''Cash on Demand'' is a 1961 British black and white

neo noir Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates literally to English as "black film", indicating s ...

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definit ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

directed by

Quentin Lawrence Quentin Lawrence (6 November 1920, in Gravesend – 9 March 1979, in Halifax, Yorkshire) was an English film and television director. He worked a long time for ATV. An article about TV directors in ''The Guardian'' said he was "noted for the pre ...

and starring

Peter Cushing Peter Wilton Cushing (26 May 1913 – 11 August 1994) was an English actor. His acting career spanned over six decades and included appearances in more than 100 films, as well as many television, stage, and radio roles. He achieved recognition ...

and

André Morell Cecil André Mesritz (20 August 1909 – 28 November 1978), known professionally as André Morell, was an English actor. He appeared frequently in theatre, film and on television from the 1930s to the 1970s. His best known screen roles were as ...

. The film company

Hammer Film Productions Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of these involve clas ...

invested approximately £37,000 to produce the film. To optimise its budget the film uses a limited number of sets; an interior street set, the trading area of a bank, the manager's office, the stairway between office and the vault, and the interior of the vault itself. The screenplay was adapted from the 1960 ''

Theatre 70 ''Theatre 70'' is a 70-minute UK dramatic television anthology series produced by Associated Television. Twenty-five episodes aired on ITV from 1960–61. Guest actors included Zoe Caldwell, Robert Horton, André Morell Cecil André Mesri ...

'' teleplay ''The Gold Inside'', also directed by Lawrence, and featuring André Morell and Richard Vernon in the same roles.

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

began distribution of the film in the United States on 20 December 1961, and screenings continued until April in some major cities.

Plot

Two days before Christmas, a bogus insurance investigator, Gore Hepburn, brazenly conducts a con trick on a bank, largely through making Fordyce the bank manager believe that his family have been kidnapped. Fordyce is a cold, officious man; for instance, he has previously threatened his head clerk, Pearson, with dismissal for a misdemeanour, despite the fact that this would end Pearson's career. Gore Hepburn recognises the insecurities underlying Fordyce's behaviour and exploits them ruthlessly, tormenting him with veiled threats. Feeling that he has no choice, Fordyce helps Gore Hepburn to steal £93,000 in banknotes from the bank vault, concealing his actions from the rest of the staff. However, they have already phoned Gore Hepburn's insurance company as a routine precaution, and discovered that he is an imposter. When Fordyce learns that the police are on their way he becomes desperate for his family's safety. When police arrive Fordyce convinces Pearson to cover for him and excuse their contacting them as a misplaced cheque. Fordyce offers police a drink of whisky, as it is Christmas. However, police have already arrested Col Gore Hepburn, who has a case containing the bank's money. Gore Hepburn is not his real name; he is a known criminal. Police realise he must have had inside help with the robbery, which points to Fordyce. A quick call establishes that Fordyce's family were never under threat. The police are unclear as to why Fordyce would have believed this, suspecting instead that he helped the supposed colonel of his own free will. Fordyce tries to convince the police that the colonel deceived him; for instance, by ordering him at one point to stand by the window and mop his brow, as a signal to a supposed associate outside. As he demonstrates this to the officers, a sealed bank package of £500 (which Gore Hepburn had slipped into his pocket earlier) falls out. Once more the police are sceptical of his innocence. Gore Hepburn tells the police that Hepburn and another man used a tape recorder to disguise their voices and make it seem like Fordyce's family was kidnapped, and that Fordyce is innocent. Fordyce is finally seen as innocent and the police let him go because he was trying to protect his family. Knowing his wife and son are safe, he has changed his opinion of his co-workers for helping him. He goes to the police station with them to talk to his wife and to Hepburn for deceiving him. With a half-smile on his face, he tells Pearson to manage the bank in his absence, assuring him he will be back in a few hours and join them at the staff Christmas party.

Cast

as Harry Fordyce *

as Colonel Gore Hepburn (as Andre Morell) *

Richard Vernon Richard Evelyn Vernon (7 March 1925 – 4 December 1997) was a British actor. He appeared in many feature films and television programmes, often in aristocratic or supercilious roles. Prematurely balding and greying, Vernon settled into playi ...

as Pearson *

Norman Bird John George Norman Bird (30 October 1924 – 22 April 2005) was an English character actor. Early life Bird was born in Coalville, Leicestershire, England. A RADA graduate, he made his West End theatre, West End debut in Peter Brook's produ ...

as Arthur Sanderson *

Kevin Stoney Kevin Stoney (22 January 1921 – 22 January 2008) was an English actor. He was best known for his television roles, in which he became familiar for his "portrayal of establishment types". During the Second World War, Stoney served with the Ro ...

as Detective Inspector Bill Mason * Barry Lowe as Peter Harvill *

Edith Sharpe Edith Mary Sharpe (14 September 1894 – 6 June 1984) was a British actress. Born in Hackney, London. She married Alexander Francis Part in 1931 and had one child. She appeared in TV series such as Dixon of Dock Green, Z Cars, Emergency Ward 10 ...

as Miss Pringle * Lois Daine as Sally * Alan Haywood as Kane

Critical reception

''Cash on Demand'' was selected by the film historians Steve Chibnall and Brian McFarlane as one of the 15 most meritorious British

B films B, or b, is the second Letter (alphabet), letter of the Latin-script alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''English ...

made between the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and 1970. They note that it also received enthusiastic reviews at the time of its release from ''

The Monthly Film Bulletin ''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991, when it merged with ''Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with a ...

'' and ''

Kinematograph Weekly ''Kinematograph Weekly'', popularly known as ''Kine Weekly'', was a trade paper catering to the British film industry between 1889 and 1971. History ''Kinematograph Weekly'' was founded in 1889 as the monthly publication ''Optical Magic Lantern ...

''. They particularly praise Peter Cushing: "Above all, it is Peter Cushing's performance of the austere man, to whom efficiency matters most (though the film is subtle enough to allow him a certain integrity as well), and who will be frightened into a warmer sense of humanity, that lifts the film well above the perfunctory levels of much 'B' film-making."Steve Chibnall & Brian McFarlane, ''The British 'B' Film'', Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2009, pp. 280–81.

References

External links

* * * {{Quentin Lawrence 1961 films 1960s Christmas films 1961 crime drama films 1960s crime thriller films 1960s heist films British black-and-white films British Christmas films British crime drama films British crime thriller films British heist films Columbia Pictures films Film noir Films about bank robbery Films based on television plays Films directed by Quentin Lawrence Films shot at Bray Studios Hammer Film Productions films 1960s English-language films 1960s British films

Plot

Cast

Critical reception

See also

References

External links