Another fine performance from Connery in his attempt to move away from his cliched James Bond persona and expand on a wider variety of character roles.<br /><br />Based on a richly descriptive screenplay & textured direction, both by Critchton, we see Connery as a master criminal/gentleman attempt to steal gold from a moving train in Victorian England.<br /><br />Connery plays the role very much with a straight bat, perhaps a little too pompous & stiff but entertaining all the same.<br /><br />However, he is ably supported by fellow criminals Donald Sutherland (with a rather thick & unforgiving Cockney accent) and a rather angelic performance from Leley-Anne Down as Connery's love interest.<br /><br />Coupled with a some outstanding cinematography by Geff Unsworth, showing panoramic views of the English countryside, as well as superb set direction of a very realistic Victorian London, First Great Train Robbery is a treat to watch.<br /><br />Critchton's direction has never been better, although I feel the film is perhaps 10 or 15 minutes overlong. But he never lets the pace flounder, and neither does he let the Connery-Down love interest suffocate or distract from the overall plot.<br /><br />However, the characterisation for the main leads is a bit shallow & clumbsy. Connery is very much at home as Edward Pierce, the well respect city gent & playboy. In essence, not all that different from his James Bond character, although in this film he is given enough invention & ad-lib to make the character more rounded than the rather one-dimensional Bond.<br /><br />Sutherland, offers the comic-relief, the working-class foil to Connery's respected gent, and he plays it very well, apart from the rather hammy English accent.<br /><br />Obviously the most memorable scenes are with Connery risking his own life as he hops along the tops of carriages of a steam train as it winds its way through the English countryside on its way to Folkstone. I must admit to being totally gobsmacked at how close Connery was to being decapitated from those very low bridges the train went under. But I guess its testiment to Connery's great interest in the movie that he allowed himself to take on such risk.<br /><br />The ending is perhaps too contrived and perhaps blemishes the movie as a whole. But don't let this stop you. Overall, this is a fine film and a very funny film, and is definitely an under-rated Connery role that deserved more praise than it received on original release.<br /><br />****/*****