The Movie

In the year 1855, England and France were at war with Russia in the Crimea. The English troops were paid in gold. Once a month, the gold was loaded into strongboxes at the London bank of Huddleston & Bradford and taken to the station by trusted, armed guards. The convoy followed no fixed route or schedule. At the station, the strongboxes were loaded into the luggage van of the Folkestone train for shipment to the coast and from there to France. The strongboxes were transported in two specially made safes, made of one-inch thick reinforced steel. Each safe weighed 550 pounds and was fitted with two locks, each with two keys. A total of four keys were required. For security reasons, each key was kept separately. Two keys were entrusted to the railway superintendent, who kept them in his office. A third was in the care of Mr. Edgar Trent, the president of Huddleston & Bradford. The fourth key was given to Mr. Henry Fowler, manager of Huddleston & Bradford. The accumulation of so much gold in one place naturally aroused the interest of criminal elements in England, but until 1855 there had been no robbery of a moving train… (The Great Train Robbery, Intro)

Opportunity makes a thief – this principle was often in effect in the history of the British railways. In the early days of the English railway network in the 19th century, there were hardly any robberies or raids, but when more and more companies began to transport valuables, money or even gold by train, the railways became interesting for criminal elements. A very unusual incident went down in history as the first major train robbery: in 1855, a clever duo of thieves, William Pierce and Edward Agar, managed to steal a large shipment of gold from a moving train on the route between London and Folkestone.

This Great Train Robbery remained relatively obscure for a long time and only became popular again in 1963, when a recent railway heist hit the headlines that turned out to be one of the largest robberies in European criminal history. The escape of ringleader Ronald Biggs occupied the media for decades and led to numerous literary and cinematic adaptations. A young author named Michael Crichton, who had enjoyed great success with his scientific thrillers since the mid-1960s, was not really interested in the 1963 train robbery, but in the lesser-known robbery of 1855, which gave him an opportunity to delve into the Victorian criminal world and not just concentrate on the robbery itself.

His novel The Great Train Robbery was published in 1975 and became an instant bestseller, particularly praised for its gripping portrayal of the 19th century underworld. Michael Crichton had heavily fictionalized the story of the eponymous train robbery, but nevertheless had used the true events and people as a basis, ensuring a very authentic atmosphere that almost bordered on a milieu study. The reduction to three main characters and the detailed description of the preparation and execution of the train robbery in the context of a factual report enabled a much more exciting and entertaining story than a completely faithful depiction.

At the beginning of the 1970s, Michael Crichton had not only established himself as a bestselling author, but also as a brilliant director with Westworld and Coma, after his science-fiction novel The Andromeda Strain had already been made into a film in 1971. It was directed by none other than Hollywood veteran Robert Wise, but Crichton himself wasn’t involved much in the production. The Great Train Robbery was to be the first film adaptation of his own work that the author was able to direct himself. This was only possible due to the success of his previous movies, which he had written directly for the screen. Sadly, his previous studio home, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, was not at all interested in a historical train robbery story, but with the help of producer John Foreman and the financial support of producing giant Dino de Laurentiis, he was able to bring The Great Train Robbery to United Artists instead.

Michael Crichton was also lucky enough to be able to attract the right actors for his project. For the main chatacter of Edward Pierce, the romanticized version of the real-life crook William Pierce, Crichton was able to get Sean Connery. The scottish actor had hung up his secret agent outfit in 1971 with Diamonds Are Forever and since then tried to move as far away as possible from his previous image – which wasn’t always easy. Connery had at least established himself as a brilliant character actor in big movies such as Murder on the Orient Express, The Man Who Would Be King and A Bridge Too Far.

His part in Michael Crichton’s film was therefore particularly important to him – instead of a Victorian James Bond, Sean Connery clearly enjoyed portraying a mischievous gentleman crook who also had his dangerous sides. Although the Scottish actor returned to the screens as James Bond one last time a few years later, The Great Train Robbery was the beginning of a major career change and one of his most successful and underrated performances in the 1970s.

Michael Crichton was also able to find a perfect actor for the second lead role in the film, the “screwsman” Robert Agar. Originally, the director only wanted to hire British actors, but the Canadian Donald Sutherland was just the ideal choice for the role of the awkward safecracker. Sutherland had in fact started his career in England in the 1960s and was already a busy character actor in high demand. He showed his enormous versatility in satires and comedies, dramas and thrillers and even war movies. The Victorian master thief Agar was a signature role for Donald Sutherland, which he mastered not only with costume and make-up, but also with his acting skills. With Sean Connery, Sutherland was also able to develop a successful dynamic that made the two characters even more lively.

While the characters in the book were almost exclusively a male club and the female characters only appeared in the background, Michael Crichton gave Pierce’s mysterious lover Miriam a much larger role in the screenplay adaptation and integrated her more into the plot. From the many young British actresses who would have been considered for the role, Lesley-Anne Down stood out. With her many years of film and television experience, she was chosen not only because of her looks. Just as in the book, the character’s profession is not mentioned in the film adaptation, but Lesley-Anne Down’s elegant demeanor and subtly humorous portrayal alone ensure that Miriam hardly seems to be just a street walker, but rather like a lady crook who is up to no good and can certainly hold her own against Pierce and Agar.

