Kansas City Confidential (1952 film)

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Kansas City Confidential
Kansas City Confidential movie poster
Directed by	Phil Karlson
Produced by	Edward Small
Written by	George Bruce Harry Essex Rowland Brown (story) Harold Greene
Starring	John Payne Coleen Gray Preston Foster Neville Brand Lee Van Cleef
Music by	Paul Sawtell
Cinematography	George E. Diskant
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date(s)	November 28 1952 (U.S. release)
Running time	99 min
Language	English
IMDb profile

Kansas City Confidential is a 1952 film noir directed by Phil Karlson and starring John Payne. Karlson and Payne teamed up a year later for another dark black-and-white noir, 99 River Street and again in 1955, this time in color, for the noir Hell's Island. Perennial movie bad guys Lee Van Cleef, Neville Brand and Jack Elam play the film's heavies. Although the title would suggest that the story takes place in Kansas City, most of the film takes place in Mexico. This was director Karlson's second film noir. He also directed Scandal Sheet, a modest success, also released in 1952. The tag line for the film was, "Exploding like a gun in your face!"

[edit] Plot

Four robbers hold up an armored truck getting away with over a million dollars in cash. Joe Rolfe (John Payne), a down-on-his-luck flower delivery truck driver is accused of being involved and is beaten up by the local police. Released due to lack of evidence, Joe, following the clues to a Mexican resort, decides to look for the men who set him up and get revenge. What he doesn’t know is that the heist also involves corrupt cops.