Tonight's Movie: Kansas City Confidential (1952) - A Film Masters Blu-ray Review

I've put off watching KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL (1952) at home for years, hoping that my first viewing of this noir classic would be in a theater.

Somehow, despite its excellent reputation, the movie has never made the schedule at any of the film festivals I attend regularly. The recent release of the film on a terrific new Limited Edition Blu-ray from Film Masters made up my mind to watch it at home at long last.

And the best part is, I enjoyed the movie so well that I would happily watch it again if I have the opportunity to see it theatrically one day.

Many film noir fans will already be familiar with this film. The first thing I have to say, even before discussing the plot, is simply "What a cast!"

The film stars a trio of favorites, John Payne, Coleen Gray, and Preston Foster. Gray and Payne, who made two other films together in this era, were an offscreen item for a time.

Then there's a Hall of Fame trio of bad guys in Neville Brand, Lee Van Cleef, and Jack Elam. The cast is rounded out by the always-entertaining Dona Drake, who helps to lighten the tension as a gang of thieves converge on the Mexican resort where she works.

The plot concerns a "perfect crime" engineered by ex-cop Tim Foster (Foster). He carefully times plans for a bank heist, while also deliberately causing confusion by using a getaway van which looks exactly like the one Joe Rolfe (Payne) uses for daily deliveries to the florist next door to the bank.

Foster recruits three very bad men (Brand, Van Cleef, and Elam) to pull off the heist; they're all masked so they can't recognize one another. After the robbery is successfully completed, Foster informs the disappointed men they're each going to a separate foreign city and that he'll wire them where to meet him to pick up their share of the loot after things have calmed down a bit.

Little do the three robbers realize there's an entirely fresh game afoot once they are finally summoned by Foster to a Mexican resort...

Meanwhile Rolfe, the innocent delivery truck driver, has been harrassed by the police and decides to purse the bank robbers to clear his name. Thanks to a tip arranged by an old war buddy, Rolfe eventually finds himself at the same Mexican resort as the robbers.

The wild card is when Helen (Gray), Foster's law student daughter, surprises him at the resort and is immediately attracted to Rolfe. Things get very complicated, especially for Helen's dismayed father.

The screenplay was written by George Bruce and Harry Essex from a story by Rowland Brown and Harold Greene. IMDb indicates that director Karlson and John Payne also made uncredited contributions to the script.

The movie packs a lot of plot into its 99 minutes, but it's easy to follow and quite fascinating unpeeling the story layers; for instance, at one point Payne's character causes Brand and Van Cleef to think he's the third man, while at the same time Foster's character knows he's not.

The movie has typically brisk, tough direction by Phil Karlson, with the rough interactions of the five men only occasionally broken up by appearances from Gray and Drake.

It's of note that Gray appeared in not one but two movies about the "perfect heist" by masked robbers, the other being THE KILLING (1956).

KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL was filmed in black and white by George E. Diskant (ON DANGEROUS GROUND).

Catalina Island stands in for Mexico; since I'm going to visit Catalina on the TCM Cruise next fall I enjoyed seeing it, and I'll be looking to watch more movies shot on the island in the months leading up to the trip.

KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL has long been in the public domain. Although I'd not seen the film before, I've occasionally seen brief clips in poor prints. The Film Masters Blu-ray looks really good, especially considering the film's checkered print history; I was quite pleased with it and recommend this disc along with the film itself.

The Film Masters Limited Edition has two extras: A Blu-ray commentary track by Jason A. Ney, plus a glossy booklet in the case which contains an essay on Jack Elam, written by Don Stradley.

Thanks to Allied Vaughn and Film Masters for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray. It may be purchased via Movie Zyng, Amazon, and other online retailers.

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