The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery (a.k.a. The St. Louis Bank Robbery) is a 1959 heist film shot in black and white. The noir film

Film noir

Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...

 stars Steve McQueen

Steve McQueen

Terrence Steven "Steve" McQueen was an American movie actor. He was nicknamed "The King of Cool." His "anti-hero" persona, which he developed at the height of the Vietnam counterculture, made him one of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s. McQueen received an Academy Award nomination...

 as a college dropout hired to be the getaway driver in a bank robbery. The film is based on a 1953 bank robbery attempt of Southwest Bank in St. Louis. The film was shot on location in St. Louis

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

 and some of the men and woman from the St. Louis Police Department

St. Louis Police Department

The Metropolitan Police Department, City of St. Louis is the principal law enforcement agency responsible for serving St. Louis City in the U.S. state of Missouri. The current chief is Colonel Daniel Isom....

, as well as local residents and bank employees, play the same parts they did in the actual robbery attempt.

The film is now in public domain

Public domain

Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...

.

Main cast

• Steve McQueen
  Steve McQueen
  Terrence Steven "Steve" McQueen was an American movie actor. He was nicknamed "The King of Cool." His "anti-hero" persona, which he developed at the height of the Vietnam counterculture, made him one of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s. McQueen received an Academy Award nomination...
  
   as George Fowler
• Crahan Denton
  Crahan Denton
  Crahan Denton was an American stage and television actor.He was born in Seattle, Washington, United States.From 1945 until his death in 1966, Denton starred in many films, including The Great St...
  
   as John Egan, the boss
• David Clarke
  David Clarke (actor)
  David Clarke was an American Broadway and motion picture actor.A native of Chicago and graduate of Butler University, Clarke was most well known for his film noir roles as a character actor....
  
   as Gino, Ann's brother
• James Dukas as Willie, the driver
• Mollie McCarthy as George's ex-girlfriend
• Martha Gable as Eddie's wife
• Larry Gerst as Eddie

Brief Summary

George Fowler (Steve McQueen) shows himself as an ex-football hero. He finds himself slowly drawn into the gangster world. With the gang in need of just $50 more, George asks his ex girl, Ann, for that amount in a check, supposedly for her brother Gino. The plan starts to unravel when she sees Gino coming out of a restaurant across the street from the bank. When questioned about it George later reveals he's involved with robbing the bank. She writes 'Warning The bank will be Robbed!' with lipstick on the window, the bank taking it as a joke. As the day of the heist grows nearer the tension within the gang heightens with no one trusting anyone. The robbers burst into George's and Gino's apartment that night and demand who talked to the girl about the robbery, seeing the lipstick warning. Gino breaks about his sister's (George's Ex girl) talking to George. George goes to her apartment with the gang and talks her into going to Chicago. Gino and George go to a park and wait. While Willie and John are taking her down the fire escape, John gets fidgety and hurls her off the escape down to the street below. They return to George and Gino, saying nothing about the murder. The next day the robbery is attempted as planned. Meanwhile the bank has replaced the switchboard, previously inside the bank, downstairs to what seems to be a better control room, a system which the robbers were betting on disabling to prevent calls to the police. John distrusts George and compels Willie to drive, instead of George, who will now be inside robbing the bank even though it's his first time on any illegal job. The robbing goes as planned until George can't find the switchboard they wanted to disable. The switchboard downstairs calls the police and they send a squad car over to the bank. When the police arrive, more arriving every second, the robbery goes astray. John gets killed while trying to take a hostage out and Gino commits suicide down in the vaults. Willie flees with the car, leaving his partners behind. George gets shot in the leg. He tries to take a hostage out, the woman's husband offering himself instead. As the wife is in his headlock, his arm aiming the gun at her husband, she says, "It's no use, he's vicious." Realizing just how far he went, George relaxes his grip and falls to the ground, muttering how he isn't 'vicious'. George is taken away, his last sight looking out the bars of the car.

Mel Stein

From KETC, LIVING ST. LOUIS Producer Patrick Murphy recounted the "Great St. Louis Bank Robbery" of 1953 at Southwest Bank in a video filmed in October 2007. While it was in progress, the robbery drew a crowd of thousands of people. In the Hollywood adaptation, the police officer Mel Stein played himself. He recalled exactly what he felt and how he remembered his fellow officers. It is available on Youtube.