The Saint Louis Bank Robbery (1959) Independent Noir

"The "Great" St. Louis Bank Robbery"... not! 

Directed by Charles Guggenheim and John Stix. 

Guggenheim was a director  who specialized mostly in documentaries.

John Stix was a TV director. Written by Richard T. Heffron.   Cinematography was by Victor Duncan and Music was by Bernardo Segall.

The film stars Steve McQueen as George Fowler, Crahan Denton (To Kill A Mocking Bird) as John Egan, the gang boss, David Clarke (Raw Deal, The Set-Up, Abandoned, Edge Of Doom, The Narrow Margin, Odds Against Tomorrow) as Gino, Ann's brother, James Dukas (The Hustler, The Detective, Ironweed) as Willy, the driver, Molly McCarthy (Blast Of Silence) as Ann, George's ex-girlfriend and Gino's sister, Martha Gable as Eddie's wife, Larry Gerst as Eddie.

 lt. to rt. David Clarke as Gino, Steve McQueen as George, Crahan Denton as Egan

James Dukas as Willy

Molly McCarthy as Molly 

John Egan. Ex con. Has a last job planned. Getting his kicks on Rt 66. He drives his 1952 Buick Super Riviera with Willy across the Mississippi on the MacArthur Bridge. John's got serious mommy issues. His mother was a dipso. She beat him. Made him work for her booze money. As a result he hates all women. 

MacArthur Bridge Rt. 66

MacArthur Bridge Rt. 66

He's got other problems. He wants to head to Mexico with his "real good buddy" Willy. Apparently John and Willy were "an item" at the barbed wire hotel. For his last job, (robbing the Southwest Bank in St. Louis), John needs two more men. He taps another ex con heist pal, Gino. 

Gang meet at “Sons of Rest” pavilion

Gino is desperate for cash. He got a robbery trial coming up soon and needs to pay a good lawyer to keep him from going back to the slammer. John asks if Gino if knows anybody he can trust to be a driver on a job. Gino gets another washed up looser, Ann's ex boyfriend, George Fowler. 

George is just a ex college jock who got Ann "in trouble." The result was George getting expelled from college and then running out on Ann. Nice guy.

The gang first all meet up at “Sons of Rest” pavilion in Tower Grove Park, St. Louis. George agrees to do the driving on the job, he's gonna use the dough to go back to college and get his degree. He wants to try and recapture his glory days.

The biggest problem Gino has is that he's flat broke. He been paying a lawyer to keep his ass out of jail, and his next installment is in three weeks. So Gino coerces looser George to re-hook up with his sister Ann, who now lives here in St. Louis. Gino tells George to see if he can put the touch on her for eating money, until they do the job. George reluctantly agrees. So, George calls Ann out of the blue, and tells her he heard she was living in St. Louis, from Gino. Tells her, surprise!, he's in St Louis too, and he asks if they can meet and have a drink. 

George meets Ann at saloon called Eugene's Place. They talk. George tells her that he's just recently seen Gino in Chicago. Tells her some bull shit story and asks her if she can lend Gino some money. Tells her Gino is desperate. Ann is suspicious but agrees and writes out a check. 

The gang begins to plan the caper. They drive their getaway route. They pick a spot to stash the get away car. They surveil the bank, time the traffic lights, check out the floor plan and go over each man's duties. John begins to take a shine to George which doesn't sit well with Willie who starts to get jealous. John's first assignment for George is to steal a license plate.

John checking out the banks layout

John and George then go and make the connection for their guns a revolver and an automatic, going price in 1959, $25 a piece, or both for $40. John gets both. While at the Bar

Another part of the surveillance is timing the police patrols. Each gang man takes a shift in Tom's Grill across from the bank, watching the streets and marking down the times the patrol cars cruise by on a crossword puzzle. 

At the designated time George shows up to relive Gino. Coincidentally Ann comes out of the bank and spots George going into Tom's Grill and then she sees Gino leaving the grill and hoping into his 1954 Ford Mainline. Ann crosses the street to confront George with the fact that he lied to her. He tells her that he cant talk about it now but they can meet at the bar again tonight. He'll explain things then. That night when they meet. George tries again to bull shit Ann, but she know the score and knows out they are up to no good.

Ann See Gino leaving Tom's 

You lied to me

It goes Noirsville when Ann figures out what they are planning. She goes to the bank and writes, on the banks window, a warning in lipstick, that they will be robbed. Willie sees this and goes running to John.

John goes ballistic, they head over to the flop hotel and John confronts both Gino and George asking who the fuck talked. George tries to protect Ann, but Gino breaks down and tells John it was his sister. 

A banging on the door wakes George

It was Ann 

You talked!

The past relationship between George and Ann is revealed and John assumes that George told her about the job. George tells him that no, Ann figured it out when she saw Gino leaving Tom's Grill. She put two and two together.

They all go to visit Ann at her apartment at the Milner Hotel. John wants to know if she told the police about it. He sends George in to talk to Ann first and find out. She says no. 

 

John, Willy, and Gino, come busting right on in to Ann's apartment. Ann expects George to tell them all to leave. No dice. Gino convinces her to get out of town, to go to Chicago for a couple of days. She starts to pack.

John tells George to get out and go to the pavilion in Tower Grove Park to wait for them. He tells George that "they will take her to the airport." George tells Gino to make sure nothing happens to Ann. Gino agrees. 

Make sure nothing happens to her

As soon as George leaves John tells Gino to follow George and keep an eye on him because he doesn't trust him. John tells Willie to grab the Buick and drive it around to the back of the apartment house. John tells Willie that he'll take Ann down the fire escape. 

On the fire escape

Meanwhile Gino shows up at the park George  sees him and is pissed.

George Fowler: You left her there?

Gino: She'll be alright...

George Fowler: You left her there with those apes?

Ann argues with John about George, as they go down the stairway of the escape. John tells her that George cares nothing about her, and that he's a "real man," and he's going to Mexico with him. 

He don't need you! He's a real man!

Ann doesn't believe it. John's misogyny and homosexual jealousy explodes. He slaps her and then throws Ann off the fire escape. 

Ann lands near Willy. When John and Willy reach the pavilion they tell George they got her to the plane. Here, a golden opportunity was missed by the screenwriter. John should have told George that "we saw her off on her flight."

Noirsville

Tailfins

The film does have a quasi documentary feel to it. Great use of locations and the actual participants from the real 1953 robbery as extras. McQueen plays vulnerable and confused convincingly. The rest of the cast is equally believable 

There is a nice sequence showing Gino going stir crazy. Gino is shaving in the bathroom and George comes into the hotel flop and shuts the bathroom door as he passes it. Everything around him becomes enhanced, the dripping sink, the Coriolis of the draining tub. Claustrophobia. The four walls start spinning

The homosexual subtext is pretty out in the open. There is one sequence where Willy convinces John to  be the wheelman for the getaway instead of George. Willy with a shit eating grin tells George someting along the lines of  "Guess who's driving, now?' It just might have well as been "guess who gets to suck John's dick now." lol.

The St. Louis locations have an archival importance. The scene where John and George meet the gun man and John goes ballistic when a hooker propositions them was in The Golden Eagle Bar. Interesting film from 1959. 7/10