Zbrodniarz i panna (1963) User Reviews

A Holiday for Cinderella

[Ninochka · 8/10 · 13 April 2008]

"Zbrodniarz i panna" is a good and very entertaining crime story. A modest and plain young woman, Małgorzata Makowska, leads a very boring life as a cashier. One day a robber riddles her bank car with bullets, kills driver and two security guards and takes the money. The police finds out that the stolen banknotes are being spent at a fashionable spa resort. The only way to find the criminal is to favour Małgorzata with a seaside holiday in the company of a handsome Captain (Zbigniew Cybulski) as her "brother"...

The story-writer "Joe Alex" (his real name is Maciej Słomczyński) published the novel on which this movie is based, as Kazimierz Kwaśniewski. Well, this is not actually a spoiler, but in other Kwaśniewski novels Małgorzata and Captain Ziętek are husband and wife! The Russian title for this movie is "Девушка из банка" (The Girl from the Bank).

Interesting 'small' thriller

[efffigie · 7/10 · 5 June 2017]

First of all, I watched it in Polish, which I don't understand well, so my comprehension of the dialogue is about 50%. I don't know if it's ever had subtitles in another language. However, the opening scenes don't require knowledge of any language, and are what hooked me: the robbery scene is very atmospheric and shockingly violent.

This is a clever and entertaining thriller about a plain-Jane bank clerk who, after surviving an incredibly vicious cash-transport robbery (the driver and police escort are machine-gunned to death, and she is left for dead in the back seat, unconscious), is chosen to get all dolled-up in a Hollywood-worthy makeover, and attend a swanky resort where the robber/killer is suspected to be. Oh, and she's accompanied by a handsome heartthrob undercover cop posing as her brother.

That's the kind of funny part, as my language skills are such that I had trouble figuring out what exactly was going on, and I had to rewind a couple of times to realize it was the same actress! She was almost unrecognizable.

It's fun material, although the violence is really tough, which may or not be a plus for some viewers. Very much worth watching. It's one of those 'small' movies that seem to kind of get lost, and it deserves a much better fate than that.