Kansas City Confidential Review

Kansas City Confidential (1952)

 A film noir classic, Kansas City Confidential tells the true story of a heist that was never solved. The robbers get away with  million two hundred thousand dollars in the armored car heist that cleverly used a floral delivery man as a patsy.

Joe Rolfe (John Payne) is the delivery man and the mastermind (Preston Foster) had observed him coming promptly every morning at 10 sharp to the flower shop next to the bank. Then the armored car arrived a couple minutes later and then both trucks left within minutes. After checking this routine over and over, the gang leader hired three thugs to pull off the robbery.

They had a duplicate flower van made up and it slipped in just after Payne’s van departed. They slugged the armored car guards and grabbed the money and ran. To all appearances, it was the same van. Then the police knew just who to look for. They roughed him up pretty good during the interrogation. But when they found the duplicate flower van, they had to release Payne, who goes out bent on revenge.

This little story, by Rowland Brown, has a couple of nice twists and is exceptional. The way the mastermind planned the robbery was one thing; Secondly, the way he recruited his gang was another; and what a gang it was - Lee Van Cleef, Jack Elam, and Neville Brand - three cowboy stars. Foster had them all wear masks - neither had met the other  except with their faces hidden so nobody could squeal. So he thinks.

Foster refused to divvy up the score until the heat died down. He gave each man some clean loot and a ticket to a foreign country to wait until called to meet up for the split. Rolfe gets some help from an old army buddy and an underworld acquaintance that puts him on to one of the robbers. He tracks him down in Mexico…

When the robber is killed untimely; Payne assumes his identity and goes to the meet armed with the token that will identify him. He meets a nice young lady (Colleen Gray) on the way down, who happens to play an integral part in the story’s denouement. No, I’m not going to spoil it for you - you’ll have to see it yourself.

John Payne was right on the money in his performance here. With his everyman face and solid good looks he made a perfect protagonist for Kansas City Confidential. The way he romances Colleen Gray while avoiding the guns of his “partners” is quite a balancing act. Payne didn’t get all the breaks in his acting career but here he shines like a diamond.

Lee Van Cleef needs no introduction - he is one of the ugliest characters to ever stride across the boards, but in this one he is dapper and a real lady killer. Of course Jack Elam, with his out of synch eyes is such a popular character in westerns, almost everybody will recognize him; and Neville Brand while a fine movie actor, made his indelible mark on TV‘s Laredo. Preston Foster also plays a key role in this well paced, dark crime drama.

Phil Karlson, the director, spent his career on the B pictures churned out by studios like Republic and Eagle-Lion. Kansas City Confidential was probably the best movie he directed. The one disappointment is the weakened ending after such a fine build up - particularly the wonderful beginning. The ending probably a studio decision to make it more commercial. But it is still worth four stars.

The DVD is by Alpha Video, one of the companies that publishes public domain content. The movie is in black and white, runs 98 minutes, and is in standard 1.33:1 theatrical format. Any film noir buff will love this!