This is a brilliantly taut heist-gone-wrong noir-thriller that focuses on the impact of a armoured van robbery on all the people involved from the thieves, the guards on the money lorry through to the police and the wives of the various participants. The planning of the robbery, the conflicts within the gang, the betrayals and the ultimate tragedy of the whole thing are beautifully captured by George Baxt's script (from a novel by Derek Bickerton) and dynamically handled by director Sidney Hayers who injects plenty of pace and tension. The black and white cinematography by Ernest Steward is first class and really captures a gritty and authentic late fifties Newcastle - you can almost taste the dirty industrial atmosphere in Steward's hazy, smoggy location photography. The cast is excellent with Michael Craig in top class form as the smooth and suave but dangerously violent gang leader Johnny Mellors. Equally good is the beautiful French actress Françoise Prévost as Katie Pearson, the disappointed, embittered wife of the inside man, who sees a way out of her hum-drum existence by hooking up with Mellors. Also of note is Billie Whitelaw, the wife of the armoured van guard killed in the heist who has little faith in the abilities of the police and sets out to extract her own vengeance. All this makes for a fantastically exciting thriller than also brings plenty of noir-inflected cynicism and a feeling of impending doom. "Payroll" is an excellent, little known British heist thriller that deserves a much larger audience. ( )