Faith in the Flames The Nichole Jolly Story 2025 - Movies (Jul 22nd)
I Know What You Did Last Summer 2025 - Movies (Jul 22nd)
The Actor 2025 - Movies (Jul 22nd)
Jurassic World Rebirth 2025 - Movies (Jul 22nd)
Drop 2025 - Movies (Jul 22nd)
Trainwreck P.I. Moms 2025 - Movies (Jul 22nd)
40 Acres 2024 - Movies (Jul 22nd)
Daniela Forever 2024 - Movies (Jul 22nd)
Dangerous Animals 2025 - Movies (Jul 22nd)
Materialists 2025 - Movies (Jul 22nd)
Sunday Best The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan 2025 - Movies (Jul 21st)
Ash 2025 - Movies (Jul 21st)
The Phoenician Scheme 2025 - Movies (Jul 21st)
Rust 2024 - Movies (Jul 21st)
Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League 2025 - Movies (Jul 21st)
Thunderbolts* 2025 - Movies (Jul 20th)
Mongrels 2024 - Movies (Jul 20th)
The Bones 2024 - Movies (Jul 20th)
I Was Honey Boo Boo 2025 - Movies (Jul 20th)
Treading Water 2024 - Movies (Jul 20th)
Theres a New Killer in Town 2024 - Movies (Jul 19th)
The Nice Guy - (Jul 23rd)
Reminder - (Jul 23rd)
Customer Wars - (Jul 23rd)
Building the Band - (Jul 23rd)
Road Wars - (Jul 23rd)
The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch - (Jul 23rd)
Beyond Skinwalker Ranch - (Jul 23rd)
Low Life - (Jul 23rd)
Beyond the Gates - (Jul 23rd)
The 1 Club - (Jul 23rd)
The Snake - (Jul 23rd)
Countdown - (Jul 23rd)
The Summer I Turned Pretty - (Jul 23rd)
See No Evil - (Jul 23rd)
911- Did The Killer Call - (Jul 23rd)
My Big Fat Fabulous Life - (Jul 23rd)
Shark Week - (Jul 23rd)
United Gangs of America - (Jul 23rd)
Supermarket Stakeout - (Jul 23rd)
No Gamble No Future - (Jul 23rd)
Unlucky Joe And The Torn In Half Kings. Kansas City Confidential (AKA: The Secret Four) is directed by Phil Karlson and written by George Bruce and Harry Essex. It stars John Payne, Preston Foster, Coleen Gray, Neville Brand, Jack Elam and Lee Van Cleef. Music is by Paul Sawtell and cinematography by George E. Diskant. Plot sees four robbers hold up an armoured truck and get away with over a million dollars. Sadly for everyday and ordinary Joe Rolfe (Payne), he's set up and accused of being involved in the robbery. But he wont go down without a fight, and promptly calls upon his dark half to seek out the actual culprits himself. "In the police annals of Kansas City are written lurid chapters concerning the exploits of criminals apprehended and brought to punishment. But it is the purpose of this picture to expose the amazing operations of a man who conceived and executed a "perfect" crime, the true solution of which is "not" entered in "any" case history, and could well be entitled "Kansas City Confidential". Produced by Edward Small, Kansas City Confidential is believed to be the only film released out of Small's own Associated Players and Producers studio. Still, if you are going to only have one film on your studio résumé, you have to be thankful that it's a little cracker. More "B" movie grit than film noir flecked nastiness, Karlson's movie is lean, mean and structured with knowing skill by the director. From the tremendous tension fuelled opening of the heist planning and execution, through to the deadly payoff at the finale, film is awash with knuckle slappings, shifting identities and the turning of the protagonist's psychological make up. Were it not for one of "those" endings, and the telegraphing of optimism slightly shunting the pessimistic atmosphere out of the headlights, this would undoubtedly be far more revered and better known in film noir/crime movie circles. First thing to note of worth is the cast assembled for the picture. Payne was already leaving behind his formative acting years in family fare like Miracle On 34th Street and Footlight Serenade, reinventing himself as a dramatic actor in films such as The Crooked Way. He's a perfect fit for Joe Rolfe, an ex-con war veteran down on his luck, he has his every man qualities pummelled out of him by the police, so much so he has to turn bad to prove that he's good. The change is believable in Payne's hands, his face that of normality in the beginning, but latterly icy cold and untrustworthy. A trio of "B" movie stalwarts make up the thugs gallery, Jack Elam is sweaty and worm like, Lee Van Cleef is snake faced and pulsing bad attitude, while Neville Brand exudes borderline psychotic