ROBBERY **

 Peter Yates' "Robbery" may be based on the Great Train Robbery but it begins with a spectacular car chase through the streets of London after a robbery of a lesser kind. It may not be up to the standard of Yates' later "Bullitt" or "The French Connection" but as car chases go it does the business and sets the scene for an above average crime flic and one that's been largely forgotten.

Stanley Baker, who also co-produced, is the mastermind and other villains include Barry Foster, Frank Finlay, George Sewell, Clinton Greyn and William Marlowe while an unlikely James Booth is on the side of the law. It came at the tail-end of a good period for British crime movies and was probably influential in giving Yates his break in America. Joanna Pettet gets star billing as Baker's wife but may as well not be in the picture.