The other supporting characters were cast with more or less well-known British film and television actors and all had the same quality of being very impressive and memorable even in the smallest roles. The lecherous banker Henry Fowler was played with just the right amount of arrogance and sleaze by Malcom Terris, while theater veteran Alan Webb plays the stiff and almost unflappable railway boss Edgar Trent with wonderful eccentricity. The most astonishing casting in the film, however, is the role of the “Snakesmen” Clean Willy, for whom the filmmakers specifically hired the rarely seen dancer Wayne Sleep because he was able to attempt his breathtaking climbing stunts himself – a haunting performance that could not have been more realistic.

Although The Great Train Robbery was actually an American production by an American author and filmmaker, the film was not shot in Hollywood, but in England and Ireland. The latter was necessary because the original locations had proved to be too modern, but an untouched railway line with a suitable historic station and other ideal filming locations was found in Ireland. United Artists put together a first-class British film crew for Michael Crichton, which included the legendary cameraman Geoffrey Unsworth, production designers Maurice Carter and Art Davey and also costume designer Anthony Mendlesohn. However, the thoroughly British film crew was initially very reserved towards the young American filmmaker. Michael Crichton was able to dispel this scepticism by showing them his previous film Coma to gain their trust.

With a not too high but nevertheless generous budget of 6 million dollars, Michael Crichton was able to create an authentic atmosphere of Victorian England in the mid-19th century. In the British Pinewood Studios, detailed sets were built for the interior shots, but the exterior shots took place almost exclusively in Ireland and were elegantly complemented with a handful of old-fashioned, but effective matte paintings. Heuston Station in Dublin stood in for London Bridge Station, from where the train carrying the gold left for Folkestone, whose station was also represented by an Irish stop.

The filmmakers received a lot of support from the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland, using the historic railway line for the filming of the spectacular train scenes. A train with a real steam locomotive was used, which was actually built 25 years after the events of the story, but still looked very true to the original. The scenes in which Edward Pierce runs along the roof of the train were shot without a stunt double – much to the horror of the insurance company and of Sean Connery’s wife Michelle, who, according to legend, only learned of the actor’s stunts when she saw the film.

For the film’s musical accompaniment, Michael Crichton turned to the American composer Jerry Goldsmith, who had already scored the filmmaker’s previous film Coma and whose enormous versatility made him ideal for The Great Train Robbery. In 1979, Goldsmith had written three of his most famous scores – for Michael Crichton’s film, Ridley Scott’s Alien and the first Star Trek film – but The Great Train Robbery was one of his best and most fascinating works.

The catchy title theme immediately transports the viewer unmistakably to 19th century England and makes it clear in a light-hearted, mischievous way that the story is not meant to be a serious drama. Jerry Goldsmith’s sophisticated compositions were used relatively sparingly in the film, but are particularly effective for this very reason and work hand in hand with the detailed soundscape. Despite its great popularity, the film music was never released on record or CD – that only changed in 2004, when Jerry Goldsmith re-recorded and released the score faithfully to the original shortly before his death.

Although The Great Train Robbery was one of the most elegant and entertaining films of its time and while it boasted an all-star cast, the historical subject matter and the old-fashioned style almost proved to be the film’s downfall when it was released in 1979. At that time, the first big science fiction wave was raging on the cinema screens and Michael Crichton’s film had to compete with Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien and others, so its financial success was limited but it at least recouped twice the production costs. In England the film was given the title The First Great Train Robbery to distinguish it from the robbery of 1963 and the famous silent film of 1903, but most prints today only carry the shorter title.

While audiences initially showed only moderate interest, critics were enthusiastic across the board and attested to Michael Crichton’s great talent as an author and filmmaker. It was to be his last great success as a director, but as an author he remained one of the most creative and successful minds in both literature and cinema until his untimely death in 2008. Even today, The Great Train Robbery is still one of Michael Crichton’s most fascinating works both as a book and a film.

The Disc

Even though The Great Train Robbery was one of Michael Crichton’s masterpieces and was often a staple on TV in the 1980s and 1990s, it was always underrepresented on home video in the past. It took MGM until 1998 to release the movie on DVD in the USA and then only with a disappointing old non-anamorphic laserdisc transfer. At least the audio commentary Michael Crichton had recorded for the 1996 laserdisc release was included, but that was dropped again for the European DVD release in 2001 that was just a straight conversion of the Region 1 disc without the extras.

At some point a new high definition transfer seems to have been made in the late 2000s that was shown occasionally on American TV, but by then MGM had lost all interest in its classic film library and couldn’t be bothered to release it on home video anymore. In 2014, Kino Lorber finally stepped up in the USA and released The Great Train Robbery on Blu-Ray on its KL Studio Classics Label with a handsome new HD transfer, 5.1 sound and the classic Crichton commentary, preserving the movie for the high definition age.

