Expected more

Excellent but underrated film

Absolutely brilliant

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

They don't make them as good as this any more! It has all the ingredients of a first class crime film - good plot - great actors and moves at a fast pace with never a dull moment.

Something about this film always stayed in my memory, I saw it in the theater when I was oh, 7 years old and the music, the grittiness and the infighting of the gang were some of the items that jumped out at me. Liked the black and white film and remembered the 4 main character names over the years...it was one of the films I've had the hardest time trying to get and I finally got it and added it to my library. No one gets the money, no one really wins anything, even the character Jackie Parker doesn't get any real revenge, sure she gets even with Johnny but it doens't bring back her husband...never get tired of this film and I would like to see others of the same style made around the time.

An underrated British film about naive working class criminals. I agree with previous comments regarding the miscasting of Michael Craig, but he was a prominent British leading man so it is understandable that he was chosen for box-office appeal. (Today,one would perhaps cast Albert Finney.) I actually worked on the movie as an extra and met most of the actors. I was particularly impressed with Tom Bell having followed his work in TV plays. He was a young actor who represented the up and coming crop of actors such as Finney, Bates, Lynch and Courteny. Although the film is an excellent record of 60's Newcastle, several scenes were shot in Rugby, where I lived. It was interesting to see how the Rugby scenes were edited into the Newcastle settings. I have a copy on tape.

'Payroll' is astonishingly good and deserves a DVD release asap! Even though this movie is over forty years old there are still some super tension mounting scenes which had me on the edge of my seat! The ever reliable Michael Craig was particularly convincing, and well supported by the equally impressive Billie Whitelaw. William Lucas over-acted like mad in the scene where he breaks down, but other than that he was in fine form. The b/w film complimented the tale and made the seedier elements even more gripping and believable. I've seen this movie on auction sites a few times and it always attracts a number of bidders. In my opinion its a British gem!