John Quested directs Albert Finney, Martin Sheen and Susannah York in this heist drama where an honest architect is drawn into a major crime by a career thief.

Very difficult to recommend Loophole. The plotting is standard stuff. The production values workmanlike. Just when the big job reaches its cliffhanger finale, it ends abruptly, leaping forward in time to show us how where the leads ended up, frustratingly not how they got there. Yet it is strangely entrancing. The location shoot has a similar lost, yet ghostly familiar, London vibe as The Long Good Friday. And the two stars, while unstretched by their stock, one note roles, have a lovely chemistry. Both Finney and Sheen never really felt like Hollywood actors, so watching the movie outsiders play off each other has a sweet harmony, making something out of nothing.

5