The Gentleman Bandit | |
---|---|
Written by | Milan Stitt |
Directed by | Jonathan Kaplan |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Producer | John E. Quill |
Production company | Highgate Pictures |
Budget | $2 million [1] |
Original release | |
Release | 6 May 1981 |
The Gentleman Bandit is a 1981 TV movie directed by Jonathan Kaplan and starring Ralph Waite. [2] It is based on the real story of Reverend Bernard Thomas Pagano.
A priest is accused of armed robbery by various eyewitnesses.
Until the eve of the first screening, [3] the working title for the film was The Bandit Priest. [4] [5]
The film was based on a true story of the Reverend Bernard Thomas Pagano [6] who was arrested in 1979 for five armed robberies and one attempted robberies. Eventually another man, Ronald W. Clouser, confessed to the crimes. [7] [8]
Writer Milan Stitt spent a week interviewing Pagano, his attorney, friends and parishioners in December 1979. He wrote the script in four days. [1] Pagano, a native of Newark, New Jersey, served five years as a chaplain at the VA hospital in Lyons and East Orange in the 1990s, according to Tom Malek-Jones, the chief chaplain for the facility. [9] Pagano, himself a veteran of the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, was considered "a valuable asset for his work with veterans of that era and did not seem like a robber", Malek-Jones said. [9]
Filming took place in New York City and Westchester County. [10] It began on 19 January 1981. Pagano himself acted as technical advisor on the film. [1]
Albert Spaggiari, nicknamed Bert, was a French criminal chiefly known as the organizer of a break-in into a Société Générale bank in Nice, France, in July 1976 that resulted in the theft of an estimated 46 million francs, none of which were ever found.
A gentleman thief, gentleman burglar, lady thief, or phantom thief is a stock character in fiction. A gentleman or lady thief is characterised by impeccable manners, charm, courtesy, and the avoidance of physical force or intimidation to steal, and often has inherited wealth. They steal not only to gain material wealth but also for the thrill of the act itself, which is often combined in fiction with correcting a moral wrong, selecting wealthy targets, or stealing only particularly rare or challenging objects.
A highwayman was a robber who stole from travellers. This type of thief usually travelled and robbed by horse as compared to a footpad who travelled and robbed on foot; mounted highwaymen were widely considered to be socially superior to footpads. Such criminals operated until the mid- or late 19th century. Highwaywomen, such as Katherine Ferrers, were said to also exist, often dressing as men, especially in fiction.
Monsignor is a form of address or title for certain members of the clergy in the Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian monsignore, meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" can be abbreviated as Mons. or Msgr. In some countries, the title "monsignor" is used as a form of address for bishops. However, in English-speaking countries, the title is unrelated to the episcopacy, though many priests with the title later become bishops.
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Ralph Waite was an American actor, best known for his lead role as John Walton Sr. on The Waltons (1972–1981), which he occasionally directed. He later had recurring roles as two other heroic fathers; in NCIS as Jackson Gibbs, the father of Leroy Jethro Gibbs, and in Bones, as Seeley Booth's grandfather. Waite had supporting roles in movies such as Cool Hand Luke (1967), Five Easy Pieces (1970), The Grissom Gang (1971), The Bodyguard (1992), and Cliffhanger (1993).
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The National Philharmonic Orchestra was a British orchestra created exclusively for recording purposes. It was founded by RCA Records producer and conductor Charles Gerhardt and orchestra leader and contractor Sidney Sax. The orchestra was created partly due to the requirements of an extensive recording project for the Reader's Digest.
Michael Hubert Kenyon, also known as the "Illinois Enema Bandit", is an American criminal. He pleaded guilty to a decade-long series of armed robberies of female victims, some of which involved sexual assaults in which he would give them enemas. He is also known as the "Champaign Enema Bandit", the "Ski Masked Bandit", and/or simply the "Enema Bandit".
"Riot in Cell Block #9" is a R&B song composed by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in 1954. The song was first recorded by The Robins the same year. That recording was one of the first R&B hits to use sound effects and employed a Muddy Waters stop-time riff as the instrumental backing.
Matthew Mullineux MC was an English rugby union scrum-half who, although not capped for England, was selected for two British Lions tours. He gained one cap during the 1896 tour to South Africa and captained the 1899 tour of Australia. An Anglican minister, he later became a chaplain in the British Army, and was awarded the Military Cross for his actions during the First World War.
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