The Great Saint Louis Bank Robbery (1959)
A college dropout is recruited as the getaway driver for a meticulously planned bank heist masterminded by a manipulative career criminal in St. Louis. When the driver's ex-girlfriend learns of the plot and tips off the bank, the robbery collapses into violence and he is left facing the consequences of what he has become.
Shot in semi-documentary style on the actual St. Louis streets where the 1953 Southwest Bank robbery took place, The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery gave Steve McQueen one of his first starring film roles, released around the same time television’s Wanted: Dead or Alive was making him a household name.
Background
The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery was shot in semi-documentary style on the actual St. Louis streets where the real 1953 Southwest Bank robbery it dramatizes took place, giving the film an unusually grounded, location-specific feel compared to more conventionally staged crime pictures of the period. It gave Steve McQueen one of his first starring film roles, playing a college dropout recruited as the getaway driver for a meticulously planned heist, released around the same time the television series Wanted: Dead or Alive was making him a household name.
What to watch for
Watch for how the film builds tension through careful procedural detail rather than conventional melodrama, following the robbery’s planning and eventual collapse once the driver’s ex-girlfriend learns of the plot and tips off the bank. As an early showcase for McQueen before his wider stardom, it offers a useful look at the screen presence that would soon make him one of the most popular leading men in Hollywood.
