The defence The Big-Idea Head
“Form is the argument.”
Every composed frame and deliberate cut is evidence that control can be thrilling in its own right.
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Cash on Demand
Crime · Drama · Thriller · 1961
A charming but ruthless criminal holds the family of a bank manager hostage as part of a cold-blooded plan to steal £90,000.
Movie details
Cash on Demand
“How to rob a bank... and get away with it?”
1961 Crime · Drama · Thriller 1h 20m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
7.6 / 10
Community rating
A charming but ruthless criminal holds the family of a bank manager hostage as part of a cold-blooded plan to steal £90,000.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Cash on Demand?
For the defence
The Big-Idea Head
“You watch with your brain, not your gut.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
The Night of the Hunter
Crime · 1955
In Depression-era West Virginia, a serial-killing preacher hunts two young children who know the whereabouts of a stash of money.
Odds Against Tomorrow
Crime · 1959
An old-time crook plans a heist. When one of his two partners is found out to be a black man tensions flare.
Robbery
Crime · 1967
In this fictionalised account of the Great Train Robbery, career criminal Paul Clifton plans an audacious crime: the robbery of a mail train carrying millions in cash.
Pushover
Crime · 1954
A police detective falls for the bank robber's girlfriend he is supposed to be tailing.
Cassandra's Dream
Crime · 2007
The tale of two brothers with serious financial woes. When a third party proposes they turn to crime, things go bad and the two become enemies.
The Good Thief
Crime · 2003
An aging gambler on a losing streak attempts to rob a casino in Monte Carlo. But someone's already tipped off the cops before he even makes a move.
The Wrong Man
Crime · 1956
In 1953, an innocent man named Christopher Emmanuel "Manny" Balestrero is arrested after being mistaken for an armed robber.
Crime Wave
Crime · 1953
Reformed parolee Steve Lacey is caught in the middle when a wounded former cellmate seeks him out for shelter. The other two former cellmates then attempt to force him into doing a bank job.
Terror by Night
Mystery · 1946
Holmes and Watson board a passenger train bound from London to Edinburgh, to guard the Star of Rhodesia, an enormous diamond worth a fortune belonging to an elderly woman of wealth; but within the first hour of the trip, the woman's son is murdered and the diamond stolen and any of the passengers in their car could be the killer thief.
The Killer Is Loose
Crime · 1956
A savings-and-loan bank is robbed; later, a police wiretap identifies meek bank teller Leon Poole as the inside man. In capturing him, detective Sam Wagner accidentally kills Poole's young wife, and at his trial Poole swears vengeance against Wagner. Poole begins his plans to get revenge when he escapes his captors.
Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Quentin Lawrence
Written by
David T. Chantler · Lewis Greifer
Peter Cushing
Harry Fordyce
André Morell
Colonel Gore Hepburn
Richard Vernon
Pearson
Norman Bird
Arthur Sanderson
Kevin Stoney
Detective Inspector Mason
B
Barry Lowe
Peter Harvill
Edith Sharpe
Miss Pringle
Court is in session
Put Cash on Demand on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist
“Technique in search of a pulse.”
Immaculate construction is still construction. The film may be too busy proving its craft to feel alive.