Armored Car Robbery

Moviecut—Armored Car Robbery

A nice surprise. I picked this mainly for the title and the guide I use had only given it one star. I don't know what movie they watched as this one was good one. William Talman was perfect as the brains behind the robbery. I thought his character was particularly brutal for the time and his fate is rather appropriate. The only false note was Charles McGraw; his tough guy act and dialogue seemed too over the top. Interesting to note that this movie was what the wannabe crooks watched in "Palookaville".

Spoilers. I kept waiting for a relatively dull, talky sequence so I could leave the room for a moment but never had the opportunity. The whole story of the planning, execution, double crosses, and unraveling by the police of the armored car robbery is squeezed into one hour and seven minutes. The narrative is simplicity itself. Four guys get together under the leadership of Purvis (William Tallman, the guy who played Hamilton Burgerbits on the Perry Mason TV show). The robbery is carried out amidst a cloud of gas with the perps wearing gas masks, out of an earlier movie, "Cross Cross" I think it was. One of the policemen is shot and killed, giving Charles McGraw a revenge motive for catching these guys. A perp is also seriously wounded and his partners shoot him at the hideout. The other three perps are tracked down one by one and either captured or killed. A rookie cop wins his spurs. The final shoot out takes place at an airport, a suitcase holding the booty bangs open when dropped and bills scatter in the wash of the airplane propellors, another familiar scene, at least for Kubrick fans. There really isn't much to say about this RKO production. Everything is studio-level competent, including the stark black and white photography. The dialogue is dated and amusing and fun to listen to. The suspects are reported as driving not a "Ford" or "Pontiac" but a "black sedan" or a "car, standard make." (You couldn't mention brand names.) Adele Jurgens is a "show girl" who is supposed to be a burlesque dancer. You ought to see her performance. She's dressed from head to toe, bounces onstage and wiggles her shoulders a few times to honky tonk music, and the crowd goes absolutely ape. Oh, that naughty white boa! (The score, by the way, is probably the weakest part of this work.) Men begin sentences with, "Say,....". It's all stark and economical. It was directed by Richard Fleischer but it could have been anyone. There are no oustanding set pieces, no unusual camera shots, no special effects, no ironic wisecracks, no individualizing quirks, no character development, no hidden philosophical themes. It's pulp all the way. The story could have been lifted from any twenty-five-cent paperback like "True Detective" or from one of the radio programs popular at the time, like "Bulldog Drummond" or "Gangbusters." It aims to do nothing more than what it does: keep you in your seat waiting to see what will develop next, and, if you don't have a more than usually urgent reason to leave the room, it will probably do that.

Director Richard Fleischer was responsible for two of the best of the low-budget '50s cops-n-robbers flicks, both notable for starring Charles McGraw, one of the great movie bad guys, as a tough detective. One, "The Narrow Margin," is quite well known; this is the other one, and while not as well known, it certainly should be. The story is about a vicious gang of robbers, headed by a murderous psychopath (William Talman, who seemed to have a corner on that market in the '50s), pulls off an armored car robbery that goes awry. Detective McGraw is out to track down the gang. The film is a textbook example of the best of the B movie--swiftly paced, tightly edited, with a good story and a cast of veteran character actors that work together like a well-oiled machine. Some clever plot twists and startling (for the time) violence make this one a keeper. Very highly recommended.

Another trim, spare RKO crime quickie from the 1950's. The set up is mechanical and the plot rather pedestrian, but it has that funky flavoring you often get when character actors are given the chance to play leads. It also scores points for showing the nuances of police work in a credible "Ahhh, so that's how it works" manner. Charles McGraw, William Talman, Don McGuire and Steve Brodie aren't exactly household names; however they, particularly McGraw and Brodie, made a career out of these kinds of un-ambitious but competent enough flicks. And Talman (sort of a skid row Peter O'Toole facially) as the ultra-careful mastermind of the job, sure does make quite a nasty villain - just as he also did in another cult item from around this time "The Hitch-hiker". A sub-plot of McGraw's new partner (McGuire) trying to prove himself worthy falls flat, partially because McGuire is an unremarkable screen presence but also due to a slightly too short running time. You watch movies like these for the tight dialogue and this one has some good zingers, but at times you can also see it lapsing into self-parody, signaling the genre's imminent demise.