menace. Unfortunately Preston Foster as the "boss" man is not altogether convincing, but in a film where characters are not always what they seem, this doesn't hurt the film. Coleen Gray shows a nice pair of legs for the boys, but with Karlson not bothered about fleshing out the romantic and flirting aspects of her relationship with Payne, she exists only as a secondary cog between Payne and Foster's characters. This is no femme fatale character, sadly, no sir. Music is standard fare and Diskant's photography only fleetingly shows some noir flourishes. However, with two fists full of grit from which to punch, and some boldness in the narrative involving police brutality, Kansas City Confidential comes out as one of the better "B" ranked crime movies of the 50's. 8/10
This is quite a clever, well paced crime-noir with a really rather good performance from John Payne as "Joe", a former soldier/ex-con who, whilst on his routine flower-delivery rounds - ends up getting framed for a massive armed robbery. Luckily for him, the police can't press charges - all the robbers wore masks - and so he decides to track down the thugs and claim a share of the cash for himself. You get where this is going early on, but when you see Jack Elam and Lee Van Cleef on the cast list, you know that you are in for a bumpy ride. There are plenty of crosses and double-crosses as he and the gang (none of whom know the identity of their criminal mastermind) try to get to Mexico and to the loot. It's a good end-to-end action adventure, with a taut, eery score from Paul Sawtell adding much to the sinister lighting effects that give this film a much better than average sense of suspense.
Having met on a train, a smooth-talking psychotic socialite shares his theory on how two complete strangers can get away with murder to an amateur tennis player — a theory he plans to test out.
In the 1930s, bored waitress Bonnie Parker falls in love with an ex-con named Clyde Barrow and together they start a violent crime spree through the country, stealing cars and robbing banks.
A botched robbery indicates a police informant, and the pressure mounts in the aftermath at a warehouse. Crime begets violence as the survivors - veteran Mr. White, newcomer Mr. Orange, psychopathic parolee Mr. Blonde, bickering weasel Mr. Pink and Nice Guy Eddie - unravel.
A seductive housewife draws an insurance salesman into a plot of adultery and crime to collect on her husband's life insurance.
A self-assured businessman murders his employer, the husband of his mistress, which unintentionally provokes an ill-fated chain of events.
A career criminal, Ah Sang, engineers a bank robbery to be carried out by a gang of recruited hoodlums led by himself. It takes only three minutes to complete the robbery of seven million dollars. A special police unit is then formed to investigate the case, and the chief inspector suspects Sang, and begins keeping him under surveillance. In order to stay undetected, each member is specifically ordered to not spend their share of the one million HKD from the heist for six months.
A woman fights to convince the police that she witnessed a murder while looking out her bedroom window.
Long before he became producer/director of The Tonight Show, Fred DeCordova helmed the Universal meller Illegal Entry. Howard Duff, who later worked with DeCordova on the TV series Mr. Adams and Eve, stars as Bert Powers, an undercover agent for the U.S. Department of Immigration. While attempting to bring a vicious gang of alien smugglers to justice, Powers falls in love with Anna Duvak (Marta Toren), a gang member who is Not What She Seems.
Vanheden and Dynamite-Harry are approached by Sickan's grandmother and Sickan's younger brother Sven-Ingvar. Their evil nemesis Wall-Enberg are planning to steal billions of euros of the European Union's grants to culture. The grant of 350 million kronor, paid by an Italian bank acting as intermediary, equals 60 billion lire but through assistance of a Sicilian "businessman", this sum becomes 60 billion kronor when transferred. The money is to be transferred to a large number of bank accounts, and the account numbers are saved on a floppy disc that the Jönsson gang is trying to steal.
Former war-time Army buddies now students in college decide to rip off a Reno casino.