One … Two … Three! Oh,wait, I forgot Simon says!
Kansas City Confidential (1952) is a coolish sample of near-film noir. With World War II in the rear view mirror, Kansas City is rife with unemployed former soldiers. While most are harmless, a few are not. Mr. Big, a pseudonym, wants to pull off the perfect crime, so when he picks his three minions, one by one and vets each, he remains masked and unidentifiable; he specifies all should be masked for the actual crime in order to keep the perpetrators anonymous if one is picked up. The plan is an armored truck hit at its most vulnerable moment, open to pick up funds from the bank. In order to throw off the cops, they use a flower delivery truck that mimics a flower delivery truck that always shows up on the same route, every day, in front of the bank.
As the flower delivery truck glides away to deliver to its various customers, the heist occurs. All goes smoothly, if not interpersonally, as the four masked men have the usual clashes of men addicted to the quick fix, but they make it out and away, with Mr Big promising cuts when the heat drops off.
Meanwhile, the cops pick up the delivery truck driver, a World War II vet named Rolfe, with some minor offenses on his record, and the cops work him over. Despite promises of success by the cop, Rolfe survives the night and is released on evidence indicating his innocence.
But he’s not happy, and, working his own connections, he discovers one of the minions is headed for the gambling mecca of Tijuana, so off he goes. From here on in, the plot is dictated by the nature of the choices made by all these men, and I shan’t reveal more, except to say that, for some characters, there is a happy ending, and thus I can’t quite call it film noir.
But I can say that, if not fascinating, it was interesting and believable. Characters are worked out in careful detail, so each action-reaction is more than plausible – it just about had to occur as depicted.
But the nature of the story, and the unremitting greed of the bad guys, made it hard to connect with any of the characters in the gang, and Rolfe is also a bit cold and distant. A hook to motivate the robbers beyond sordid stupidity would have improved the story, and Rolfe, despite opportunity, did the story no real favors. The script needed a rewrite.
But it was an almost satisfying chunk of story. Hunt it down if you’re wondering what to do for an hour and a half or so. And then ask how you would have modified it to make it more interesting.
