Kansas City Confidential (1952)

What makes a two-bit heel like you think a heater would give him an edge over me? Tim Foster

One of those great “B” movies that hardly anybody has seen, Kansas City Confidential purports to tell the true story of a heist that was never solved. A million two was big money back in 1952 and that’s what the robbers get away with 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 had observed him coming promptly every morning at 10 sharp to the flower shop next to the bank. The armored car arrived a couple minutes later and then both trucks left within minutes. The mastermind observed this and checked it with a stop watch over and over just to make sure. The morning of the robbery, they had a duplicate flower van made up and slipped in just after Payne’s van departed, slugged the armored car guards and grabbed the money and split. To passersby, it was the same van. When the police arrived, they knew just who to look for. They roughed him up pretty good once they found him. Once they found the duplicate van, they had to release Rolfe. Then Rolfe goes looking for revenge…

This little germ of a story, by Rowland Brown, has a couple of nice twists and qualifies as exceptional, in my opinion. 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 - how about that cowboy fans? Lee Van Cleef actually gets to play a ladies man in this one, probably the only time he was ever so tasked. The mastermind had them all wear masks - neither had met the other, other than with their faces hidden so nobody could squeal.

The mastermind even 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 who puts him on to one of the robbers. He tracks him down in Mexico…

When the robber is killed by a freak accident, Rolfe assumes his identity and goes to the meet. 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.

While John Payne(Miracle on 34th Street) might seem an odd choice to play a criminal, he was right on the money in this one. With his everyman face and square jawed good looks he made a perfect protagonist for Kansas City Confidential. The way he manages to romance Colleen Gray (The Killing) while avoiding the guns of his “partners” is quite a balancing act. Like a lot of actors, Sterling Hayden, Randolph Scott, Ben Johnson, and others, he didn’t get all the breaks but in this one he shines like a diamond.

Lee Van Cleef (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly) 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 (The Birdman of Alcatraz) while a fine movie actor, made his indelible mark on many of his fans as the bumbling “Reese Bennett” of TV‘s Laredo. Preston Foster (Guadalcanal Diary) another familiar face, also plays a key role in this well paced, dark crime drama.

Phil Karlson, the director, didn’t get far past the B pictures churned out by “Poverty Row” studios like Republic and Eagle-Lion. In Kansas City Confidential he probably hit the top of his game, at least as far as I’m concerned. The one flaw in the ointment is the weakened ending after such a fine build up - probably a studio decision to make it more commercial - you know, a happy ending. For that, I’ll ding it a star, but it is still worth four solid stars.

The DVD is by Alpha Video, one of the companies that prints the public domain content. The movie is in black and white, runs 98 minutes, and is in standard 1.33:1 format, as it was shown in the theater. You can pick it up for around six bucks, and it’s well worth it.

Thanks for reading!

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening