Kansas City Confidential (1952) [Film Noir]

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“Kansas City Confidential” is a 1952 film noir crime film directed by Phil Karlson and starring John Payne. The film was marketed with the tagline “Exploding like a gun in your face!” and released in the United Kingdom as “The Secret Four”.

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 roughly interrogated by 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 both to clear his name and to exact revenge. What he doesn’t know is that the heist involves a retired policeman who is also intent on revenge. The plot was inspiration for Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs.

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Directed by Phil Karlson, produced by Edward Small, screenplay by George Bruce, and Harry Essex, story by Rowland Brown and Harold Greene, starring John Payne
Coleen Gray, Preston Foster, Neville Brand and Lee Van Cleef.

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Source: “Kansas City Confidential” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.. 14 August 2012. Web. 31 August 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_City_Confidential.

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29 Replies to “Kansas City Confidential (1952) [Film Noir]”

  6. I was thinking of you recently but could not remember where we had our exchange. I came across a really brilliant film recently, very much film noir but it is British and from 1961 so a bit out of location and period. It is called Victim and apparently was instrumental in the law on homosexuality being changed. Really exciting film – see it if you get the chance!

  10. Owszem, niektóre polskie filmy z lat 50-60-tych w pewnym sensie przypominają gatunek "Film Noir". Przykładem może być "Ostatni Kurs", "Pociąg", "Złote koło", "Zbrodniarz który ukradł zbrodnię", "Dwaj panowie "N", "Nóż w wodzie", itp. Wszystkie p/ż wymienione to nic innego jak Polska Klasyka,

  19. A taut drama both as a physiological thriller and crime thriller.   Rivals "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" –the acting here was low key rather than the overacted "Treasure of the Sierra Madre."  Great movie.

  20. The film noir – the greatest chapters in the history of cinema! Starting with the 1930 and 1955's film noir created by great directors and actors of high class! Which of the current actors can now replace Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, and Edmond O' Brian …? No one! There are no such persons, who could now mimic film noir. America, as most of these films belong to the film companies of the country, created a fashion, clothes, hats, cigars, whiskey, cars, sparkling night of advertising, casinos, restaurants, and so forth, just yet created ideal breeding ground for crime novels, which served the script for the black-and-white films. Prohibition has created a mafia and gangsters, in their turn became the heroes of many "black" films. The great director Alfred Hitchcock, Fritz Lang, John Huston, Robert Siodmak, Rudolph Mate, Billy Wilder and Otto Perminger, Raoul Walsh, Jean Negulesco, Edward Dmytryk, …….. they are not repeatable !!! See the film noir. About 200 of the immortal masterpieces of world cinema! Long live the film noir !!! My eternal love of film noir !!!

  21. Everyone is great in this very enjoyable tough film. What makes a noir great is that once you've seen it, and got over the nervous tension these films bring on…(who's gonna get it..) then when you watch again, you can just dig how much fun the film is to watch…and how much went into making it work. This is a perfect example. These guys are all perfect, and Lee Van Cleef (sp?) is particularly good in this… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH7vdg8m9MY

  22. Love, love, love it, but how can you leave it here on YouTube without being DMCA'd. I posted a SUPER rare noir, The Verdict 1946, the other day and it was taken down within 2 days.

  24. A fine film I had to return to finish. THAT was John Payne?
    A few years before he died, I had the pleasure of morning walks with Neville Brand in Sacramento. A fine gentleman who never bragged, he always turned out early to run his 16-cylinder e-type Jag, lest it's battery run down. We never talked of his career but just chatted generally. All he volunteered was that he'd been liquidating some Malibu property. Nice to see his early work.
    Y'know, it was said that a H'wood baddie used ti tie and gag Cybil Shepherd for days at a time. I winder if it was one of the three.

  28. Lots of suspense and drama there drama there. And that '46-'47 Mercury woody wagon wasn't bad either. I guess that in those days, a suspect didn't have the right to call a lawyer when the cops started roughing him up. But he recovered nicely.

  29. I haven't seen many films starring John Payne besides on Youtube, but he was an underrated great actor imo. Same goes for Lee Van Cleef. He usually played the bad boy, which he played SO WELL (loved him, and his "swag"). Not to add Neville Brand was always his partner in crime, they made such a great pair. UGH. Thanks for sharing this Classic, it's genuinely one of my favorites on Youtube.

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