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A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square (film)

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A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
Directed byRalph Thomas
Written byGuy Elmes (story and screenplay)
Produced byBenjamin Fisz
StarringRichard Jordan
Oliver Tobias
David Niven
Elke Sommer
Gloria Grahame
Hugh Griffith
Richard Johnson
CinematographyJohn Coquillon
Edited byPeter Boita
Music byStanley Myers
Production
company
Benjamin Fisz Productions
Release date
  • 1979 (1979)
Running time
102 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square is a 1979 British heist film directed by Ralph Thomas, written by Guy Elmes and starring Richard Jordan, Oliver Tobias and David Niven. It is subtitled "based on one of the biggest robberies in London". The film takes its name from the 1940 published song "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square".

Plot summary

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Pinky (Jordan) is released from prison and has decided to go straight from now on, but takes a job as a maintenance man at a large bank, which gives him a lot of undue attention from "Ivan the Terrible" (Niven), the local hoodlum. By using Pinky, Ivan hopes to rob the bank, and Pinky starts to like the idea of going back to his old ways.

Production

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Ralph Thomas later said the film "had quite a superb cast" and "he was really quite fond" of the movie "but I didn't do it as well as I should have done because by the time we started it David was already sick, and so we had to do the best we could as quickly as we could and it didn't come off as I'd hoped. But it was still a fun film and we enjoyed making it."[1]

It was shot at Twickenham Studios and on location around London. The film's sets were designed by the art director Lionel Couch.

Cast

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Also known as

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  • The Big Scam
  • The Biggest Bank Robbery[2]
  • The Mayfair Bank Caper (video title)

References

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  1. ^ Collected Interviews: Voices from Twentieth-century Cinema by Wheeler W. Dixon, Southern Illinois University Press, 2001, p.113
  2. ^ "The Biggest Bank Robbery (1980)". BFI. Archived from the original on 3 November 2017.
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