Nice effects though.

Admirable film.

A Masterpiece!

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This film grabs you from the very start. Its simple bare-bones approach emphasises the clever plot, and engaging character development. The lack of soundtrack actually heightens tension appropriately, along with deft camera work, and tight dialog.The plot itself is clearly the major player in this ensemble, not to denigrate the cast, who do a superb job of tense interaction, with appropriate support from typical British aloofness, and clipped military tones.The plot ducks and weaves as it unfolds before your eyes. At times you wonder the significance of a particular action, only to later admire its genius as you appreciate its subtle significance. The tension is magnificently maintained throughout.As another reviewer has commented - the movie has you rooting for the anti-heroes right to the end!! What a splendid achievement. Worthy of the 8 stars!!

Okay, it's a rainy Thursday in Scunthorpe; your tele's on the blink, the chipshop's closed and all the badminton courts at the Leisure Centre are booked solid. The local flea-pit is playing this piece of cheese and at least it'll get you out of the rain. That's about the best you can say for it; someone connected with Film Production has seen a real heist movie - Jacques Becker's Touchez-pas au grisbi, perhaps, or Jules Dassin's Riffifi - and thinks they're easy to do. Wrong. It's like the dozens of Am-Dram outfits all over the country who think Hay Fever is a walk in the park. So, this bright spark wrote the word 'gritty' on a blackboard, signed up a team of second-rate talent and waited for the money to roll in. He's probably still waiting.

An exciting, suspenseful, ingenious thriller, this one makes very inventive use of the author's obviously first-hand knowledge of military red tape. The direction has pace and flair and actual locations are very effectively employed. The film has obviously been produced on an an unusually lavish budget, including an enormous cast. All roles from the largest to the smallest are superlatively played in a solidly realistic manner. The movie also excels with a great number of extras, including loads of location filming and even a sequence in which a whole army building is spectacularly burnt to the ground. As usual in this type of film, our sympathies are directed firmly to the robbers and we feel with them as they collectively and individually make one hairsbreadth escape after another, The screenplay is superbly constructed to extract the utmost suspense and tension and while it seems to be light on characterization, the personable playing by Baker, Bell and others makes up for this deficiency. The Greek unities are observed and fortunately there is no romantic interest whatever to dissipate the film's grip and tension. True, the climax is a bit extravagant and clichéd, but this is the one sour note in an otherwise excellent thriller.

Turin a former officer in the British Army who was dismissed from the outfit sixteen years earlier decides to take his revenge on the military by planning and carrying out a payroll robbery at his former barracks British films from this period tended to lag behind their American counterparts on many levels and a common criticism was that "British cinema was radio with pictures" . It's interesting this film was released a couple of years before ZULU which even today is probably the epitome of what can be termed British Hollywood and that several cast members , Baker ,Magee and Edwards featured in both films , but in its own way A PRIZE OF ARMS is low key but an involving heist thrillerNow heist thrillers are rather formulaic and often rely on double cross and triple cross . Not so here where the characters are stealing money for themselves and are therefore reliant on themselves . Made in the early 1960s when National Service had just ended in Britain it's set in a time when people had an ambiguous mindset towards the military . You can see both viewpoints from this film . Pilfering was a common occurrence in a conscript army and the trio of thieves seen here are just taking things one step further , but at the same time the military isn't shown as stupid or inept either . Perhaps most tellingly there's little violence used and the heist is carried out via very careful planning just like you'd get in the military and just like in conflict the careful plans go out of the window as the first boot lands on hostile territory . This is what makes A PRIZE OF ARMS a memorable heist thriller - it's well written with several points where you gasp "How are they going to get out of this one ? " and when a film makes you worry that a bunch of spivs might get caught red handed this must be viewed as a success