Calculated Risk
This film was shot during the notorious "Big Freeze of 1963" which began in December 1962, with snow falling or remaining on the ground until March 1963; temperatures were the coldest on record since 1683 and rivers and lakes froze over. Travel by road or rail was made very difficult and many rural places were cut off at times. Deep snow is seen in all the exterior shots of the film and it features in the storyline.,Low-budget thriller has THE BREAK baddie and overall regular British New Wave actor William Lucas in CALCULATED RISK, a hybrid of THE ASPHALT JUNGLE as a newly-released older short guy has big plans for a big heist (John Rutland doing Sam Jaffe) and LARCENY INC since they must dig through a pair of locations to reach the targeted goal...

Which aren't stores but bombed-out houses from twenty-years past, leading to a lucrative bank vault while Lucas, as a sophisticated yet crooked businessman (like ASPHALT backer Louis Calhern), who really doesn't need the bread (unlike Calhern and more like shifty Marc Lawrence), heads up a group of thugs resembling dockyard barflies...

Yet for two-way eye-candy's sake, the tallest, most handsome (Terence Cooper as the Sterling Hayden muscle type) has a quick hookup with adorable local girl-next-door Dilys Watling...

Also peripheral is Warren Mitchell, stealing his one scene providing random exposition and, within the main gang's heavy-lifting phase, not much happens to distinguish each crook's role in the task (except that the initial idea-man's health has him sit it out)...

Instead what's really important is historic i.e. WHEN the heist takes place...

During England's infamous Winter of/Big Freeze of 1963, where CALCULATED composer George Martin (just starting work with The Beatles) makes ample use of an icy-sounding harpsichord...

And while the Noirish atmosphere is palpably bleak for the location it's not quite claustrophobic or suspenseful enough for the crime...

Which ultimately includes an actual buried buzz-bomb that may be active, and there's very little time left before... the movie's run-time is up because, after all, this RISK is merely a programmer.,