Kansas City Confidential [DVD] [1952]

A good example of what second-feature B movies were all about: Not too bad, not too good, 24 Aug 2007

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C. O. DeRiemer (San Antonio, Texas, USA) –

  

  

Is Kansas City Confidential a noir? Some critics think so. Some have even gone so far as to praise the movie. For me, the film is just one more B-level programmer, churned out in the thousands during the Forties and early Fifties to fill out double bills. The one thing it has going for it is a clever plot idea that combines a crime caper with a resentful Mr. Big who disliked being placed on forced retirement. Is that enough to take the premise seriously? I don’t think so, but the way the payback for the retirement is planned and carried out isn’t bad.

The movie turns on two plot pivots. First is a bank heist. Three tough guys are recruited by Mr. Big, who wears a mask. He makes the others wear masks, too. Only Mr. Big knows who everyone is. Their getaway leaves behind an innocent patsy, Joe Rolfe (John Payne), a war hero who once got in trouble with the law. After the Kansas City police try to beat a confession out of him, they realize they have the wrong man and let him go. Joe gets mad and decides to track the robbers down.

The second pivot centers on a small Mexican resort village where Mr. Big and the three accomplices have gathered, months later, to split the loot. Joe has taken the identity of one of them, Pete Harris. Joe had tracked Harris down and was forcing him to go together to the resort. By coincidence, Harris was gunned down by police at the Tijuana airport while Joe was at the ticket counter. Complicating things is Tim Foster (Preston Foster), a retired police captain from Kansas City who likes to fish, and his daughter, Helen (Coleen Gray). Helen, soon to pass her bar exam, showed up unexpectedly to visit her father. We’re often reminded that there is a substantial reward for whoever captures the crooks and finds the money. There are beatings, slappings, double crosses, cold-blooded murder, noble sacrifice and a promised happy ending for Joe and Helen. A lot goes on, but it’s something of a slog to get to Joe’s and Helen’s big kiss.

Second bill programmers were most often noted for only adequate acting, workmanlike but often clunky scripts, music scores that telegraphed what we were supposed to be feeling and the barest budgets the studios could get away with. This didn’t mean that the movies were bad, just that there needed to be something — an occasional standout script, or a solid actor, or an unusual concept or mood — to make the movie worth remembering. With Kansas City Confidential we have, to my way of thinking, just two things that stand out. First, is that clever plot idea. Second, are the actors who play the three goons recruited by Mr. Big. There’s Neville Brand playing Boyd Kane. Kane is dumb and violent. Brand’s tough features and rough voice make him believable. There’s Lee Van Cleef as Tony Romano, smooth and sleazy…not a guy you’d want to leave your daughter alone with. And there’s Jack Elam as Pete Harris, a sweaty chain smoker, a squirming coward unless he’s holding the gun. With Harris, you can almost smell his cigarette breath and body odor. Elam really does a fine job. But then we have John Payne as the hero. Payne, in my opinion, was a handsome, colorless, reactive actor. He acts tough, but it’s as phony as Robert Stack acting tough in House of Bamboo. While I doubt even Bogart or Cagney could do much with lines like this, “I know a sure cure for a nosebleed: a cold knife in the middle of the back,” Payne just looks irritable when he says it. Coleen Gray doesn’t help much; her job is to be perky and sympathetic, almost in spite of the dialogue: Says Joe Rolfe, “Look, you’re a nice girl, but in case you’re thinking of mothering me, forget it! I’m no stray dog you can pick up, and I like my neck without a collar. Now get lost!” Says Helen, “Now I’m supposed to be hurt. Maybe even cry. But I won’t. I think you’re in trouble, and I’m going to help you!”

My advice: Watch it and learn what programmers were about. You might find you like it well enough. The film is in the public domain. The Image version is so-so; too dark and with too much contrast. It’s not as bad as some public domain releases are. There are a few extras, including a cream-puff interview with Coleen Gray by noir specialist Eddie Muller. He also provides liner notes for an insert in the DVD case.

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