Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

glennallentolbert A superb cast of characters. Interesting, suspenseful. Well filmed. One of the better films of the time.

milam_ogden I decided to review this film noir today because it is opening at the Film Noir festival in San Francisco. I own a copy and usually watch it once a year. I have watched it seven (7) times over the last ten years.Phil Karlson directs and utilized a variety of actors who are recognizable in the film noir genre. These include: John Payne, Coleen Gray, Preston Foster, Neville Brand, Jack Elam and Lee Van Cleef. The plot gets complicated in Mexico because Foster's daughter (i.e Coleen Grey) falls for the anti-hero Joe Rolfe (John Payne).The plot is multi-layered and involves all the major actors. Justice prevails after a number of plot twists in a sleepy, isolated resort in Mexico.

MisterWhiplash The surprising part of Kansas City Confidential - which was paired somewhat wisely with Reservoir Dogs on a Heist-movie double feature (thing in common? attempted anonymity among thieves) - is how for a 1952 code-era B-movie it does its hardest to be as bad*** as it can be in a tale of double crosses and payback. It's also the kind of B-movie that you kind of have to be a fan of these old-school down-n-dirty early 50's B-noir movies; there aren't any big stars (the two most recognizable faces to me were Western character actors Jack Elam and Lee Van Cleef), and one has to be taken along by the hard style of storytelling. The heist in the movie takes place early on, as a mysterious older tough-guy brings in three crooks - Pete Harris, Boyd Kane, and Tony Romano, each good at at least something criminal be it getaway driving or cop-killing - and plots and executes an armored car robbery of a Western Union truck. Trouble is there's a patsy truck driving around and the guy driving it, Joe Rolfe, ex-war veteran and once gambler, is brought in for questioning - HARD questioning. You know, the kind that leaves a fella bruised and beaten and found somewhat innocent as it wasn't his truck.Joe decides he must clear his name, and through a connection heads down to Tijuana, first to track Pete Harris (the shifty eyed Jack Elam steals his own scenes as a half-p*ssed half-nervous wreck with a permanent lazy eye), and then to another location where everyone else in on the robbery will meet up... including (dun-dun-dun!) the mastermind, who doubles as a retired police chief! Oh there are some twists and turns in the story, not least of which how Joe falls for the 'dame' of the piece, the retired police chief/criminal boss' daughter who just happens to be studying for her Bar exam to be a lawyer! And maybe Joe isn't who he says he is, at least at first. The kind of close-ups and reaction-exchanges that these characters have at various points (framed with the utmost attention to distrust and sweat and grit and grimace by director Phil Karlson) are the stuff film noir is made for - in black and white of course on a low budget.It would be one thing if the story was decent enough, and it is, and at the end as these things sometimes go everything is tied up neat and tidy. But its getting there that brings the suspense, and shots like the one up above, where a moment gets very intense and is stretched out to a point that seems extreme for 1952. Karlson isn't about to let the characters play-act their roles: they're gangsters through and through who might just skate by the law and into their hundreds of G's (or maybe more). So, the stakes get raised in how situations erupt and mayhem sizzles slowly to a boil. Maybe the director knew he could get away with a little more violence and brutality in the B-movie system, and it works for the story that he's telling. This is about men who are conniving and double- crossing monsters and the protagonist could be one step away from being one himself if he loses his path as a sympathetic character (the actor in the role of Joe, John Payne, does a good job of gaining our sympathy, and rooting for him as he gets into his "double" role at the hotel-resort). The other big success for the movie is the script. The dialog crackles with that too-tough-to-handle noir-ish dialog that knows, a lot of times, how clever and funny it is. This is a movie where the hero says lines like, "I know a sure case for a nosebleed: a cold knife in the middle of the back," or when Tony, with his little 'lady' at the resort (Lee Van Cleef, ever the ladies man, however handsome in his early years), looks at something she wants for 11 dollars and quips, "Everything around here is 11 bucks!" But this is just the clever stuff. What works is at what's at the heart of the story: a guy who knows what's right, sees what the score is, and how he can connive his way with the other fellas. It doesn't aim for the bleachers, but it goes far enough to score as the kind of after-the-heist movie where up until the last few minutes one can keep guessing who will go next or what hand will be revealed.Oh, and that Helen Foster is a nice little number, appearing at one point in a bathing suit, too...

Dalbert Pringle Favorite Movie Quote: "Hey, Tony - I know a sure-fire cure for a bloody nose - An ice-cold knife, right in the back!" Brutal. Hard-edged. Unflinching.1952's Kansas City Confidential (KCC, for short) is Film Noir at its absolute best. Like a keg of TNT going off, KCC's story features plenty of bare-knuckle violence that's sure to please any fan of the genre.In this super-tough Action/Drama, actor John Payne is perfectly cast as ex-con, Joe Rolf.Trying to go straight, Rolf soon finds himself set up as a patsy after an armoured car robbery of 1.2 million dollars takes place in broad daylight by 4 masked thugs who make their get-away, quick and clean.Picked up on suspicion by Kansas City police, Rolf is grilled mercilessly for a confession and even beaten till he can hardly stand on his own two feet. But Rolf is too tough to crack, especially since he had no part in the crime.Released from jail and soon on the lam, Rolf, taking on the identity of a dead hood named Pete Harris, heads down to Mexico on a lead, in hopes of tracking down the true villains who set him up and, thus, prove his own innocence.KCC is great entertainment. This is the very film that inspired director Quentin Tarantino for his picture Reservoir Dogs.Even though Roger Moore is credited as being part of KCC's cast, I can't recall seeing him in the film. And I've watched this movie, now, 4 times.