Bold Bank Robbery

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Assault, carjacking, armed robbery - then the action starts... Not usually cited as a significant or influential film, yet it contains a number of elements that were not commonly found in films at that time, but later were widely used.

This essay attempts to show why this film deserves more attention in film histories.

Online: YouTube

Contents

  1. The plagiarism myth

  2. Antecedents

  3. Legacy

  4. Extra: The Outlaw Cut

Note: As with most early films, there are no intertitles. While the film is sufficiently straightforward to be appreciated on its own on first viewing, subsequent viewing is enhanced by knowing elements of the story that are not evident, but provided by the Lubin catalog detailed description at AFI.

Related:

A Daring Daylight Burglary

One of the models for 'The Great Train Robbery'and 'The Bold Bank Robbery'. Also provides an early taste of the police procedural, in the form of a detailed rendering of emergency medical assistance for the injured policemen (a digression that, regrettably, breaks the pace of the chase).

Desperate Poaching Affray

'Alas, my hat...'. Desperate, gun-toting, upper-class posse chases desperate, gun-toting, hat-fetishist poachers.

Pioneering, popular, and influential, this is a fast-paced no-frills thriller. Fight scenes are not the stylized choreography of today, but rough-and-tumble brawls more suitable to men who are “desperate”.

The one distraction comes from one poacher's hat, that naturally takes flight in its own direction. Instead of leaving it behind, as his partner wisely did, the poacher repeatedly pauses from his flight to recover his beloved hat - leaving audiences with a clear message: crime in hats doesn't pay.

The Great Train Robbery

Considered a milestone in film making