1980 heist movie..........???

[zombie no.one]

1980 or possibly 1979...near the start of the movie about 3 or 4 heists happen simultaneously in different countries... one of the heists happens in a casino. (it is possible that all of the heists are in casinos?)

I think it's an Italian movie, or possibly spanish, but the english title of it is one word long. it's a word like 'Outcasts' or 'Hostages' or something like that...( but apparently neither of those 2, from an imdb search...

 it may have more than one English title

edit, possible red herring but I'm also getting the word 'Makers' now... The Hostage Makers? something like that. (I guess Hostage Takers would make more sense, lol)

[Trevor]

There was a 1980 movie called The Hostage Tower based on a story by Alistair MacLean?

[zombie no.one]

heh, so there was...  but it's not that :( thanks anyway.

this one's a properly exploitation-like, badly dubbed crime type flick

[zombie no.one]

bah... I was convinced it had finally come to me , and that it was 'Panic Makers', but not so.

Scandal... Panic... Hostage.... Outcast..... all these words are whirling round. It was a word like those. the kind if word you'd see printed in all caps in a newspaper headline, to grab attention

[Alex]

Did some searching but couldn't find anything that jumped out at me as being what you are looking for. Hope you find it.

[zombie no.one]

appreciated... yeah this is really bugging me. :)

the most annoying thing is that I have been on this film's imdb page before. it had about 4 or 5 user reviews.

I thought the director might be Fernando Di Leo, but it's not... but it's someone a bit like that.

[alyxstarr]

Most of the details are slightly off from what you've described, but still a possibility: Black Jack, aka Panic at the Casino.

Spanish-British production. Rather than several simultaneous heists in different countries, it involves two near-simultaneous heists of the same casino; Peter Cushing masterminds the (failed) first attempt, and then the second group shows up and ends up taking hostages. (Including the film's director, who plays a singer and also apparently wears a Darth Vader costume at some point?)

(I haven't seen the movie, just basing this on descriptions at IMDb and Letterboxd.)

[zombie no.one]

Most of the details are slightly off from what you've described, but still a possibility: Black Jack, aka Panic at the Casino.

Spanish-British production. Rather than several simultaneous heists in different countries, it involves two near-simultaneous heists of the same casino; Peter Cushing masterminds the (failed) first attempt, and then the second group shows up and ends up taking hostages. (Including the film's director, who plays a singer and also apparently wears a Darth Vader costume at some point?)

(I haven't seen the movie, just basing this on descriptions at IMDb and Letterboxd.)

sorry only just seen your reply. thanks so much for digging around, but unfortunately this isn't it :(.. despite being so close to what I described, in many ways!

someone's uploaded this film onto youtube and I've just watched a bit... it's definitely not the one I'm looking for, but thanks again anyway

[zombie no.one]

well that spurred me onto another search, and I've found it  

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0080710/?ref_=m_tt_urv

 it is called PANIC MAKERS, (aka HOSTAGES aka UNDER SIEGE), but somehow imdb search doesn't want to know about any of that... original title is, I guess ' Panic Makers' in spanish?

description:
A group of criminals commit several simultaneous robberies in different casinos.

can't believe it took me this long...

[zombie no.one]

bah... I was convinced it had finally come to me , and that it was 'Panic Makers', but not so.

haha I totally had it as well.... doh