Armored Car Robbery (1950)

wmcclain
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Armored Car Robbery (1950) Jun 26, 2020 11:30:33 GMT mattgarth, london777, and 3 more like this

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Post by wmcclain on Jun 26, 2020 11:30:33 GMT

Armored Car Robbery (1950), directed by Richard Fleischer.

I review this 67 minutes heist film because I am trying to see everything by director Fleischer. Like Robert Wise, he was a non-auteur director who worked in a variety of genres, always worth a look.

It is a fairly brutal, no honor among thieves crime story. I note how scary William Talman is as a villain, and how likable is Charles McGraw as a tough, unsentimental cop.

"Whoever was wearing this got plugged. Note the hole".

"I see it. I put it there".

"Hey, Lieutenant. You better take a look in here. Somebody lost a lot of blood".

"Not enough to suit me".

Notes:

We have shots of the LA Courthouse with trolley cars on the street.
I did not know there was a Wrigley Field in LA. Demolished in 1969.
The police have a hard-working one-man forensics department in a tiny office.

Available on DVD.

Capsule film reviews: Strange Picture Scroll

mikef6
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Armored Car Robbery (1950) Jun 26, 2020 16:48:53 GMT wmcclain and hitchcockthelegend like this

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Post by mikef6 on Jun 26, 2020 16:48:53 GMT

Armored Car Robbery / Richard Fleischer. RKO Radio Pictures. Cinematography by Guy Roe. Back in ’13, TCM played three armored car robbery films. This one – appropriately titled for the series – was the best of the bunch and a bit different as this movie starts with the robbery instead of being the climactic moment, and the rest is the procedural in tracking down the gang. The team of crooks is led by a smooth operator played by William Talman, among the criminal element a legendary mastermind who had never been caught. Also in the gang is Steve Brody, Gene Evans, and Douglas Fowley. Fowley is unhappily married to burlesque queen Adele Jergens. He doesn’t know that Tallman has been romancing Jergens and plans to get rid of her jealous husband. Charles McGraw is the tough cop who tracks them down. Two years later, Fleischer directed McGraw again in “The Narrow Margin,” one of my favorites.

“Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.”

hitchcockthelegend
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Armored Car Robbery (1950) Jun 26, 2020 19:48:48 GMT wmcclain and mikef6 like this

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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Jun 26, 2020 19:48:48 GMT

Imagine a dish like this married to a mug like Benny McBride ... the naked and the dead.

Armored Car Robbery is directed by Richard Fleischer and collectively written by Earl Felton, Gerald Adams, Robert Angus and Robert Leeds. It stars William Talman, Charles McGraw, Adele Jergens, Douglas Fowley, Steve Brodie and Don McGuire. Music is by Roy Webb and cinematography by Guy Roe.

When a meticulously planned robbery goes wrong, Dave Purvis (Talman) and his gang find there's a particularly driven copper closing in on them.

The caper premise has served film noir well over the years, and while Armored Car Robbery is not the hidden gem some have called it (it's no Asphalt Jungle for instance), it is still an effectively tough piece of film. The structure used by Fleischer and the writers is to show the robbery early in the piece and then unfurl the aftermath for the majority of the film. Characterisations are classic noir, the tough gang leader who consistently changes his identity to fool the cops, the foxy dame who is turning heads and is having relationships with two of the gang, the cannon fodder, the dope and the tough as nails copper who will stop at nothing to bring the bad guys down.

The pace of the story is sedate, but this is no bad thing as we get attention to detail with the manhunt and the respective psychological make ups of the thieves. The two-timing aspect in the plot adds spice (this also allows Fleischer to throw in a number of shots of Jergens doing her burlesque routine), as does the deaths of men either side of the law. The look is terrific, with high contrast photography, deep focus shots and some expressionistic lighting, all putting a splendid noir sheen over the skillful blend of studio and location (Los Angeles) sequences. Cast are on good form, especially McGraw and Talman (though Brodie is sadly under used), and Webb's score is period and story reflective.

From the smoke bomb cloaked robbery that thrills early in proceedings, to the breath holding finale played out on an airport runway, Armored Car Robbery is a sturdy and solid RKO noir that is comfortably recommended to fans of the noir cycle. 7.5/10

Last Edit: Jun 26, 2020 19:49:16 GMT by hitchcockthelegend: Line breaks too large.

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