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Payroll (1961)

Dir: Sidney Hayers

Handsome thug Johnny Mellors (Michael Craig) has a plan.
A plan to steal over £100,000 in factory wages while in transit with the help of three other desperate men, Monty (Kenneth Griffith), Blackie (Tom Bell) and Bert (Barry Keegan).

Johnnie has a man on the inside, Dennis Pearson (William Lucas), who informs him that a new armoured security van, with alarm and direct Police radio link, has taken over the payroll pick-up and transport.
Undeterred Johnnie devises a brutal plan to ensure the robbery he planned for so long stays alive.

The van is owned and driven by Harry Parker (William Peacock) with is friend and partner Frank (Glyn Houston) riding shotgun in the back.
Parker’s wife Jackie (Billie Whitelaw) fears for her husband’s safety given the large amount of cash he will be moving.

Those fears are soon realised when Johnnie’s gang hit the van one morning, and although the robbery is successful it’s also a mess.
And it’s a mess that will follow the gang around, as they wait for the heat to die down, when internal strife and mistrust raises its head and when Pearson’s glamorous (but ruthlessly scheming) wife Katie (Françoise Prévost) gets involved.

And all the while a bitter Jackie Parker, an ignored, seemingly inconsequential, factor in the gang’s plans, has her own ideas of justice….

 

This glorious bit of 60’s British crime drama still remains one of the true gems in it’s genre and it’s still as exciting and powerful as it was 47 years ago.
From the excellent Jazz/Rock ’n’ Roll tinged score (by Reg Owen) that swings it’s funky way through the stark opening credits, to it’s cold finale, “Payroll” delivers all you could ever want from a hardboiled heist thriller as well as a swinging slice of 60’s cinema (although given a far more gritty edge because of it’s northern setting - the Newcastle of "Get Carter" - as opposed to the generally more glamorous London locales of most of it‘s kind) and that all the cast are at their thespian peak helps no end as well.

Given a fine script by George Baxt (based on the novel by Derek Bickerton) and assured direction by Sidney Hayers the cast have all the tools they need to do their job and they all do it superbly.

The amazingly under-appreciated Michael Craig (who could go from ruthless thrillers like this to family comedies like “Doctor in Love”. to gritty war films like the superb “Sea of Sand” to gory exploitation like “Turkey Shoot”, with ease) is stunning as the swarve, cunning but ruthless and unstable Johnnie, and the way he can swing his character from hard man bully when keeping his gang in line, to cold-blooded manipulator when keeping Pearson on track, to cunning Don Juan when ensnaring a woman all the way to ranting insecurity when hit with a problem, is a master class in thriller acting.

The ever welcome Tom Bell (“The Krays”, “A Prize of Arms”, TV’s “Prime Suspect”) is in cracking form as the angry, impatient thug with ideas above his station and bounces of Craig perfectly, the equally welcome Kenneth Griffith (“The Wild Geese”, “Circus of Horrors”, “Revenge”) is in fine twitchy form as the scared Monty, but his weak willed character has a great moment when he stands up (very briefly) to Johnnie that shows just how striking Griffith can be.

Away from the gang William Lucas (“Tower of Evil”, TV’s long-running "The Adventures of Black Beauty") does a wonderfully memorable turn as the inside man who slowly unravels into self-loathing and abject fear.
T he striking Françoise Prévost (“Payroll” being a very rare English language appearance and she would go on to wallow in sexploitation faves in the 70’s like “The Sinful Nuns of Saint Valentine” and “Exorcist 3: Cries and Shadows”) is given the kind of role actresses kill for as the fiery, ruthlessly grasping, sexually manipulative wife who never got the life she hoped for from her weak husband. And her vicious swipes at him, as she spits her greedy frustrations at his failures, are electric.

The acting honours ultimately go to the great Billie Whitelaw though. From doting mother and wife to driven (realistic) avenger she never puts a foot wrong and her steely determination to get justice provides some great moments for the camera to concentrate on her face as she doggedly watches, tracks and ensnares those that did her such wrong with not a seconds thought.
Whitelaw is sex, class and female strength personified and in her earlier larger roles made truly lasting impressions as ballsy women. After a solid support appearance in “The Flesh and the Fiends” she famously delivered (as well as a fine performance) some early British nudity in Hammer’s tough “Hell is a City” alongside the iconic Stanley Baker, before hitting the thespian heights here in “Payroll”.
A steady but disgracefully underused career would follow until she blew everyone she shared a scenes with away as the devilish Mrs Baylock in the classic “The Omen”, a role that would ensure her immortality.
Another comeback of sorts came in the form of the (otherwise rather poor) “The Krays” where she would play the 2nd best Gangster’s mother after the legendary turn by Margaret Wycherly in “White Heat”. She also recently made a welcome cameo in the hit Simon Pegg/Edgar Wright comedy “Hot Fuzz” and remains one the Grande Dames of British cinema.

Director Hayers (“Night of the Eagle", “Assault” and producer on “The Professionals” TV show) does a superb job at weaving the full on brutality of the robbery sequence, with moments of genuine emotion and engaging hardboiled dramatics perfectly.
He keeps a tight reign on the proceedings (as the simple robbery plot spirals into a complex web of chaos and betrayal) while letting his fine cast give their all.
There’s nothing flashy here, just a damn near perfect as you will ever get example of solid, skilled directorial workmanship.

Away from the masterly constructed robbery sequence (which is tense and exciting) Hayers’ delivers other superb scenes of a more sombre, low key and personal level that etch themselves on your memory.
Two examples are the sequence where a shocked and scared Pearson drives past the chaotic crime scene in almost total silence and sees the headless children’s teddy bear by the crushed van and a body being taken away in an ambulance.
And the cleverly crafted moment when the two wives are told of the robbery by a Police Inspector that mixes the mundane rituals of everyday life around the life shattering news.

Money is at the heart of the plot in so many ways that the title "Payroll" becomes more than just the literal description of what the armoured van is hauling and becomes the thing almost all the characters risk anything and everything for...their own personal payroll to change their lives.
Parker is taking a risky job to get his family more money and regularly mentions what the new contract will bring in, the gang have their entire lives swamped by the need for easy cash, Pearson takes perhaps the first risk in his entire life to get money to appease his angry wife and Katie herself has no true desire at all other than the desire to be rich at whatever cost.
Only Jackie, who told her husband the extra money means nothing to her as far as his safety is concerned, remains personally immune to the power of that big pay day, although even she is effected by it as the monetary desire of others changes her life forever.

All in all then a true classic of British crime cinema with almost zero faults (you could pick at the fact that even in 1961 fingerprint records would be a powerful tool and yet none of the gang wear gloves as they all touch endless incriminating objects), a great score, masterful direction, pitch perfect acting by a superb cast, wonderful set-pieces, gritty atmosphere and a well constructed, multi-character, plot that holds everything together tightly to ensure nothing but audience satisfaction is delivered.
It’s just been released on UK DVD in a stunning print, so track it down now!

Oh, and just to show how times have changed, look out for the scene where Tom Bell's character casually tosses his cigarette on the ground at what will become the scene of the robbery . In today’s “CSI” world where DNA rules the roost it screams out at you!