Spoilers below:
“John Payne stars in “Kansas City Confidential,” a 1952 noir also starring Preston Foster, Colleen Gray, Jack Elam, Neville Brand and Lee Van Cleef.
Payne is Joe Rolfe, a WW II vet who delivers flowers for a living. He finds himself accused of a spectacular robbery of $1.2 million because the thieves used a truck like his as their escape vehicle.
With the help of a buddy, he finds out that a criminal has split town suddenly for Mexico, and he goes there to locate the man and hopefully clear his own name.
What he doesn’t realize is that there were four thieves, and all of them wore masks to shield their identities from one another. When the man he’s tracking is killed, Joe assumes his identity and goes to the place where the other thieves are supposed to await further instructions from their boss.
Phil Karlson directed this good noir, which has an excellent cast that includes a favorite actress of mine, the lovely Coleen Gray as an ex-cop’s daughter. She shows up at the locale to surprise her dad (Preston Foster), who is actually the mastermind of the heist.
Like any actor who worked for 20th Century Fox, John Payne had to be versatile, and he was. Here he plays a rough-around-the-edges war hero who has to survive among thieves by being tougher than they are. The man known as “The Singing Tyrone Power” at Fox pulls it off.
A handsome leading man, here Payne steps into John Garfield territory with ease. Elam, van Cleef and Brand are as mean and low-down as you can get, and the film gets quite violent at times.
The print I saw was very grainy; this wasn’t a studio B movie but one made on the cheap, though the film was distributed by UA. However, it stands up very well next to other noirs of that era.”
😒🙈🤯
Spoiler alrighty! A good review, but no need to tell all. For instance why did he say…
“She shows up at the locale to surprise her dad (Preston Foster), who is actually the mastermind of the heist.’
Harrumph!
You did warn us. He is a stupid and immature writer for revealing. If he happened to suddenly guess and blurted out then understandable. He could have left out…’who is actually…’ part.
James, the waif to whom you referred us on the tube of u today reminded me of that girl you liked so much some time ago…the bleached nest headed looking girl who liked pigeons, or roosters…no no it was doves she liked resting on top of her head, wasn’t it? Dove Gal? Lovey Dovey Girl? Something…Pigeon Headed Girlie? 🤷♀️ ( I hope they were trained, if ya know what I mean? 😜!)
That breaking voice and darting eyes of both girls gets ya. Ladies skilled at pretend helplessness make thee swoon, Professor!
🥴🤭🤭🤭
When Cuddles and I first started dating he asked me if I needed him to cut my meat. (I was just 18 at the time, but I had been cutting my own meat since I was 6. Fish bones another thing…my mother would check for them to this day were she part of this dimension.) ‘I am capable of cutting my own meat, but thank you for the offer’☺️ (but rolling my eyes so he couldn’t see).
Come to find out his past girlfriend and the girls of the other couples with whom they hung were unable to slice bits of meat from their steaks either! I witnessed their feigned helplessness. I was about to get up and help them out myself. That would have been funny. At the time I was just so flabbergasted that I just 😳!😲!😆!
I figured eventually I would really need assistance with some things. In the meantime, I cut my own meat AND fed my own self AND burped my on back. As time went on those other girls started cutting their own meat! Bravo girls! 👏
Of course he did and does things to help and to behave gentlemanly…but cutting and maybe masticating my own meat was just too much! Those girls!🤣
Cuddles…? Could you get that can off the tippy top shelf, puhleeze? 😌🙂↔️🙂↔️🙂↔️ And he does!
Who ended up with Cuddles? Yep!
My game was to play no games! Winner winner chicken dinner!
……
JH: You cut your own meat, Toods? 😳👏🏻 Goodness, can you come over and cut mine? I’m helpless here!
Well Cuddles might help you out. He was eager to help me when we first met.
That silly former girlfriend…and no…I didn’t break them up. However, he never went back to her and it wasn’t for her lack of trying! 🤭 He must have been impressed with my sawing skill or very scared of them😉!