The St Louis Bank Robbery *** (1959, Steve McQueen, Crahan Denton, David Clarke, Molly McCarthy) – Classic Movie Review 13,407

The cult 1959 American black and white heist film The St Louis Bank Robbery stars the young Steve McQueen, and is based on the real-life disastrous 1953 Southwest Bank holdup in St Louis, Missouri.

Director Charles Guggenheim’s cult 1959 American black and white heist film The St Louis Bank Robbery stars Steve McQueen, along with Crahan Denton, David Clarke and Molly McCarthy. Thanks to McQueen, it takes its small place as a bit of movie history. It is based on the real-life disastrous 1953 Southwest Bank holdup in St Louis, Missouri.

The St Louis Bank Robbery is a cult 1959 American heist film directed by Charles Guggenheim and starring Steve McQueen as a college dropout hired by aging criminal mastermind John Egan (Crahan Denton) to be the getaway driver in a bank robbery at the St Louis Southwest Bank, and then use the loot to retire to Mexico with his long-time helper, the regular driver Willy (James Dukas). The gang’s plans begin to be derailed when McQueen’s ex-girlfriend Ann (Molly McCarthy), the sister of one of the thieves Gino (David Clarke), starts voicing her suspicions after McQueen goes to her to get some money.

The St Louis Bank Robbery is interesting, flavourful and atmospheric, with arty ambitions, which is by no means always good in a thriller but is good here, but also creaky and melodramatic which is bad, taking down the valiant attempts at realism. You could say it is a documentary-style real-life thriller, but it is too arty for that. It is also way too talky, with dialogue that’s too stagey and explicit or explanatory, running like a movie transfer of a TV play of the day, but with lots of outside shots that still can make it seem cinematic and urgent. You just want them to get on with the robbery and find out how they are going to mess it up. To be fair, they want us to get to know the characters and their motives. hopes and passions, and that we do, so job done there.

A young Steve McQueen stars hesitantly, somewhat short of his future star quality, though he does have his strong moments that justify his casting, and Molly McCarthy over-eggs the pudding rather unconvincingly, but the guy playing the robbery mastermind, Crahan Denton as the gang boss John Egan, is convincingly tormented and bad, while David Clarke and James Dukas are both nice and creepy. All four gang members are quite credible.

The discordant score is sometimes effective, sometimes too insistent, a bit like the film really. The stark black and white photography is often startling and mostly imaginative. However, the climactic bank robbery itself is a bit of a let-down. The thieves have been acting so stupidly that there seems no question of them getting away with it, killing the suspense, though, even so, it is credibly done, again with a mix of arty and realism, with only McQueen’s angst-ridden turn getting in the way. He isn’t quite good enough an actor at this young stage to pull this off. You can see that experienced Crahan Denton is so much better an actor than young McQueen in their scenes together. Maybe if McQueen had been slightly better directed, and given slightly better lines, he could have been a contender here. Perhaps frustrating fans of the bank heist genre, the movie is not after thrills, but it still wants to be thrilling, and, up to a point, it succeeds.

The film is based on the real-life 1953 bank robbery attempt of Southwest Bank in St Louis. It was shot on location in 1958 and features some of the 1953 personnel from the St Louis Police Department, while local residents and bank employees also re-enact their roles during the robbery. Their performances leave something to be desired, but obviously they look and seem right. It must be have very strange for them, traumatic even, re-enacting the robbery like this.

It is written by Richard T Heffron,  and runs an economical 89 minutes.

Between filming and the film’s release on September 10, 1959, Steve McQueen gained US national recognition with his breakout star role as Josh Randall in the three-season TV series Wanted Dead or Alive (September 6, 1958 –March 29, 1961), appearing in all 94 episodes. McQueen was already 28 at the time of filming The St Louis Bank Robbery, considerably older than the character he is playing. He looks young enough though to be playing this crazy mixed-up kid.

American bank robber and Depression-era outlaw Fred William Bowerman (January 8, 1893 – May 1, 1953) was the actual leader of the robbery gang, fictionalised as John Egan. Bowerman was a holdup man for more than 30 years when in 1953 he led the disastrous Southwest Bank holdup, in which he and his three partners ended up in a standoff with more than 100 t Louis Police Department officers. Bowerman died a week later of gunshot wounds, aged 60.

It is remade as American Heist (2014).

Steve McQueen in The St Louis Bank Robbery.

The cast

The cast are Steve McQueen as George Fowler, Crahan Denton as gang boss John Egan, David Clarke as Ann’s brother Gino, James Dukas as the driver Willy,  Molly McCarthy as George’s ex-girlfriend and Gino’s sister Ann, Martha Gable as Eddie’s wife, and Larry Gerst as Eddie.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,407

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com