''Armored Car Robbery'' is a 1950 American

film noir Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...

starring Charles McGraw, Adele Jergens, and William Talman. Directed by

Richard Fleischer Richard Owen Fleischer (; December 8, 1916 – March 25, 2006) was an American film director. His career spanned more than four decades, beginning at the height of the Golden Age of Hollywood and lasting through the American New Wave. He was the ...

, ''Armored Car Robbery'' is a heist movie, which tells the story of a well-planned robbery of cash from an armored car when it stops at a sports stadium. The theft goes awry and a tough Los Angeles cop sets off in determined pursuit of the culprits.

Plot

In Los Angeles criminal mastermind Dave Purvis devises a scheme to rob an armored car on its last pickup of the day. He recruits scuffling Benny McBride, who brings in fellow low-level professional crooks Al Mapes and Ace Foster to complete the gang. Benny needs money to feed his hopeless plan to win his wife Yvonne back, a gorgeous blonde

striptease A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner. The person who performs a striptease is commonly known as a "stripper", "exotic d ...

r who lost interest in him and is seeing another man. Unbeknownst to him, it is Purvis. The robbery at minor league

Wrigley Field Wrigley Field is a ballpark on the North Side, Chicago, North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charl ...

begins as planned but goes wrong when a passing police patrol car intervenes. Purvis kills one of its officers and the gang makes its getaway. Lt. Jim Cordell, the dead cop’s partner, takes it upon himself to bring the killer to justice, and throws himself into the case, brusquely treating rookie replacement Danny Ryan. In the hail of gunfire Benny was badly wounded. Having switched to another getaway car, the four luckily pass a roadblock. When McBride demands medical attention - and his share of the loot - he’s shot dead by Purvis. Mapes sows dissent when Purvis insists he’s going to give Benny’s cut to his widow, correctly deducing they’re a thing. Foster disposes of the second getaway car carrying McBride's body in the harbor. He is then killed by the police as the three attempt to escape in a motor boat. Mapes and Purvis get away separately, with Purvis still holding all the loot. Mapes tries to meet Yvonne at the burlesque where she works, seeking a lead on Purvis. The waiting police intercept and arrest him, and learn Purvis' identity. Ryan goes

undercover A cover in foreign, military or police human intelligence or counterintelligence is the ostensible identity and role or position in an infiltrated organization assumed by a covert agent during a covert operation. Official cover In espionage, a ...

disguised as Mapes, whom Yvonne has never met. Purvis alerts her, and captures Ryan; he is shot and severely wounded while attempting to flee, but manages to inform Lt. Cordell that Purvis and Yvonne are intending to leave the country by chartered airplane from Los Angeles Metropolitan Airport. Lt. Cordell and his team corner the couple there. Purvis is run over by a landing plane as he tries to escape across the runway. The money is recovered. As Ryan heals from his wound he is accepted by Cordell as a worthy partner.

Cast

* Charles McGraw as Lieutenant Jim Cordell * Adele Jergens as Yvonne LeDoux * William Talman as Dave Purvis *

Douglas Fowley Douglas Fowley (born Daniel Vincent Fowley, May 30, 1911 – May 21, 1998) was an American movie and television actor in more than 240 films and dozens of television programs. He is probably best remembered for his role as the frustrated m ...

as Benny McBride * Steve Brodie as Al Mapes * Don McGuire as Detective Danny Ryan * James Flavin as Lieutenant Phillips * Gene Evans as William 'Ace' Foster

Production

The film was based on a story by Charles Pete and Richard Carroll about a $500,000 robbery, based on a 1934 robbery at Rubel Ice Company. Originally called ''Gravesend Bay'' it was sold to RKO in March 1949. Robert Ryan was meant to play the rookie cop. The studio retitled it ''Code No 3''.RKO TO FILM LIFE OF JOHN BRODERICK: Jerry Gottlieb to Produce Here in Late Fall 'Broadway's One-Man Riot Squad' By THOMAS F. BRADY New York Times 22 Aug 1949: 14. In August 1949 Earl Felton was assigned to write the script. Herman Schlom was producer and

was to direct. Charles McGraw was cast in December 1949. The film was filmed on location in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

over 16 days. Locations include

and the Metropolitan Airport.

Reception

Critical response

'' Variety'' magazine gave the film a mixed review, calling it an okay film, and wrote, "RKO has concocted an okay cops-and-robbers melodrama ... ndMcGraw, Don McGuire and James Flavin, as cops, do very well. Talman and his cohorts put plenty of color into their heavy assignments. Adele Jergens attracts as a stripteaser and Talman's romantic interest". '' Time Out Film Guide'' review lauded the film and called it "a model of its time". They wrote, "Almost documentary in its account of the heist that goes wrong and the police procedures that are set in motion, making excellent use of LA locations, it relies on superb high contrast lighting to meld reality into the characteristic noir look". According to

American studies American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary field of scholarship that examines American literature, History of the United States, history, Society of the United States, society, and Culture of the Unit ...

and film professor, Bob Porfirio, ''Armored Car Robbery'' possesses the "film noir visual style" of the many RKO crime and suspense films of the early 1950s, such as: high-contrast photography integrating studio and location shooting, expressionistic lighting,

deep focus Deep focus is a photographic and cinematographic technique using a large depth of field. Depth of field is the front-to-back range of focus (optics), focus in an image, or how much of it appears sharp and clear. In deep focus, the foreground, midd ...

, and haunting music (by Roy Webb). Film critic Roger Fristoe believed director Richard Fleischer pushed the boundaries of the

Motion Picture Production Code The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the Cinema of the United States, United States from 1934 to 1968. It ...

. One edict was, "Methods of crime shall not be explicitly presented or detailed in a manner calculated to...inspire imitation." ''Armored Car Robbery'', however, had a blunt title, explicit violence and a detailed account of the planning and execution of the crime. As such, even though the criminals are caught, ''Armored Car Robbery'' tested the waters and helped set the stage for other ''films noir'' and heist films like '' The Killing'' (1956), which shares some similarities.

Home media

Warner Bros. released the film on DVD on July 13, 2010, in its ''Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 5''.Abrams, Simon. "Film Noir Classic Collection: Volume 5." SlantMagazine.com. July 20, 2010.
Accessed 2011-11-19.

References

External links

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Armored Car Robbery
at Letterbox DVD {{Richard Fleischer 1950 films 1950s crime thriller films American crime thriller films American black-and-white films American heist films 1950s English-language films Film noir Films about organized crime in the United States Films set in Los Angeles RKO Pictures films Films directed by Richard Fleischer Films scored by Roy Webb 1950s police films 1950s heist films Films scored by Paul Sawtell 1950s American films English-language crime thriller films