Heist movies all have the same story at heart. A gang goes after a big score and the crooks use teamwork to get the loot. But tensions mount and plans of a clean getaway implode.
John Payne, Lee Van Cleef, Neville Brand, Preston Foster, ‘Kansas City Confidential’ (1952).
The four heist movies below all have the same cash-grab backbone, but the details of each range from the simple to the baroque. We’ll begin with the least complex story and end with the most intricately layered one of the lot.
Mugs, thugs and victims
‘Armored Car Robbery’ (1950)
The title says it all. What you get is an armored car stickup, a less than clean getaway and the police in pursuit of the guilty parties. Gruff police detective Lt. Jim Cordell (Charles McGraw) seethes after his partner is killed while trying to stop the robbers. Adding a touch of background drama to the story is some hanky-panky between the gang’s ringleader, Dave Purvis (William Talman), and burlesque queen Yvonne LeDoux (Adele Jergens) — she happens to be the estranged wife of gang member Benny McBride (Douglas Fowley). Briskly paced and tightly edited to a mere 67 minutes, “Armored Car Robbery” avoids heist movie cliches and packs in enough action to keep us interested. For history buffs, shots of the Long Beach waterfront choked with oil derricks, Wrigley Field in South Los Angeles and a vintage San Fernando Valley motor court motel offer a slice of old Los Angles landmarks that disappeared long ago, much like RKO Pictures, which produced this little gem.
William Talman, ‘Armored Car Robbery.’
‘Payroll’ (1961)
The best part of heist films, next to the planning and rehearsing for a robbery, is the way the scheme inevitably falls apart once the deed is done. Unforeseeable roadblocks pop up — armored car drivers don’t stick to their routine, locks won’t break, civilians step in at the worst time. “Payroll” has those nail biter moments that ramp up suspense and make our inner selves root secretly for the crooks. It’s strange alchemy that makes us flinch whenever a monkey wrench is chucked into the works. Here, those well calibrated oops moments come off like finely composed music. But gang members’ weaknesses, such as greed and lust, a rocky marriage and a bullying gang leader, not only scuttle a clean getaway but give the film its emotional heft. Newcastle crime boss Johnny Mellors (Michael Craig) leads an armored car robbery of £50,000 with the help of an inside man, Dennis Pearson (William Lucas), an accountant from the targeted firm. Seems like a foolproof plan, but is it?
‘Payroll’ has those nail biter moments that ramp up suspense and (almost) make us root for the crooks.
‘Strongroom’ (1962)
Lack of oxygen is the thing that keeps the pressure on high in this British thriller. Locked in an airtight vault, two bank personnel anxiously await rescue after a trio of amateurs fumble what should have been a simple robbery. But will help arrive in time? Every second of this 75-minute pressure cooker counts. The ones who might rescue the trapped pair, business partners, police and others are maddeningly casual about their disappearance.
What’s special about “Strongroom’ is that it flips the typical heist movie plot, focusing on the victims of the crime rather than the perps.
The trapped bank secretary and her boss, the manager, are such incurable bean counters that they calculate the vault’s cubic footage and the amount of air they’re breathing and come up with a timeline for when the oxygen will run out. It’s a bank holiday and in jolly old England almost everyone is out of the office and every business is closed, all of which plays a role in scuttling an early rescue of the trapped pair. We’re left to bite nails and white knuckle it. Will anyone figure out what’s going on and find the trapped duo in time?
‘Kansas City Confidential’ (1952)
What’s most striking about this cleverly plotted heist story is how little a band of armored car robbers know about the job they just pulled. Tim Foster (Preston Foster) is the ringleader who recruits three born-losers played by a rogues gallery of great character actors, Neville Brand, Lee Van Cleef and Jack Elam. Foster and his henchmen wear masks whenever they meet. Only Foster knows the others’ identities and what they look like. Delivery driver Joe Rolfe (John Payne) accidentally lands in this boiling cauldron of masked identities and double crosses when police mistake him for one of the robbers. The action moves to a Mexican fishing resort where, released from police custody, Rolfe has tracked the robbers.
Things get sticky when Foster’s law student daughter, Helen (Coleen Gray), shows up unexpectedly, and stickier still when she takes a shine to Rolfe, and he to her — as if Foster didn’t already have enough on his mind.
Careful planning and hard work can sometimes yield rich rewards, except in the heist business — where even diligent crooks never get to enjoy the soft retirement they’re after. For them, it seems, dreams are destined to remain nothing more than dreams.
— Paul Parcellin