|
Kansas City Confidential (1952)
In Phil Karlson's hard-edged, tough, low-budget, film-noir
bank heist tale set in Kansas City Missouri:
- the film's scrolling prologue: "In the police
annals of Kansas City are written lurid chapters concerning the
exploits of criminals apprehended and brought to punishment. But
it is the purpose of this picture to expose the amazing operations
of a man who conceived and executed a 'perfect crime,' the true
solution of which is not entered in any case history,
and could well be entitled 'Kansas City Confidential'"
- the opening sequence: the planning of a perfectly-orchestrated
$1.2 million dollar bank robbery job in Kansas City at the Southwest
Bank at 10 am; from a vantage point across the street, the master-mind
- an unidentified 'Mr. Big' (Preston S. Foster), watched and timed
a Western Florist Delivery Truck that stopped outside the Bank on
Main Street; he timed all the corresponding events (the arrivals
of a squad car, a florist delivery truck and an armored car) to coordinate
a future robbery
- the members of the individually-hired, masked and
thuggish gang were: Boyd Kane (Neville Brand), Pete Harris (Jack
Elam), and Tony Romano (Lee Van Cleef); the master-mind was masked
when he hired each of the robbers to commit the crime
|
|
|
Using a Wristwatch to Plan the Timing of the Robbery
|
Map of Bank Robbery Site
|
Armored Truck Guards During Pickup
|
- during the armored car robbery itself in an early
sequence, ex-con florist delivery man Joe Rolfe (John Payne) was
framed in his adjoining look-alike delivery vehicle, while a duplicate
flower van was the real getaway vehicle
- after the heist, 'Mr. Big' (dressed as the florist
delivery man) ordered the others, at gunpoint, to keep their identities
secret; he also described the split payout with the use of torn playing
cards (Four Kings) as tokens for each of the criminals to identify
themselves and collect their share: "Four kings, a pat hand,
that's just what we're holdin'. Hang on to those cards. I've got
everything covered, but in case something does go wrong and I can't
make the payoff myself, the cards will identify ya to whoever I send
with the money....We'll cut up the money when I think it's had time
enough to cool off....It's a pat hand only because nobody can rat
on ya. You can't even rat on each other because you've never seen
each other without those masks. I've made ya cop-proof and stoolpigeon-proof
and it's gonna stay that way"
"Mr. Big" - Four Kings Distributed for
Future Payout
|
|
|
- Rolfe was wrongly arrested, brutally interrogated,
and jailed, but then cleared and released for lack of evidence,
although he lost his job and reputation - he sought payback revenge
by pursuing the criminal gang to Mexico to the fictitious resort
town of Borados, to collect the 25% reward for reclaiming the money
- Rolfe's clever impersonation of Pete Harris, one of
the masked gang members, after Harris was gunned down by police in
Tijuana
- the sequences of complications that arose when Rolfe/Harris
fell in love with the fresh-faced law student daughter Helen "Punkin" Foster
(Coleen Gray) of the gang's mastermind-boss: bitter and corrupt ex-cop
Tim Foster (Preston Foster) who was posing in Mexico as a vacationing
fisherman; she was there to surprise him with the exciting news that
she was working on restoring his police job: "I set up a brief
and brought it to the Mayor myself....I got the Commissioner to reopen
your case. Well, don't you understand, Dad? It's a chance for you
to get back on the force...I know what it's meant to you being forced
into retirement through politics. This is your chance to come back.
You're not gonna let pride get in the way" - however, he was
miffed because it would interrupt or threaten his nefarious plans:
"Forget it, it's too late. I don't want to get back on the force"
- the climactic show-down conclusion - a rendezvous
on Foster's boat the Manana when he revealed that he was 'Mr.
Big'; his plan had been to double-cross the criminals one-by-one
and abscond with the money, but in the end, Kane was brutally murdered
by Romano (who rationalized that eliminating others would increase
his pay-out: "Why a two-way split? A guy livin' big all the
time like me needs dough"); Romano also shot and lethally-wounded
Foster before being shot in the back and killed by him
- during Foster's death scene, he told Rolfe that he
didn't want his daughter to find out about his real character: "My
luck had to give out some time. I wouldn't mind so much, Joe, if
Helen didn't have to find out...Give her my love, Joe, thanks",
and he also suggested to the authorities, before dying, that Rolfe
should get the reward: "If anybody deserves an award, it's him"
|
Mastermind "Mr. Big" (Later Identified as Tim
Foster (Preston Foster)) Orchestrating Theft
Mr. Big's Hiring of Gang Members
Western Florist Delivery Man Joe Rolfe
Bank Robbery - Florist Rolfe Framed
Rolfe Arrested
Helen "Punkin" Foster (Coleen Gray)
Gang Members
Foster's Death Scene
|