Loot (1970 film)

The setting is a seaside hotel owned by a Mr. McLeavy in the 1960s in England. The owner’s son, Hal (Roy Holder), and Hal's boyfriend, Dennis (Hywel Bennett), rob a bank located next to the funeral parlour where Dennis works. They hide the money in the coffin of Hal’s mother, who has just died and whose body has been returned to the hotel prior to its final burial.

Inspector Truscott (Richard Attenborough) investigates the bank robbery and immediately suspects Hal and Dennis. Meanwhile, Mr. McLeavy (Milo O'Shea) is being aggressively courted by Fay McMahon (Lee Remick), the nurse who cared for Hal’s ailing mother in her last weeks of life. Fay is having an affair with Dennis, but she has no real interest in him until he tells her he has come into money. Inspector Truscott also has a particular interest in Nurse McMahon, he is sure she murdered several of her former husbands, and also thinks she poisoned Hal's mother.

Truscott's investigations, and Dennis and Hal’s ongoing measures to get away with the proceeds of the bank robbery, make up the action in Loot.

• Richard Attenborough as Inspector Truscott
• Lee Remick as Nurse Fay McMahon
• Hywel Bennett as Dennis
• Milo O'Shea as Mr. McLeavy
• Roy Holder as Hal
• Dick Emery as Mr. Bateman
• Joe Lynch as Father O'Shaughnessy
• John Cater as Meadows
• Aubrey Woods as Undertaker
• Enid Lowe as W.V.A. Leader
• Harold Innocent as Bank Manager
• Kevin Brennan as Vicar
• Andonia Katsaros as Policewoman
• Jean Marlow as Mrs. McLeavy
• Robert Raglan as Doctor
• Hal Galili as Pallbearer
• Douglas Ridley as Pallbearer
• Stephen Yardley as Pallbearer
• Edwin Finn as Pallbearer

In The Daily Telegraph in 2017, Tim Robey wrote "it retains something of the spirit of 1960s caper movies, such as Gambit (1966) and The Italian Job (1969). The queer sensibility of the play – censored for blasphemy and gay references in its time – is tentatively rather than fully explored – Georgy Girl director Silvio Narizzano opted to play it all for broad, primary-coloured farce."[3]

According to the screenwriters seeking to turn the play into a film (Ray Galton and Alan Simpson), in 2012 Orton's agent Peggy Ramsay was complimentary, "... even she couldn't tell where he'd finished and where we started. But it's not a great film, unfortunately". Part of this was because, to the writers' regret, Narizzano directed the actors to perform "in an over-the-top style, and it doesn't work".[4]

The film was approved by Sidney Gilliat who was on the board of British Lion. He later admitted this was a mistake as the film lost a lot of money.[5]

• Loot at IMDb
• Loot at the TCM Movie Database