Jun 20, 2026 · 37 min · 10 segments
Sheldon and Chris review the BFI edition of the 1961 British movie, Strongroom, much loved by people such as Edgar Wright and Martin Scorsese and the Radiance release of Jean-Pierre Mocky 1970 movie…
Sheldon HallHost
Christopher HallHost
First of all, we'll be talking about the British thriller Strongroom, directed by Vernon Sewell.
And then we'll be talking about Solo, directed by the French director Jean-Pierre Mochie.
It's a darling of people like Edgar Wright and Scorsese because it is a very taut, well-made work.
almost textbook thriller it's a heist film three small-time crooks have got a very good plan to nickel all the money from a vault in a bank in a parochial town not definitely not london which i think is key and it slightly goes wrong i'm not going to tell you too much about how it slightly goes wrong but it does slightly go wrong for various reasons It's very, very economically directed.
You are dealing not with stereotypes but with archetypes, British archetypes in all of the characters.
Some great black and white photography throughout, some very good editing throughout.
Some very good performances throughout from people, some of whom we will talk about later.
Additionally, somebody at the BFI had a fantastic time putting together all the extras on the disc.
There's another film by Vernon Sewell, which has got almost exactly the same cast in it, called Man in the Back Seat.
And there are loads of public information films about robbery and London and one about STD.
So it looks like... somebody just went what what was relevant from that period what have we got in the archive let's stick it all on the
disc this is the bfi's habit actually it's it's a i think they use their blu-ray releases as an excuse to throw together a random package of movies which happen to be thematically related or somehow connected to the main feature but which allow them to exploit the resources of the archive which of course has thousands upon thousands of films Many of which would never get seen if they weren't somehow justified by their relation to another film.
And sometimes it's the same filmmaker, as is obviously the case, you said, with the two feature films in the package, the same director, same two lead actors.
First of all, we'll be talking about the British thriller Strongroom, directed by Vernon Sewell.
And then we'll be talking about Solo, directed by the French director Jean-Pierre Mochie.
It's a darling of people like Edgar Wright and Scorsese because it is a very taut, well-made work.
almost textbook thriller it's a heist film three small-time crooks have got a very good plan to nickel all the money from a vault in a bank in a parochial town not definitely not london which i think is key and it slightly goes wrong i'm not going to tell you too much about how it slightly goes wrong but it does slightly go wrong for various reasons It's very, very economically directed.
You are dealing not with stereotypes but with archetypes, British archetypes in all of the characters.
Some great black and white photography throughout, some very good editing throughout.
Some very good performances throughout from people, some of whom we will talk about later.
Additionally, somebody at the BFI had a fantastic time putting together all the extras on the disc.
There's another film by Vernon Sewell, which has got almost exactly the same cast in it, called Man in the Back Seat.
And there are loads of public information films about robbery and London and one about STD.
So it looks like... somebody just went what what was relevant from that period what have we got in the archive let's stick it all on the
disc this is the bfi's habit actually it's it's a i think they use their blu-ray releases as an excuse to throw together a random package of movies which happen to be thematically related or somehow connected to the main feature but which allow them to exploit the resources of the archive which of course has thousands upon thousands of films Many of which would never get seen if they weren't somehow justified by their relation to another film.
And sometimes it's the same filmmaker, as is obviously the case, you said, with the two feature films in the package, the same director, same two lead actors.
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