Review of I Promised to Pay

I recall catching this as a kid on a now-defunct Sicilian TV channel; besides, my dad owns the paperback edition of the original Derek Bickerton novel (published in conjunction with the film's release). Clearly influenced by the seminal French noir RIFIFI (1955), this caper flick may not have the necessary qualities to attain equivalent classic status but it is proficiently handled nonetheless (in the recognizable style that characterized hard-hitting British cinema of the mid-1950s and beyond i.e. till the advent of the Swinging 60s). Of course, PAYROLL is highlighted by a heist sequence (meticulously planned in advance) – though, in complete contrast to the one seen in the Jules Dassin film, it is a brusque, messy and violent job! Typically, too, the gang is a very unstable outfit – Michael Craig is the brains (appropriately tough and rugged but perhaps too young to carry the requisite world-weariness of the role, he largely comes across as unsympathetic instead!), heavy-set Barry Keegan the brawn (thus the first to bite the dust), Tom Bell the hot-tempered member who even challenges Craig's leadership, Kenneth Griffith the mild-mannered nervous type who invariably sows the seeds of their downfall, and William Lucas as the obligatory 'inside man' (an exemplary employee who then snaps at the critical moment). Up to here, the plot is routine, that is to say, predictable; the film's coup, then, is in presenting two complex female figures: Francoise Prevost plays Lucas' ambitious (and obviously bored) foreign wife who flirts with Craig, strikes a bargain with him (when she realizes the nature of his association with her hubby), and whom she even tries to double-cross (though he has the last laugh); Billie Whitelaw actually starts off in the colorless role of housewife (of the payroll guard killed in the robbery) but who subsequently turns – believably – into dogged and resourceful avenger! For the record, though a police investigation into the crime is conducted, it reaps little to no results: the gang brings about its own doom through mistrust, greed and foolishness: Griffith and Bell perish in quicksand, while a dazed and exhausted Craig typically 'buys it' at the finishing line (the open sea) thanks to Whitelaw's vigilante tactics. PAYROLL, therefore, supplies the expected quota of action, thrills, hard-boiled dialogue and moody location shooting; all in all, it stands as director Hayers' most satisfying work after the splendid occult horror piece NIGHT OF THE EAGLE aka BURN, WITCH, BURN! (1962)…though I should also be re-acquainting myself presently with his rare adventure film THE TRAP (1966), whose memory has similarly been relegated thus far to a long-ago Sunday Matinée' childhood viewing on local TV.