|
| “ | Shut up! | „ |
| ~ Edward Pierce's most famous quote. |
| “ | Well done, and thank you, gentlemen. Damned thieves, they're everywhere. | „ |
| ~ Pierce putting up an act. |
| “ | You say you're the fastest, bloody best screwsman in the country, hmm? Well, here's a fitting challenge! | „ |
| ~ Pierce arguing with Agar. |
| “ | There's a finny in your pocket. You're sweating. If you've turned nose on me, I'll see you in lavender. | „ |
| ~ Pierce threatening to kill Clean Willy if he has betrayed him. |
| “ | What the hell are you waiting for?! | „ |
| ~ Edward Pierce's last words as he makes his great escape with Robert Agar. |
Edward Pierce is the villainous main protagonist of the 1978 British heist comedy film, The Great Train Robbery. While seemingly a member of London's high society, he is secretly a master thief who plans to steal a monthly shipment of gold from a moving train.
He was portrayed by the late Sean Connery, who also played Macbeth in Macbeth, Anthony Richmond in Woman of Straw, and Sir August De Wynter in The Avengers.
Personality[]
Though a thief, Edward Pierce appears to be a rather nice, kind, charming, sophisticated, generous, and polite gentleman towards his friends including the ones he barely enjoys spending company like his fellow club members of London's high society including the bank manager, Henry Fowler, whether a façade or not.
However, Pierce doesn't take kindly to insults, criticism, whining, and complaining from others whenever he has a new plan which barely succeeds with merely positive results and will not hesitate to resort to violence or threaten to kill anyone who ironically tries to rob him or even betray him the same way Clean Willy did to save his own skin after being arrested by the police for pick-pocketing, which eventually led to the latter's murder in the end.
Biography[]
In the year 1855, once a month, English troops are paid £25,000 in gold that is loaded into strongboxes inside the London Bank of Huddleston and Bradford and taken by trusted armed guards to the railway station where it is loaded into the luggage van of the Folkestone train for shipment to the coast from there to the Crimea where England and France are at war with Russia and placed in two Chubb safes fitted with two locks that require two or four keys altogether: the first key entrusted to Edgar Trent the bank president, the second to Henry Fowler the bank manager, and the last two to the railway dispatcher who keeps them locked in his office.
Naturally, like all criminals, Edward Pierce is interested and plans on stealing the next shipment of gold even though it has never been done before; especially, from a moving train. His first attempt to steal it unsurprisingly fails when an unknown thief he hired is killed after being thrown off the luggage van by Burgess the train guard. Slightly disappointed after checking on the thief's corpse, Edward rides off with his mistress, Miriam and chauffeur, Barlow while planning his next move. One night, as a member of London's high society, Pierce joins up with the rest of his fellow members including Henry Fowler himself at a club. From Fowler, he learns the location of the four keys needed to open the safes. After that, Pierce continues romancing Miriam.
A few days later, Pierce recruits the services of Robert Agar, known to be the best and fastest screwsman and pickpocket in the country. After watching Agar and his gang pull a simple but successful theft from a lady, Pierce compliments and hires Agar to help with making wax impressions of the four keys in order to hide their criminal intentions from anyone. For a start, Pierce along with Agar, Miriam, and Barlow decide to case Edgar Trent while examining his daily routines and finding out any possible weaknesses he may possess. Eventually, Pierce and his gang discover that Trent is secretly a ratting gentleman when they notice him taking one of his Terrier dogs, Lover out late one night. After an unsuccessful betting and ratting event, Pierce ingratiates himself with Trent by feigning a shared interest in ratting and later, begins courting Trent's tedious daughter, Elizabeth continuously until he finally learns the location of her father's key from her during a horseback ride despite Edgar's second wife, Emily's suspicions of him.
One night, while Elizabeth and her stepmother are playing the pianos and Miriam and Barlow distract the family's butler, John, both Pierce and Agar sneak into the house inconspicuously and straight into the wine cellar where the key is hidden. Despite unintentionally making noise when opening the cellar door, Agar's loud sneezing, and a close call with the butler sent down by Emily to investigate, Pierce and Agar manage to locate the key and make their first wax impression before placing it back to its original position and sneaking back out.
Next, Pierce focuses on his next target, Fowler who is secretly known to have a weakness for women; especially, prostitutes. So, Pierce has Miriam pose as a French prostitute named Madame Lucienne and sets Fowler up with her at night despite Miriam's obvious disgust and reluctance. At an exclusive bordello, Pierce has Agar, disguised as a gay servant, show Fowler to "Lucienne"'s room. After "Lucienne" distracts Fowler by making him undress himself including removing his own key and Agar manages to make a wax impression of it, Pierce stages a phony police raid to rescue Miriam from an attempted rape and apparently, Fowler from a supposed scandal.