Four years later Koch Media (now Plaion Pictures) brought essentially the same disc to the German home video market, although with a few improvements like a higher bitrate and uncompressed soundtracks. It’s also uncut for the first time with the controversial dog fighting scene intact. This is simply the best release of the movie so far worldwide. The same transfer can occasionally be seen on Amazon Prime Video or other streaming services, but in a lower quality than on this disc and of course without the few important extras.

Image

While MGMs old DVDs made absolutely no effort with the transfers, which were probably of early 1990s vintage and absolutely looked like it, Koch Media’s German release of The Great Train Robbery makes the movie shine for the first time in decades.

The origins of this 1080p 1.85:1 transfer are unknown but it was probably based on the master that was created for the 2014 American release by Koch Lorber. The film source seems to have been in very good shape – it already looked relatively clean in the 1990s transfers and appears here absolutely pristine without any instances of dust or scratches. There seems to have been a considerable effort of cleaning up the film elements, but fortunately the film grain was left intact and is always more or less visible.

Sharpness is good but not absolutely stellar due to the film source – but more than adequate for a “flat” 1.85:1 movie from the late 1970s that uses only part of the 35mm film strip. Luckily, there seems to have been no discernible artificial sharpness applied and thanks to the lack of a noise filter the image looks very organic and film-like – unlike some other HD transfers which sometimes are filtered to death. Stability is good but not completely rock solid – the image is sometimes a little bit in motion, but not to a point where it gets distracting.

The colours are wonderful and a far cry from the muddy brownish earlier transfers. Still looking vintage enough like the movie should be, greens are finally properly green and skies are nicely blue without cranking up the colour timing too much. Even the many darker scenes that have previously been just mushy and indiscernible now sport a wide palette of blue, brown and grey. The colour balance is just about right without looking too modern, even more like a 1950s Technicolor production.

Koch Media has also taken care that the authoring does not affect the image quality. Pressed onto a dual layer BD-50 disc, there is so much room that an almost constant 35 mbit/s bitrate was possible and the AVC compression is completely invisible.

Save for a complete restoration from the negatives, The Great Train Robbery has never looked better and is absolutely fit for big screens on this Blu-Ray. Given the relative obscurity of the movie nowadays, there will probably not be a new transfer for quite a while. Meanwhile this Blu-Ray is certainly good enough to enjoy the movie properly.

Sound

The Great Train Robbery had already been produced in Dolby Stereo in 1978, which was quite unusual for a movie of this vintage style. The old DVD releases already came with quite good Dolby Surround and 5.1 mixes which seem to have been reused for the Blu-Ray releases. For some reason the cover of the German Blu-Ray only specifies 2.0 LPCM tracks for both languages, but there is in fact a lossless English 5.1 Track included.

The English 5.1 soundtrack is a successful remix of the original four-channel Dolby Stereo mix – rumours that it was based on a 70mm 6-track mix are completely unfounded but at least it seems to have been made from the original separate stems. A large part of the surround sound is of course created by the score, which was mixed very broadly and relies heavily on the back channels. But the surround sound is not just limited to the music because the sound effects are also spread lightly around the front sounndstage and also use the surround channels quite a lot.

The dynamics and frequency range are impressively good and sound better than on the older releases. Especially the music now sounds much more full and even the dialogue seems to be improved a bit. It’s not quite a modern multichannel soundtrack, but sounds absolutely appropriate for a movie from 1978 and is especially a great showcase for Jerry Goldsmith’s music. In contrast to the international releases, the Koch Media Blu-Ray encodes all audio tracks in lossless LPCM.

When the German DVD was released in 2001, the German dub was only in Mono and hat a very scratchy thin sound.. This caused quite a stir because there were prints with a German Dolby Stereo mix and the movie was reportedly even shown with stereo sound on TV. Sadly, Koch Media was not able to locate this legendary Dolby Stereo mix and had to use a mono version instead again Fortunately it sounds much better on the Blu-Ray, although the sound quality is still not as good as the English original.

Subtitles are available in both English and German, but only for the main feature.

Bonus Materials

Koch Media has not billed The Great Train Robbery as a special edition, but still improved on the old German release by finally including the missing audio commentary and the customary trailer and a little image gallery. The menus are basic and only available in German, but look nice in the vintage style of the movie.

The Audio Commentary by Michael Crichton was recorded in the mid-1990s for the first laserdisc release and turned out to be an important document since the director and author sadly passed away in 2008. Here, he talks about the making of his movie in a quiet, reserved, but still highly entertaining way, unearthing a lot of anecdotes and details. Sometimes Crichton gets a little lost in thoughts and there is the occasional “dead air”, but hearing him lovingly talk about one of his favourite own movies is really worth watching the movie twice.

We also get three different Trailers for the US, UK and international release in the usual slightly worn quality, but newly transferred in HD.

The Image Gallery contains a nice collection of promotional material, but is not easy to navigate.