Kansas City Confidential

Unlucky Joe And The Torn In Half Kings.

Kansas City Confidential (AKA: The Secret Four) is directed by Phil Karlson and written by George Bruce and Harry Essex. It stars John Payne, Preston Foster, Coleen Gray, Neville Brand, Jack Elam and Lee Van Cleef. Music is by Paul Sawtell and cinematography by George E. Diskant. Plot sees four robbers hold up an armoured truck and get away with over a million dollars. Sadly for everyday and ordinary Joe Rolfe (Payne), he's set up and accused of being involved in the robbery. But he wont go down without a fight, and promptly calls upon his dark half to seek out the actual culprits himself.

"In the police annals of Kansas City are written lurid chapters concerning the exploits of criminals appre...

This is quite a clever, well paced crime-noir with a really rather good performance from John Payne as "Joe", a former soldier/ex-con who, whilst on his routine flower-delivery rounds - ends up getting framed for a massive armed robbery. Luckily for him, the police can't press charges - all the robbers wore masks - and so he decides to track down the thugs and claim a share of the cash for himself. You get where this is going early on, but when you see Jack Elam and Lee Van Cleef on the cast list, you know that you are in for a bumpy ride. There are plenty of crosses and double-crosses as he and the gang (none of whom know the identity of their criminal mastermind) try to get to Mexico and to the loot. It's a good end-to-end action adventur...