Cash On Demand (1962)

During the Christmas season, a strict and unforgiving martinet of a bank manager (Peter Cushing) berates his employees for petty transgressions. But when a cool insurance investigator (Andre Morell) from the main office turns out to be a thief with a near perfect plan to rob the bank, the bank manager finds out what it's like to be at the other end of someone's mercy. This minor offering from Hammer films is a real find! Played out in almost real time, the film is based on a play by Jacques Gillies with very little concessions to cinema. However, this actually works in the film's favor as the bank setting (taking place in three sections of the bank) lends the film a claustrophobic feel as a cat and mouse game plays out between Cushing and Morell. Essentially a morality play dressed up as a thriller (with a few touches of humor), the director Quentin Lawrence keeps a tight rein on the proceedings so that we don't feel the obviousness of the film's message which is a rather subtle homage to Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL. Cushing is truly excellent here in one of his rare leading performances outside the horror genre. The bracing B&W camera work is by Arthur Grant (QUATERMASS AND THE PIT). With Richard Vernon and Norman Bird.