Armored Car Robbery (1950)

Great noir thriller. William Talman excels as the crime boss Purvis. The plot shoots at us with a relentless pace. The heist happens early on, with its inevitable complications leading to the end of the line for Talman.Adele Jergens nailed down her role as a burlesque dancer, girlfriend to Talman, and sometimes wife to the unlucky Douglas Fowley's Benny. Despite the short running time, Armored Car Robbery packs in plenty of scenes. The grungy dock area absorbs a lot of the movie, but we're nonetheless sent around to police headquarters, the sleazy nightclub and seedy bar, and the dark rainy streets and alleys of L.A.Talman's hyper demeanor maintains tension; we never know who he's going to strike out at next. His character's lack of sensitivity epitomizes the narcissistic criminal personality. His only value is a pay-off; "Here's to money" is his toast with Jergens. In the brilliant runway scene he's whacked by an incoming plane, his useless cash tumbling down around him like so much garbage. McGraw, as the tough police Lieutenant, isn't not nearly as entertaining as Talman. He does warm up a bit to his new rookie partner, but he's almost robotic for most of the film. A strong personality projects power. Since we know a Robert Mitchum character is tough, he can have nuances; McGraw has to pile it on so much he comes off as one-dimensional. His performance isn't bad at all, just not up to Talman's excellence.Very rewarding experience on many levels. Worth watching just for Talman and Jergens; not to mention for the atmosphere, plot, and supporting cast. Not to be missed.

Armored Car Robbery is directed by Richard Fleischer and collectively written by Earl Felton, Gerald Adams, Robert Angus and Robert Leeds. It stars William Talman, Charles McGraw, Adele Jergens, Douglas Fowley, Steve Brodie and Don McGuire. Music is by Roy Webb and cinematography by Guy Roe. When a meticulously planned robbery goes wrong, Dave Purvis (Talman) and his gang find there's a particularly driven copper closing in on them. The caper premise has served film noir well over the years, and while Armored Car Robbery is not the hidden gem some have called it (it's no Asphalt Jungle for instance), it is still an effectively tough piece of film. The structure used by Fleischer and the writers is to show the robbery early in the piece and then unfurl the aftermath for the majority of the film. Characterisations are classic noir, the tough gang leader who consistently changes his identity to fool the cops, the foxy dame who is turning heads and is having relationships with two of the gang, the cannon fodder, the dope and the tough as nails copper who will stop at nothing to bring the bad guys down. The pace of the story is sedate, but this is no bad thing as we get attention to detail with the manhunt and the respective psychological make ups of the thieves. The two-timing aspect in the plot adds spice (this also allows Fleischer to throw in a number of shots of Jergens doing her burlesque routine), as does the deaths of men either side of the law. The look is terrific, with high contrast photography, deep focus shots and some expressionistic lighting, all putting a splendid noir sheen over the skillful blend of studio and location (Los Angeles) sequences. Cast are on good form, especially McGraw and Talman (though Brodie is sadly under used), and Webb's score is period and story reflective. From the smoke bomb cloaked robbery that thrills early in proceedings, to the breath holding finale played out on an airport runway, Armored Car Robbery is a sturdy and solid RKO noir that is comfortably recommended to fans of the noir cycle. 7/10

This exciting low budget heist thriller with its themes of greed, betrayal and revenge packs so much pace, punch and power into its relatively short running time that it's impossible not to get caught up in the action right from the start. The events on screen unfold with great speed and clarity and feature shoot-outs and chases as well as passages where things get very tense. Its story of a well planned heist that goes wrong is exceptionally well written, often violent and has a very memorable denouement.The movie was shot in typical docu-noir style featuring both brightly lit scenes and ones where expressionistic lighting is used to good effect. A great deal of the action is set in various actual locations in Los Angeles and this adds considerable authenticity and interest to the whole undertaking. The predominantly straightforward style of direction used by Richard Fleischer is ideal for this hard-hitting drama and good use is also made of high camera angles in some scenes.Sharply dressed criminal Dave Purvis (William Talman) has previously prospered through being utterly ruthless, extremely careful in all that he does and very meticulous in how he plans jobs. He regularly covers his tracks by changing his name frequently, never staying in one place too long and exercising great caution to ensure that nothing is ever written down which could potentially be used as evidence against him. Having arrived in L.A. he devises a plan to rob an armoured car outside a baseball stadium and in preparation, anonymously calls the police on a number of occasions and reports that a robbery is taking place so that he can record the various response times with the aid of his stopwatch.Benny McBride (Douglas Fowley) runs a local theatre and Purvis invites him to take part in the heist. McBride agrees without hesitation because he wants the money to win over his estranged wife, Yvonne LeDoux (Adele Jergens) who's an avaricious burlesque dancer who's also secretly having an affair with Purvis. McBride brings in two other men and the gang go ahead with the heist as planned.A problem arises for the gang after they break into the armoured vehicle and the alarm is raised, because a police patrol car already in the area responds and arrives on the scene much sooner than expected. The two police officers, Lieutenant Jim Cordell (Charles McGraw) and his partner Lieutenant Phillips (James Flavin) immediately find themselves involved in a shoot-out and both men are seriously injured before the gang make their getaway with the loot. In the period that follows, the gang's unity gets undermined by conflict and suspicion before Purvis attempts to double cross the other men and escape with all the proceeds of the heist.Lieutenant Phillips dies from his injury and Cordell, together with his new partner Detective Danny Ryan (Don McGuire) make use of a number of different methods to track down Purvis and his gang. Cordell's determination to avenge the death of his partner is intense and he remains incredibly driven in his mission right up until the story's impressive and well-choreographed conclusion.Charles McGraw as the tough cop and William Talman as the totally untrustworthy gang leader are excellent and Adele Jergens is also very good as the femme fatale who's only interested in money.

A good low-budget noir. (Though the budget looks pretty darn low, it has a lot of big names.) The plot itself is somewhat routine. Cps vs bad guy. Really bad leader vs his underlings. The matter-of-fact title tells a whole lot of the story.However, Adele Jergens is the draw here. She plays a burlesque dancer. (And we see her routine a couple times. Even today, it looks tawdry.) Though this came out before my time, newsstands kept girlie magazines from years and years -- decades, even -- in stock. I remember as a kid wondering about the weird shoes these women were posing in. Well, Adele Jergens looks like the quintessential bleached-blonde naughty girl of the 1950s-60s. And she was a good actress, too.More of her would have leavened the plot./ As it is, it's too many guys who look and sound alike -- all of them fine actors but enough gets to be enough.