"Never...until now!"

April 7, 2019 8:38 PM

I was rewatching Bob le Flambeur (1956) this weekend (thanks, Kanopy!) and noticed an exchange early on, re the prestigious casino Bob is planning to rob, to the effect of: "But no one has ever even thought about [hitting this particular target]!" "Well, now someone has thought about it."

This is a common trope in heist films, brilliantly spun out by that flashback sequence in Ocean's 11 ("It's never been tried." "Oh, it's been tried..."). I'm beginning to wonder if Bob invented this trope. I know there are some heist-loving Mefites, so can anyone think of an earlier example of someone protesting that the proposed target of a heist is so invulnerable/powerful/well-connected as to just be unthinkable...until now? Note that I'm looking specifically for its occurrence in connection with some kind of robbery, scam, or other heist, not, for example, in connection with breaking into or out of a prison or assaulting a military position held by the enemy.

posted by praemunire to Media & Arts (2 answers total)

TVTropes asserts that The Asphalt Jungle (1950) essentially invented the entire heist/caper genre. I don't think it has an example of this particular trope (did a quick search of "nobody," "no one," "before," etc. in a script I found online), but given that Bob le Flambeur came out in 1955, that should help narrow your search.
posted by Rhaomi at 9:59 PM on April 7, 2019

It's not definitive, but Wikipedia lists They Met in Bombay (1941) as the first heist film, with The Asphalt Jungle (1950) next. But I don't think TMiB meets your criteria of "never been tried" so TAJ would be the first.
posted by ubiquity at 5:25 AM on April 8, 2019