When Alan Bates and Faye Dunaway rob the gold bullion coach, have a look at the bit where the guard goes to investigate the overturned coach on the bridge. He gets chinned by the lurking Bates then goes to extraordinary lengths to make sure he falls into the water....made me chuckle.
Otherwise, this is no classic but 2.8 out of ten seems a bit harsh. It has its moments, and the cast is great, so I'd give it 5.
AndyG
That stunt was a little obvious.
I will not do more than mention that most people would find it VERY difficult to lift a gold bar with one hand at arms length, but that is a small point.
I recently viewed the BluRay version, and noticed another "problem" in a stunt as well.
Remember the guy juggling three fire sticks? The first time (I belive) he appears, he has actually set his coat on fire! For whatever reason (not shown) he has mostly grabbed all three burning torches against himself, with the flaming head of one against his coat. As he starts up juggling, you can see that his coat (on his right side) has flames coming from it! (Note that if you don't have "quick eyes", you may need to use the slow motion feature.) The juggler was shown several more times, but only in the background, and no scorch/burn marks could be seen on the coat. Hmmm.
I have seen fire jugglers in person before, and I can say the heads of the torches are burning a flammable liquid (probably some form of alcohol, possibly rubbing alcohol/methyl). During performances, occasionally some flaming liquid is thrown off a torch, indicating there may have been too much applied to a torch... Beware, and don't get too close to the performer(s).
Come to think of it, there was another obvious glitch in the whip fight, (beyond their 'fly fishing' motion instead of an authentic whip motion).
The first time Lady Skelton's whip strikes Sirtis's character across the back, it is obvious the whip was coated with fake blood because it only contacts her dress, but leaves a red (simulated blood) mark across it. If you watch, you can also see Sirtis's character is only striking Lady Skelton's dress, nearly always below the waist, on her puffy skirt/dress. I might be mistaken, but there were several occasions when Sirtis was 'whipping' Lady Skelton, and didn't seem to have a whip in her hand! (That might have been a safety/insurance consideration since Faye Dunway was a big star at the time...)
In general, the makeup work of the whip welts and cuts was not 'top shelf' work, and that may have been due to the BluRay version making it easier to notice than in a movie theater.
And BTW, Lady Skelton's whip was not a buggy/carriage whip, but much more like a bull whip with a thick, short handle (about one foot long) and thick whip. The one thrown from the coach to Sirtis was much thinner, and had a much thinner long handle, about 4 feet (more than one meter), with a thin whip.
Why were things like this in this movie?
Remember the movie was made with film that had to be developed, and both the whip fight and the celebration (with the juggler) used many extras. While the exposed film is typically developed the same day, paying that many extras to be around for many takes, and using a lot of film would be expensive. The glitches probably would not have been noticed until the "dailies" were reviewed at the end of the day, and the actors had gone home. The stunt man going over the side of the bridge and into the water may have been a one-take stunt in the shooting schedule.
And there was no such a thing as 'photoshop' to clean up the footage back then, with CGI.