This fat Interpol detective beats everybody up and knows judo. He flies the globe asking probing questions in order to nab the source of the loot stolen from the Brinks like van. His escapades take him to Rio,Rome,Paris and back to London following the trail of the bad guys and gal. Eventually it leads to a shoot-out amid sacks of coffee beans and he triumphs. Extremely harmless low budget second rate flick is easy to watch and OK enough to kill some time. Additionally, he jumps up on a loading dock, breaks windows to enter, rifles thru File cabinets,jimmies strong boxes,ducks bullets,bumps into hanging bodies, Drives a car,eats a ham sandwich,crosses the street,lays down on the Sofa to think an is all-in-all tenacious.
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BILLYBOY-1011 October 2010
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boblipton8 October 2017The 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. -
hwg1957-102-26570411 October 2017After a van is robbed of mint banknotes in London an Interpol inspector goes after the money starting off in Brazil where some of the notes have been used to buy a consignment of coffee. He follows the trail from there to Italy, France and back to London before collaring the criminals. It is a low budget film produced by the Danziger Brothers with lots of stock footage and plain cinematography (Nicolas Roeg was the camera operator!) but it's a pretty good film.
One reason is the script by Brian Clemens and Eldon Howard that moves briskly for it's 71 minutes without any padding with well written dialogue and an exciting finish. Another reason is Denis Shaw in a rare leading role as the dogged inspector Caesar Smith who may be an unlikely looking hero but is excellent in his role. He makes Smith a real character, intelligent, tough and dedicated with a pleasant sense of humour. It was a shame they didn't make any more Caesar Smith films with Shaw. So hail Caesar and farewell. -
malcolmgsw29 July 2023Dennis shaw is one of the lesser known character actors of his era. Noted for playing villains,publicans and tough guys,normally about 10th in the credits. So to see Mr Roly Poly himself as the leading man of this film comes as quite a surprise. One assumes that the Danzigers,noted for their frugality,couldnt afford the likes of Paul Carpenter or Hugh Sinclair.
Here he is playing Inspector Caesar Smith trying to track down the proceeds of the robbery. In theory he goes to Paris and Rome. However in this case it is the substantial use of a stock library that provides the shots of the cities plus planes taking off and landing.
There is a decent climax,although at times it is difficult to take Shaw that seriously. He is continually shot at but seems to suffer nothing more than flesh wounds.
He does not get the girl in the end surprise surprise.
By the way Nic Roeg was not the DP on this film but the Camera Operator,so he didnt chose the shots. -
mikeolliffe18 March 2021The 'West German' title for this film is 'Der Dicke von Scotland Yard' which sounds vaguely uncomplimentary. It's also inaccurate as the 'Dicke' (or detective) actually works for Interpol. Granted, he does seem to spend a lot of time at the Yard when he's not flying all over the world trying to track down the bad guys.
The English title itself is misleading. If it is 'The Great Van Robbery' shouldn't we see a bit of planning, a bit of recruiting of the gang that is to carry out the great robbery? Maybe even a dry run?
Even if it included those elements, the title is still not a grabber.
All these are mere quibbles. Writer Brian Clemens succeeds in holding our interest by exploring how one might launder a large amount of stolen currency.
This low-budget epic is fast-moving with an unlikely looking hero who despite carrying a fair bit of weight (I should talk!), performs impressively in the fight scenes and even clambering up (and jumping off) loading docks.
The shoot-out at the end leaves something to be desired. You've heard of 'phoning it in' ? Director Max Varnel must have sent his instructions in by delayed telegram. Perversely, this is watchable to see how it shouldn't be done. -
Leofwine_draca11 April 2021An enjoyable cheap B-movie which allows usual screen heavy Denis Shaw to play a good guy for a change. It's an enjoyable enough little picture, one which does the job despite being made on a very low budget and in studios for the most part. This doesn't prevent the tale drawing in France and Brazil as backdrops for the action, in which Shaw's Interpol detective hunts down the participants of a postal van robbery. It does the job.