Leeds nostalgia: YFA film shows staged burglary in progress

It is a film made by the Sheffield Photo Company - an example of a trick film involving two robbers who are being pursued by policemen.

The film begins as two robbers clamber over a wall. Trees are in the background. They climb over a wall next to a house with boarded-up windows, which they fail to open. One climbs on the back of the other, gets down, then both try to jump up. One robber leaps up to the window, forces it open and a bag is thrown up to him. He climbs in and the second robber leaps up to the window and climbs in.

Two policemen scale the wall. The policemen point up at the window, walk out of shot and return with a ladder. One slides up it, followed by the second. Each policeman wrestles with one of the robbers, rolling up the slope of the roof of the house and over the edge. One robber, chased by a policeman, runs down the roof and fires a gun. The second robber follows pursued by the policeman. The four are seen from above climbing down a drainpipe, head first.

They even get away in a horse and cab - it’s breaktaking stuff.

http://www.yorkshirefilmarchive.com/film/eccentric-burglary?destination=search%2Fapachesolr_search%2Fspace%3Ffilters%3Dtype%253Ayfa_film%2520bs_cck_field_videola_video%253A1%26highlight%3Dspace%26mode%3Dquick%26solrsort%3Dscore%2520desc%252C%2520sis_cck_field_film_id%2520asc&highlight=space#sthash.WmV1EKgY.dpuf