A Prize of Arms 1962 DVD - Stanley Baker / Helmut Schmid

Three criminals have hatched a plan to rob an army barracks. The troops are about to be dispatched to take part in a war in the Middle East and there is believed to be a large amount of pay on the premises, to be shipped out with them.

The gang enters an army barracks, disguised as soldiers and proceeds to the pay corps headquarters where, under the guise of maintenance work, they make sure that the alarms are disabled — which will give them time to make their escape once the robbery takes place.

For the rest of the day they try to integrate themselves into the workings of the base, including being vaccinated for Overseas service, to avoid attracting attention. As night falls, they change into military police uniforms and head for the pay headquarters again, announcing on arrival that they have had reports of a fire. They begin searching the rooms.

Starting a small blaze, they then order the premises to be evacuated. With the building empty, they break into the safe and steal over £100,000. Starting several fires to cover their activities, they then withdraw, carrying a fake casualty in a stretcher. As troops rush in from across the base to put out the fire, the men drive off to a secluded spot on the base where they had left an army truck.

When an officer rings up the medics to check on the progress of the casualty, he is told nobody has arrived. Suspicious, he raises the alarm, and the whole camp is put on standby while the police are sent for. They are initially fooled into thinking the criminals have already left the camp. Meanwhile, the crooks successfully manage to escape the camp by tailing onto the end of a convoy.

As the authorities slowly awake to what has happened, military police are dispatched after the convoy. After the truck leaves the convoy, it is tracked down by the army, with the criminals seemingly cornered in a disused country barn. They try to make a break for it, using a flamethrower to clear their path. Initially successful, they manage to outrun the troops, before their truck explodes.

Cast: 

Stanley Baker as Turpin
Helmut Schmid as Swavek
Tom Bell as Fenner
John Phillips as Colonel Fowler
Patrick Magee as Regimental Sergeant Major Hicks
John Westbrook as Captain Stafford
Jack May as Medical Officer
Frank Gatliff as Major Palmer
Michael Ripper as Corporal Freeman
John Rees as Sergeant Jones
Tom Adams as Corporal Glenn
Anthony Bate as Sergeant Reeves
Rodney Bewes as Private Maynard
Douglas Blackwell as Day
Glynn Edwards as Breakdown truck crewman
Stephen Lewis as Military Police Corporal (cashier's office)
Fulton Mackay as Corporal Henderson
Stanley Meadows as Sergeant White
Garfield Morgan as Military Policeman
Geoffrey Palmer as Military Policeman
Michael Robbins as Orford
Peter Welch as W. O. Elsey

Runtime: 105 Minutes