The bank robbery gave film noir one of its most potent dramatic structures: the perfect plan that comes apart in the execution. These films are exercises in anticipation and dread, counting down to the inevitable moment when human weakness – greed, lust, cowardice – unravels the meticulous scheme. The bank itself represents the American financial order, and to rob it is to declare war on stability and normalcy. Noir’s bank robbers are rarely straightforward criminals; they are often desperate men who see one last chance at a life they feel they have been unfairly denied.
A sharpshooter falls under the spell of a carnival markswoman and together they embark on a bank-robbing spree that can only end in destruction. Lewis’s in-car tracking shots during robberies were decades ahead of their time.
A meticulous jewel heist is planned by a criminal mastermind newly released from prison, only to be undone by the human failings of each member of the crew. John Huston’s procedural approach and the tragic dignity he gives his criminals define the classic caper film.
An ex-con masterminds a racetrack robbery with a team of desperate men, told in Kubrick’s fractured chronological style that mirrors the plan’s own fatal disorder. Sterling Hayden leads an ensemble of losers whose greed is their undoing.
A desperate gang plots the robbery of an armored car during a baseball game, with a relentless detective pursuing them in its wake. Charles McGraw’s steely performance gives this lean B-picture its spine.
College friends plan what they believe is a victimless casino robbery, not realizing that one psychologically damaged veteran will push the intellectual exercise toward real violence. Unusually thoughtful about post-war trauma as the engine of criminal behavior.
Three men plan a bank robbery in upstate New York, with racial tension between them threatening to destroy the scheme before it begins. Harry Belafonte produced this socially conscious final testament to classic noir.
An armored car driver allows himself to be used in a heist by his ex-wife’s new gangster husband, in a spiral of self-destructive desire that he cannot break free from. Burt Lancaster is perfectly cast as a man who knows he is walking into a trap and cannot stop himself.
An innocent man is framed by a masked criminal mastermind who used him as an unwitting pawn in a bank job, and sets out to clear his name through the criminal underworld. Phil Karlson’s direction is taut and brutal.
Five men steal gold from a government train and attempt a cross-country getaway under an ever-tightening police net. This small, tight, near-wordless film is a masterpiece of pure procedural suspense.
An escaped convict executes a desperate plan to reach the crime boss who framed him, assisted by two women with competing claims on him. John Alton’s photography initiates the great Mann-Alton B-noir collaboration.