The Great Van Robbery

The usual suspects commit a daring postal robbery. A year later, some of the hundred-fifty-thousand pounds show up in Brazil and Scotland Yard sends its Interpol Man, Denis Shaw, to track down the baddies.

It's a cheap and efficiently run quickie from the Danziger Brothers, in which foreign locations are indicated by stock footage, signs on anonymous buildings and clips of music -- we know we're in Rome because the musical cue is "Santa Lucia" and in Paris because it's "Frere Jacques" -- and the locals waver between their stage accents and doing foreign ones. All the cops are efficient and it's not long before Shaw is back in London, closing in on the baddies, despite numerous wounds; the portly actor dispatches two thugs with guns with only a minor flesh wound and then heads out for the final confrontation, despite orders to take it easy for a couple of days. DP Nicholas Roeg gets only a couple of interesting shots, although the final shootout amid a cascade of coffee beans should have been interesting were the print I saw better than it was.