This exciting low budget heist thriller with its themes of greed, betrayal and revenge packs so much pace, punch and power into its relatively short running time that it's impossible not to get caught up in the action right from the start. The events on screen unfold with great speed and clarity and feature shoot-outs and chases as well as passages where things get very tense. Its story of a well planned heist that goes wrong is exceptionally well written, often violent and has a very memorable denouement. The movie was shot in typical docu-noir style featuring both brightly lit scenes and ones where expressionistic lighting is used to good effect. A great deal of the action is set in various actual locations in Los Angeles and this adds considerable authenticity and interest to the whole undertaking. The predominantly straightforward style of direction used by Richard Fleischer is ideal for this hard-hitting drama and good use is also made of high camera angles in some scenes. Sharply dressed criminal Dave Purvis (William Talman) has previously prospered through being utterly ruthless, extremely careful in all that he does and very meticulous in how he plans jobs. He regularly covers his tracks by changing his name frequently, never staying in one place too long and exercising great caution to ensure that nothing is ever written down which could potentially be used as evidence against him. Having arrived in L.A. he devises a plan to rob an armoured car outside a baseball stadium and in preparation, anonymously calls the police on a number of occasions and reports that a robbery is taking place so that he can record the various response times with the aid of his stopwatch. Benny McBride (Douglas Fowley) runs a local theatre and Purvis invites him to take part in the heist. McBride agrees without hesitation because he wants the money to win over his estranged wife, Yvonne LeDoux (Adele Jergens) who's an avaricious burlesque dancer who's also secretly having an affair with Purvis. McBride brings in two other men and the gang go ahead with the heist as planned. A problem arises for the gang after they break into the armoured vehicle and the alarm is raised, because a police patrol car already in the area responds and arrives on the scene much sooner than expected. The two police officers, Lieutenant Jim Cordell (Charles McGraw) and his partner Lieutenant Phillips (James Flavin) immediately find themselves involved in a shoot-out and both men are seriously injured before the gang make their getaway with the loot. In the period that follows, the gang's unity gets undermined by conflict and suspicion before Purvis attempts to double cross the other men and escape with all the proceeds of the heist. Lieutenant Phillips dies from his injury and Cordell, together with his new partner Detective Danny Ryan (Don McGuire) make use of a number of different methods to track down Purvis and his gang. Cordell's determination to avenge the death of his partner is intense and he remains incredibly driven in his mission right up until the story's impressive and well-choreographed conclusion. Charles McGraw as the tough cop and William Talman as the totally untrustworthy gang leader are excellent and Adele Jergens is also very good as the femme fatale who's only interested in money.

BBC2 often show these sort of movies either in the daytime or in the early hours. Armoured Car Robbery came on one afternoon so I set the video and was pleased I did. A gang decides to rob an armoured car and when doing so, this results in a policeman being killed and one of the robbers injured and is shot dead later by one of the other robbers after getting a little touchy. The remaining robbers go on the run and end up hiding in a hut somewhere in LA docks, after passing through an oil field. The police are closing in on them all the while and are caught or killed at the end. The location photography in this movie is done well, especially the oil field sequence with the "nodding donkeys". The cast includes Charles McGraw, B movie regular Adele Jergens (The Day the World Ended), Steve Brodie, Gene Evans and William Talman. Watching Armoured Car Robbery is a good way to spend just over an hour one afternoon or evening. Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

One thing I'd like to say about this 1950 film noir is that it is this first film that comes to mind when I think of a programmer. The plot concerns, well, an armored car robbery. I probably don't need to mention that it soon goes bad when a cop ends up dead. Looking for social message? Try this one: Because one cop gets killed, a bunch of people have got to be killed also? Yeah, a bunch of people do get killed in this one. Well balanced amount of style here. To be quite frank, I would enjoy going to the theater today to see a quickie like this (under 70 minutes) if it was as well made as this. Solid.

By all odds the best B noir I've seen, and I've seen a number of them. William Talman and Charles McGraw are both outstanding as always, and though it may verge on the heretical, I have to say that I prefer Armored Car Robbery to the same director's justly-famous The Narrow Margin, also starring McGraw. About as tough as they come, and all wrapped up in under 70 minutes. Be on the lookout for this to turn up on cable(TCM or AMC), and don't miss it when it does!

Richard Fleischer could get more out of a small budget than any director could in the 1950's. His string of 50's 'B' films-noir are legendary to any film noir fanatic. This film is short and quick-paced. You'll have to watch and not blink or the movie's gone. Do yourself a favor and grab some cigarettes and a beer and sit down and catch this one the next time it's on; it's an extremely brisk, tight and taut thriller. There are no holes. Charles McGraw - who looks amazingly like Dick Tracy would if Dick were a real guy, is tough and solid as usual. I would have hated to meet McGraw in an alley back in the day! I can't wait for the DVD...