Cash on Demand is a 1961 British black and white neo noir crime thriller film directed by Quentin Lawrence and starring Peter Cushing and André Morell.
Harry Fordyce (Cushing), an unpopular provincial bank manager, is held up in his own office by Colonel Gore Hepburn (Morell); a robber posing as an insurance company investigator. With his wife and child held as hostages, he promises not to inform the police but discovers that Pearson (Richard Vernon), the chief clerk, has already done so. Fordyce pleads with his staff who agree to say that there has been a mistake.
Tropes on Demand:
- Acting Unnatural: Told to mop his brow in the window as a signal to someone watching the bank from across the street, Fordyce does so in an extremely exaggerated and affected way that immediately attracts the attention and suspicion of his chief clerk Pearson.
- Actor Allusion: In the scene with the suitcases in front of the vault while they discuss packing and settling on one place, Peter Cushing comments to Andre Morrell "the air on Dartmoor is very bracing I believe". Two years earlier, Cushing and Morrell had starred as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in the 1959 film version of The Hound of the Baskervilles, which is set on Dartmoor.
- Affably Evil: Colonel Hepburn is a friendly and amiable man. When he visits a bank, he is more friendly to the employees, and knows more about them personally, than the bank manager does. The reason he's visiting the bank is to rob it.
- Bad Santa: The charity Father Christmas stationed outside the bank is actually Colonel Gore Hepburn's accomplice in robbing the bank: having been keeping Fordyce and the bank under observation.
- Bank Robbery: A charming but ruthless criminal holds the family of a bank manager hostage as part of a cold-blooded plan to steal 97,000 pounds.
- Building of Adventure: The entire film takes place inside the Haversham branch of the City and Colonial Bank.
- Clock King: Colonel Gore Hepburn has his bank robbery planned almost down to the second; even asking Fordyce the time as he is about to make his getaway, and then angrily demanding to know the exact time when Fordyce says it is 'about' twenty to eleven.
- Dangerous Key Fumble: Fordyce fumbles desperately with the vault keys as he attempts to open the vault so he can close the inner door before it triggers the external alarm.
- Dramatic Drop: Fordyce drops the glass of whiskey he is holding when Det. Sgt. Collins opens the door to his office and Colonel Gore Hepburn steps back through.
- Establishing Character Moment: Within moments of entering the bank, Harry Fordyce is established as the Mean Boss when he he tells elderly secretary Miss Pringle to take the Christmas cards off her desk, as the bank is a place of business and not a place for her to flaunt her popularity.
- Electric Torture: Hepburn tells Fordyce that his wife has electrodes attached to her head, and hints at the agony she will suffer if Fordyce fails to follow his instructions.
- I Have Your Wife: Colonel Hepburn holds the family of bank manager Fordyce hostage as part of a cold-blooded plan to steal 97,000 pounds.
- Mean Boss: Bank manager Harry Fordyce is a cold, officious man who has previously threatened his head clerk, Pearson, with dismissal for a misdemeanour, despite the fact that this would end Pearson's career. In his Establishing Character Moment, he tells elderly secretary Miss Pringle to take the Christmas cards off her desk, as the bank is a place of business and not a place for her to flaunt her popularity.
- Not Now, Kiddo: Colonel Gore Hepburn is a bank robber posing as an insurance company investigator. As he is preparing to leave the bank, he airily tells the chief clerk Pearson that in future he should call the head office verify the identity of anyone claiming to be from the insurance company as it is company policy. Pearson starts to reply, but Hepburn cuts him off and leaves. What Pearson had been trying to say was he had phoned the head office and discovered that Hepburn was an imposter. The next time we see Hepburn, he is in handcuffs.
- Real Time: The film unfolds in real time: covering the approximately 90 minutes following the opening on the bank on Dec. 23.
- Twisted Christmas: Takes place on December 23, and features charming but ruthless criminal Colonel Gore Hepburn holding hostage the wife and son of bank manager Harry Fordyce to force Fordyce into heping him rob the bank.
