Armored Car Robbery ***** (1950, Charles McGraw, Adele Jergens, William Talman, Douglas Fowley, Steve Brodie, Don McGuire) – Classic Movie Review 3803

The spectacular 1950 film noir heist thriller Armored Car Robbery is fast, short, tense and punchy. Charles McGraw is just right as the hard-nosed LA cop pursuing murderous criminal Dave Purvis (William Talman).

Director Richard Fleischer’s admirable 1950 film noir heist thriller featurette Armored Car Robbery – just 67 minutes long – is fast, short, tense and punchy. It does not feel short, it’s real meaty and beefy, but it sure does feel punchy.

Charles McGraw is just right as Lieutenant Jim Cordell, the hard-nosed Los Angeles cop pursuing murderous criminal Dave Purvis (William Talman), the leader of the gang of robbers who kill his police partner during the cleverly planned title armored car robbery of cash when it makes its last pickup stop at the LA sports stadium Wrigley Field.

Purvis has recruited Benny McBride (Douglas Fowley), who brings Al Mapes (Steve Brodie) and ‘Ace’ Foster (Gene Evans) to complete the gang. Benny needs money because his burlesque dancer wife Yvonne (Adele Jergens) is bored with him and is two-timing him with Purvis. The heist goes awry and, with two gang members also dead, meticulous planner Purvis hides out with the money while he concocts a new getaway plan. Cordell homes in on him, assisted by eager rookie officer Danny Ryan (Don McGuire)…

Perhaps a tiny little extra punch in some of the performances would help to strengthen even further what is arguably maybe just standard crime melodrama material. But Fleischer’s sweatily pounding, visually stylish direction, the atmospheric LA location backdrops and the Fifties crime-busting procedures and paraphernalia provide plenty of useful spice in an absolutely cracking little movie. And, even so, actors and writers easily elevate the material. It is engrossingly tough-toned, quite violent material for the era, filled with engagingly nasty noir characters, all of whom have to get their comeuppance to satisfy the restrictive demands of the Motion Picture Production Code.

If McGraw is just right as the hot pursuit dogged cop, the film’s moral centre, Talman is spectacular as the force of evil. He is quite mesmerising. Adele Jergens is the perfect personification of the hard-as-nails glamour-puss anti-heroine Yvonne Le Doux, the irredeemably awful blonde floozy burlesque dancer, married to the hapless Benny McBride (Douglas Fowley).

Douglas Fowley, Steve Brodie, Don Haggerty, James Flavin, Gene Evans and William Tannen also co-star to very considerable effect, but, after McGraw’s, Talman’s and Jergens’s tremendous star turns, it is Don McGuire who impresses most in star support as a nice, wisecracking young cop, the hero’s new partner Detective Danny Ryan.

The film was based on a story by Charles Pete and Richard Carroll about a $500,000 robbery, based on the true story of the 1934 robbery at Rubel Ice Company. Originally called Gravesend Bay, the story was sold to RKO in March 1949. Earl Felton was assigned to write the script in August 1949, and he is an excellent screen-writer, expert in creating and developing characters, dialogue and plotting. Gerald Drayson Adams co-writes.

There is also an extremely good score by Roy Webb (uncredited composer of stock music) to mention, as well as Guy Roe’s eye-catching cinematography to applaud. The excitingly staged central robbery sequence plays without any music, and is backed only by the natural sounds, including the crowd noise from the ball park, all the most effective for it.

Paul Sawtell is the composer of additional music (uncredited) and Constantin Bakaleinikoff is musical director.

This model B-movie is generally extremely well done and was judged a great success by its company RKO and producer Herman Schlom. The director and star Charles McGraw and screenwriter Earl Felton re-teamed for the equally successful RKO noir The Narrow Margin, released  in 1952.

Also in the cast are Mack Williams, Jack Shea, Frank J Scannell, Carl Saxe, Mary Randall, Anne O’Neal, Anne Nagel (in her final film), Allen Matthews, Carey Loftin, Linda Johnson, Dick Irving, Fred Howard, Max Hellinger, Charles Flynn, Art Dupuis, Dick Dickinson, Roger Creed, James Bush, Paul E Burns, Paul Bryar and Barry Brooks.

It starts with stock footage of New York City and then cuts to Los Angeles City Hall!

The film was shot in Los Angeles over 16 days on locations including Wrigley Field and the Metropolitan Airport.

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© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3803

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