The First Great Train Robbery

Connery and Sutherland as a pair of freewheeling Victorian criminals in the Butch and Sundance mould who attempt to rob a bullion train. Crichton's adaptation of his own novel falls badly between genres, never quite making up its mind whether it's aiming for comedy or suspense, and not succeeding very conclusively at either. The characters stay largely undeveloped, while - despite superficially peculiar features - the robbery is stripped of the ingenious exposition of the novel to become just another heist. There are some excellent sequences, notably those built around the search for the bullion keys; but in general this odd hybrid cuts through the crap of much period melodrama without finding anything very substantial to put in its place.