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Money Movers, 1978
Dick Martin (Ed Devereaux) is an armored car driver who is demoted to the night shift after his car is the victim of a daring heist. The head of the firm becomes incredibly paranoid after a note is sent to the company declaring that another robbery will soon take place. A main suspect is newcomer Leo Bassett (Tony Bonner). But unbeknownst to the head of the company, ruthless criminal Jack Henderson (Charles Tingwell) is planning his own robbery and is determined to make sure that no one beats him to the punch.
While a bit muddled at times in its writing, this one has enough gritty action and cynicism to make it a worthy entry in the armored car heist subgenre.
I’ll admit that at times I had some trouble following the thread of this film, something that’s probably more on me than the movie. There are a lot of conversations in similar looking white offices and between men in very similar suits.
But the upshot of all this similarity is that it does end up aligning well with a main theme of the film. A violent gangster. An armored car employee. A police detective. A night watchman. How do you tell them apart? In this film, the answer is a knowing nod and a cynical “Exactly.”
My own confusion as I watched the film somewhat echoes the dizzying journey that Martin finds himself on as he tries to figure out who was in on the heist. The line between the good guys and the bad guys is so blurry that you kind of have to sit back and wait for each character or suspect to show their true colors. Anyone, it seems, could be part of the plot. How does a single man like Martin stand a chance against such odds?
And the movie is just as interested in the story of Martin’s protagonist trying to restore his good name as it is the jockeying for power between the various shades of villain. Right until the last seconds of the film, people are being betrayed, airing their own corruption, or taking unlucky bullets in the back.
There are definitely slumps in the film’s momentum. There’s a line where “realistically low-key” transitions into “actually a bit boring”, and the film lands on the wrong side of that line a few times. But the suspense of learning how the whole heist will turn out and who exactly will be implicated is more than enough to pull you through the story.
An easy recommend if you’re a fan of heist films.
Money Movers, 1978
Dick Martin (Ed Devereaux) is an armored car driver who is demoted to the night shift after his car is the victim of a daring heist. The head of the firm becomes incredibly paranoid after a note is sent to the company declaring that another robbery will soon take place. A main suspect is newcomer Leo Bassett (Tony Bonner). But unbeknownst to the head of the company, ruthless criminal Jack Henderson (Charles Tingwell) is planning his own robbery and is determined to make sure that no one beats him to the punch.
While a bit muddled at times in its writing, this one has enough gritty action and cynicism to make it a worthy entry in the armored car heist subgenre.
I’ll admit that at times I had some trouble following the thread of this film, something that’s probably more on me than the movie. There are a lot of conversations in similar looking white offices and between men in very similar suits.
But the upshot of all this similarity is that it does end up aligning well with a main theme of the film. A violent gangster. An armored car employee. A police detective. A night watchman. How do you tell them apart? In this film, the answer is a knowing nod and a cynical “Exactly.”
My own confusion as I watched the film somewhat echoes the dizzying journey that Martin finds himself on as he tries to figure out who was in on the heist. The line between the good guys and the bad guys is so blurry that you kind of have to sit back and wait for each character or suspect to show their true colors. Anyone, it seems, could be part of the plot. How does a single man like Martin stand a chance against such odds?
And the movie is just as interested in the story of Martin’s protagonist trying to restore his good name as it is the jockeying for power between the various shades of villain. Right until the last seconds of the film, people are being betrayed, airing their own corruption, or taking unlucky bullets in the back.
There are definitely slumps in the film’s momentum. There’s a line where “realistically low-key” transitions into “actually a bit boring”, and the film lands on the wrong side of that line a few times. But the suspense of learning how the whole heist will turn out and who exactly will be implicated is more than enough to pull you through the story.
An easy recommend if you’re a fan of heist films.