Kansas City Confidential

An armoured car is robbed using a florist's van. The man who planned it hired three others; none of them knows the others and they wear masks when they meet. The van used in the robbery is identical to that of a real flower shop, and its driver Joe is accused. The police question him for days and let him go. He loses his job and his standing. Then he picks up the trail of one of the robbers and goes to Mexico; he presents himself as that man and joins the group. Phil Karlson directs. John Payne plays Joe, with Preston Foster, Lee Van Cleef and Jack Elam in the cast. It was made at a cheap studio and belongs to the hard crime vein of the period; the violence and the interrogation are direct for those years. The arrangement it sets up became a source for later films: criminals who do not know each other, masks, code names and a plan from inside. That structure was openly used by other directors years later. Joe is not a hero; he acts not because he is innocent but because he is angry. The interrogation of an innocent man by the police is its hardest passage and the narrative criticises it. On release it was seen as a programme picture; it later entered the known examples of noir. Who it is for: viewers who like fifties noir and heist narratives. Who it is not for: there is little depth of character, the romantic strand is weak, and the ending resolves quickly.