Wow! Such a good movie.

Memorable, crazy movie

best movie i've ever seen.

Best movie ever!

I was interested in seeing this movie because it was based on a true story. It wasn't just that, it's that the people in the bank depicted in the scenes were actually people from the real life robbery! It is in fact important to properly represent an actual historical event, but it's rather easy enough to do it when you are yourself an actual person there. You know, not much actual acting. The bank scene that concludes the movie is really well done. Of course, I expected no less from the real life people were a part of it. I didn't know people actually died in that incident.Now, the thing is, while the bank scene is great, the rest of the movie is just mediocre. I mean, I guess I haven't done my research so I don't know how accurate the buildup was. These are the scenes that have too much talking and aren't that interesting. I do understand that the real life people had no problem with the way the movie was filmed and I have to respect the bravery they showed in the event. It's just that I think this movie would have worked a lot better as a short film. That's really all the time you need to show this.I harbor no ill will towards the people involved in the robbery, although as it happened in the 1950's, they are all probably dead now. That's still not an excuse to not honor them. In a weird way, I would recommend this movie if only because the bank scene is done well with the real life people involved. This is certainly better than other movies based on true stories like "Pearl Harbor" or "Patch Adams" (even though the real Patch Adams supports homeopathy, which has been scientifically proved to be the least effective medicine in existence). It doesn't become as good as "To Hell And Back" which also featured the real life person doing the acting and is a far superior movie. If you're into history, then I suggest this even though it isn't really all that good. **1/2

For fans of intelligent heist movies, this is one you should enjoy. Four well-developed characters come together in order to try and knock off a quiet small-town bank. They all have backstories that make the characters' success or failure interesting to the viewer. They take their job seriously and this draws in the viewer and holds our attention.The acting is not aided by the most interesting writing, and among the actors Crahan Denton deserves the most credit, and the character who doesn't want to go back to prison is also quite good. A young Steve McQueen is astonishingly bland. The script is not particularly imaginative, but the characters are interesting enough and the direction is competent. If you like straight forward heist movies, this is one you'll enjoy.

Sometimes a low budget just simply stops a movie from being the success it might otherwise have been. But the budgetary constrictions can be overcome to some extent by talent and sensitivity, even in the absence of stars. "The Littlest Fugitive" is a good example. Or, heck, look at "Detour" or "Gun Crazy." There's little of that poetry here.The format is that of "The Asphalt Jungle." Four met of diverse temperaments are brought together by the leader, Crahan Denton, to pull an ordinary bank robbery in St. Louis. Nothing elaborate. Nobody crawls through sewers or hacks through walls. The gang simply times the traffic lights and figures out how long it will take for the police to respond to the inevitable alarm. The judgment is that they can empty the tills at the tellers' stations, avoid fooling with the vault, and get away in time.A good deal of the movie describes the relationships between the four thieves. They're all pretty bleak. Nobody cracks a joke or even smiles except at someone else's misfortune. One of the characters is evidently gay, and Steve McQueen is the college drop out who is marginal but takes part in the robbery anyway. The robbery scene itself is extensive and doesn't make too much sense.Not all that much of the plot makes sense either. How did McQueen's girl friend guess that Steve and the rest intended to rob a particular bank? He certainly didn't tell her. I guess that's fulgurating intuition.The dialog isn't bad. A nice scene in a bar with Crahan Denton admitting to McQueen that he was born in 1897 and went to work at twelve to support his alcoholic mother. It's rather touching, despite Denton's delivery. (He acts and sounds like a villain in a 1930s B Western.) McQueen hadn't yet developed any acting chops. He walks around with his mouth open, looking bemused, and he frequently bites his tongue and purses his lips to express tension. And, OMG, is the direction and editing one hundred percent pedestrian or what. The pauses between utterances seem to last as long as the Wurm glaciation. Somebody should have stepped on the gas pedal.The bank robbery itself is a mass of confusion. There's chaos when the cops show up far too early, and without any explanation of why. And it lasts a long time. Often the staging is completely off. Trapped, one of the robbers crawls down a long flight of stairs to the room with the vault and safety deposit boxes. He's all alone, testing doors, climbing walls, looking for a way out. When he realizes there is none, he offs himself, and the spectators upstairs in the bank lobby stare at him, clap their hands to their faces, and scream -- although they can't possibly see him.The sluggish pace and meandering plot -- McQueen has an on/off girl friend -- make for tedium, yet it's not without some appeal. Nice 1950s cars. And St. Louis doesn't yet look like Dresden after World War II.

Let me begin by pointing out that IMDb makes a mistake when it lists Nell Roberts as "Woman in Bar Talking to George." The woman in the bar is George's girlfriend Ann, played by Molly McCarthy. Nell Roberts is the Salvation Army woman who appears in three places in the film but who speaks only at the end when she tells a cop, "Don't go in. They're robbing the bank." I speak from authority as the great-nephew of Nell Roberts, my grandmother's sister, who was active in community theater in St. Louis in the 1950s, and who also had a bit role (as an old woman who answers the door) in the film, "Hoodlum Priest" (starring Don Murray), which was also made in St. Louis. We always knew her as "Aunt Nelly," so I guess "Nell" was her stage name.In any case, "The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery" is an interesting little movie -- though there really is nothing "great" about it. The noir approach fits the story line perfectly, but the execution strikes me as stiff and amateurish, especially in the acting and the editing. McQueen was doing what he could to be Brando, but Brando he wasn't. The three other members of the gang and the girlfriend have various small strengths as actors to commend them, but they wouldn't have been enough for professional survival today. The plethora of extras and bit players must have saved the producers some dinero, and they do give the film a certain documentary and amateur-theatrical charm, but their performances (including Aunt Nelly's) are of a type to make the viewer uncomfortable in the expectation of an embarrassing gaff. The homosexual subtext (mentioned by other reviewers) is certainly not imaginary. In fact, the things that make this movie most worth watching are, first, that homosexuality is included as a theme at all -- it was not necessary to the film's integrity unless the producers were aiming at some politically incorrect social commentary or had a personal ax to grind -- and, second, that the gay relationships had to be coded to make the finished work acceptable to the public in the late 1950s.But I did enjoy the look of the cars and the streets of St. Louis (a la New York in "The Naked City") before the rapid urban disintegration that overtook it shortly afterwards, and from which it has still not recovered. The was the REAL "St. Louis Bank Robbery."