With the first two key impressions successfully made, the next job proves a bit more dicey and a much harder challenge due to the keys being heavily guarded by "crushers" (policemen) inside the railway office daily. After arguing with Agar, Pierce stages a daytime diversionary tactic with a child pickpocket whom he claims to be Agar's own son according to the latter's old lover, Louisa (having been paid a guinea for it) and Barlow posing as the arresting officer. Nevertheless, that plan fails since Agar cannot wax them in the time available, so, Pierce decides to "crack the crib" at night. However, the operation proves to be a matter of timing because the officer guarding the railway office at night leaves his post only once, for 75 seconds maximum, to go to the toilet. Remembering a skylight on the office's ceiling, Pierce plans to use William Williams a.k.a. Clean Willy the best "snakesman" (cat burglar) in the world to climb the station's wall, climb down into the station, enter the office via a skylight in the ceiling, and open the key cabinet from within, but because Clean Willy is incarcerated at Newgate Prison, Pierce and Agar first have to arrange for him to break out.
One night, Pierce goes to see Clean Willy's old prostitute lover, Maggie at her place. On the way, Pierce fights off three muggers trying to rob him before threatening to use his sword (hidden inside his cane) against them and scare them off. At Maggie's place, Pierce pays her for information about her lover whom she visits as his "sister" regularly and promises her more money if she can give him a message about escaping while using the next public execution as a distraction and going to the house where he first met "John Simms" afterwards.
After Clean Willy's successful but painful escape from Newgate during the next public execution, Pierce and Agar begin training for the latter to break the 75 seconds limit. When Agar has finally broken the time limit, Pierce initiates his night plan at the railway station. After a close call with an opening office door unlocked by Clean Willy and the guard goes to relieve himself, both Pierce and Clean Willy begin timing and counting to 75 as Agar quickly runs, enters the office, and starts making the last two impressions just before the guard returns.
With all four key impressions having finally been made, Pierce pays Clean Willy for his services before parting ways. After romancing Miriam again, Pierce has Burgess the train guard meet him at a cemetery late at night under the alias, Mr. Simms where he asks the latter about the railway line and bribes him with 100 quid to aid them with the job that is to take place the following day. Unfortunately, the shipment hasn't arrived the next day, so, Pierce and his gang decide to wait until next week for the next shipment as he loads four bags full of lead bars while going over the plan. Then, Pierce reveals that he intends to take Miriam with him to Paris after the robbery, but Miriam suspects something might go wrong; much to Pierce's confusion.
Miriam's suspicions are proven correct when, as it turns out, Clean Willy has been arrested for pick-pocketing and informs the police on Pierce. Pierce begins to suspect Clean Willy has betrayed him when he receives a letter to meet the latter at Palace-Sydenham and asked for more money, but Clean Willy denies otherwise. Nevertheless, Pierce doesn't leave without paying and threatening to kill Clean Willy if he has turned traitor on him at the same time. Thanks to Agar keeping a lookout, Pierce manages to elude capture despite a delay due to Emily and Elizabeth's sudden presence, thus, confirming Pierce's suspicions whereas Clean Willy escapes as well after being spotted by Agar. However, it doesn't long for Pierce to track the turncoat down before giving chase the next day. Under Pierce's orders, Barlow murders Clean Willy.
The police, now aware that a robbery is imminent, increase security by having the baggage car padlocked from the outside until the train arrives at its destination and forbidding anyone but Burgess to travel in the baggage van. Any container large enough to hold a man must be opened and inspected before it is loaded on the train. So, Pierce decides to have Agar pose as a corpse with a smelly, rotten, dead cat and smuggle him in a coffin onboard with Miriam posing as the "deceased"'s "sister". After Miriam and Agar put up a convincing act to allow the railway dispatcher and guards to load the coffin into the luggage van, Pierce and Miriam make their way to their to their compartment, only to find Henry Fowler traveling in the same train as well. So, Pierce reintroduces Miriam as "Miss Brigitte Lawson" to Fowler and has them traveling in the same compartment to keep Fowler distracted while he travels in another compartment alone.
During the journey to Folkestone, Pierce changes outfits, climbs up on top of the train cart, and makes his way to the luggage van while avoiding slipping and hitting bridges on the way. Once Pierce opens the door from the outside and enters it using a rope held by Agar (who managed to load the gold into four bags and replace it with lead bars in the safes) and Burgess, Agar points out to Pierce that he is all covered in soot (both skin and clothes) from the train engine's smoke. So, Pierce forces Agar to take off his clothes since the former hadn't brought an extra change of clothing despite the clothes being much too small and smelly for him; much to the latter's reluctance and embarrassment. Then, Pierce and Agar toss the bags of gold off the train at a prearranged point where Barlow is waiting for them.
Later, Pierce barely makes it back to his compartment unnoticed before the train reaches Ashford where he begins to clean himself up and dress up in Agar's former clothes. However, once at Folkestone, the jacket splits across the back when Pierce disembarks from the train. When his split jacket is noticed by Inspector Sharp, Pierce suddenly finds himself arrested under suspicion just before he can rejoin his accomplices.
A few days later, Pierce is put on trial where he eventually makes a mockery when he finally responds: "I wanted the money." when asked by the judge about why he did it in the first place, which earns him a 20-year life sentence. While exiting the courthouse, Pierce surprisingly receives an adulation of the crowd, who consider him more of a folk hero than a criminal for his daring act. During the commotion, a disguised Miriam kisses Pierce, slipping a key to his handcuffs from her mouth to his. Before he can be put into the wagon, Pierce frees himself and escapes with Agar, disguised as a police van driver; much to the jubilation of the crowd and the chagrin of the police.