the right-hand man whose obvious psychopathy is barely controlled by their boss; Zimmer” (Robert A. Harris) maybe has the most fun as everything he touches has to light up and/or go bang whilst Costa also delivers well with a bit more to her role than is often given to woman in crime thrillers. It is really the malevolence from “Flood” that steals the limelight, though, in the face of a rather soporific effort from an all-American Calhoun who barely imposes himself at all until he begins to wonder if they are doing the right thing then has no idea how to stop what he’s started. It’s a tight ship, with the direction tautly paced and few extraneous cast members to get in the way of the scheme and I think it passes eighty minutes quite interestingly - even if that is more to do with the underlying issues of right and wrong than of dynamite and car chases.

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Status
Released
Original Language
English
Budget
--
Revenue
--
Keywords
gas stationcon manfake identitygang leadercon artistfilm noirarsonarsonistdouble crossalcoholicpayroll robberycriminal gangbank heistbomb threatblown safe