This tense, nervous film succeeds in creating a threatening, silent world where its main protagonists are watched, suspected and hindered in their attempts to steal a lucrative payroll from within the confines of an army base. Lead and held together by the indomitable yet fragile star persona of forgotten 1960s leading man Stanley Baker, the trio of robbers face a palpably frightening atmosphere that reeks with Pinteresque menace. Cinema is a place where bad things happen to good people, so we are in no doubt that these three borderline criminals are facing a sticky, fiery end.

Heist movies can often be jokey, slick and fast-moving, but here the pace is drawn out to a sombre, almost preternaturalistic state. The abstract unrolling of the narrative – with people doing things we don’t understand in a world we barely recognise – plays perfectly on our innate fears of violence and exposure. Whilst the film loses its way near the end, with the introduction of a conventional suspense narrative, the opening is a forceful and essential reminder of the power behind the cinematic spectacle. Likewise the end, which is signposted all too early, manages at least to regain the films earlier glory: the savage scenes of flame-throwing desperation carry with them the brutality and humiliation of a caged animal.

A Prize of Arms at the IMDb