Kansas City Confidential

Hell yeah, I'm putting this up there with my favourite noirs. Sure it's not as slick and classy as some but you can't beat it for sheer entertainment and grittiness.

An excellent Hitchcockian "wrong man" style noir. An innocent man takes the fall for a bank heist he had nothing to do with, and sets out to find those who framed him. Lots of desperation, double-crosses, tough guys and rough beatings. John Payne is damn near a dead ringer for Jimmy Stewart, not only in looks but in mannerisms as well, and even a little in the voice. The film has some really clever plotting and keeps you wondering how everything's going to resolve itself. Highly entertaining.

Tightly scripted crime story. John Payne feels like a rougher version of Jimmy Stewart, likable but intense and he gives a great performance as the patsy trying to discover who framed him for a robbery. At times the plot is a tad far fetched, but it comes together well enough that it's not much of a concern. The supporting actors are pretty good too, really adding to the seedy feel, while Coleen Gray is a charming leading lady.

Very enjoyable late B-noir, substituting the urban setting with a holiday resort. Rarely has noir been this hard-boiled and downright sweaty.

Well thought out, but the acting was pretty sketchy.

Pretty good, the noirish elements oriented toward finding justice in America. Interesting, then, that the protagonist has to leave the country to find justice and receive some kind of compensation for his troubles. The story is cleverly done as well, with the criminals becoming the unreliable (to one another) investigators. Throwing in the female lead as a representative of the law, but who is essentially powerless, was a nice touch as well.

Enjoyable noir/"wrong man" procedural that features a ridiculous amount of men slapping each other. All the twists and turns will keep you from paying too much attention to the slightly dull acting of the then-mostly-unknown cast.

I just finished "The Hitch-Hiker", a movie that made me wonder why they never tried to take the gun from the bad guy. In this movie, it's a sure thing that if someone is pointing a gun at somebody else, it's going to be taken away. Super easy, barely an inconvenience.

There are aspects that could have been more raw, but I really enjoyed this noir with John Payne trying to clear his name, hunting down the gang that framed him. Especially the casting of Lee Van Cleef and bug-eyed Jack Elam helped set the mood. Dangerous outcasts hiding out for the big pay. And I loved the games at play here. There is a lot going on and it's really entertaining.

Very clever plot and a great cast of character actors including Lee Van Cleef, Neville Brand, and Jack Elam. Payne is good in the lead role, too. This was probably a B picture, as the director and most of the talent are not big names, but it works really well. Solid stuff.

This is one tough little crime flick. It's hard to top the combination of Elam, Van Cleef and Brand, and Payne is no slouch in the tough guy racket. There's lots of posturing and punching and threatening with guns ... great stuff.

I can't really rate this highly, with it being so unlikely and fanciful at every turn, not to mention the ridiculously cheesy ending. Still, it has a far more interesting story than most noirs do, enough to be enjoyable just for that. It also has Lee Van Cleef and Jack Elam (later staples of the revisionist western) in supporting roles, and they at least gave the mandatory sexist caricature of a lovestruck woman a real profession (law) which is something. Better than most of Phil Karlson's.

Em honra do centenário de Colleen Gray e dos 70 anos de lançamento. Filmaço que me chocou o fato dele ainda não ter sido lançado na coleção de Filme Noir da Versátil, acho também que é de conhecimento geral que foi uma das inspirações do Tarantino para Cães de Aluguel. A cada filme que vejo do Phil Karlson, mais me parece que é um cineasta que foi subestimado dentro do peso da história. BlurayRip RARBG.

It's a hell of a lot of fun watching Preston Foster, Neville Brand, Lee Van Cleef and Jack Elam play bad dudes who at times wear some of the coolest masks in cinema history. I could watch Van Cleef and Dora Drake flirt with each other all day, made even better as Tony Romano is getting fleeced by Teresa(his new Mexican dame)! Unfortunately, John Payne lacks the on-screen chutzpah to play a convincing hero; the role really needed someone like Charlton Heston.

Viewed April 20, 2021.

I wish Kansas City Confidential's focus was on Tim Foster, the antagonist instead of boring straight man Joe Rolfe. That being said, But, with that said, this is an excellent noir that is complex, entertaining, and even a little critical. There are smarter, darker, and better noirs, but Kansas City Confidential hangs with the big boys due to its original set-up and antagonist.

So, what? Is he planning on never mentioning any of that to her?

Enjoyable first half, but the distance between my sensibility and that enforced by the Hayes Code was particularly pronounced in the second, where I was reluctant to watch a vengeful flower delivery driver and his budding romance steadily break up a perfectly good criminal conspiracy.

It actually took me a few attempts just to finish.

Intriguing story that keeps you guessing as it plays out with enough unexpected twists and turns. Unfortunately it does paint itself into a bit of a corner by the end and we're not given a very clever or satisfactory ending. There's some nice grit and grim showcased here though without too many Hollywood trappings outside of the shoehorned love story. Can't say it would hold up to multiple viewings however.

A good-old fashioned noir until the final moments, and even with the hokey romance, it's still a very good film.

75.375

I really enjoyed this Film Noir. There are some interesting plot twists and some good characters. If you like older films definitely check this one out.

Very exciting, with a good sense of style, an interesting story and pretty good performances. My only real complaint is that the dialogue between Payne and Coleen Gray is really hokey.

"Falls into that rarefied early-'50s cycle of noir, which benefited from B directors who had learned how to quickly dispense with the genre conventions and deliver brutal action and lurid innuendos." - Sean Howe

A well done Film-Noir with good acting and a decent plot.The ending was very good and worked with the rest of the film.

LVC!

Good workman-like heist film, tautly directed by Karlson. Preston Foster--always adequate--is surprisingly good in this, and with three cheap hoods like Lee Van Cleef, Jack Elam and Neville Brand, there's a lot of really cool menacing and posturing, not to mention a few maniacal grins.

dated viewed: 9/9/10. dvd cover indicates this is within the realm of film noir, however, it is strictly a b-heist flick.....and an average one at that. interesting only for the very young lee van cleef (avec des cheveux).

Gritty, well-plotted noir with a great central performance from John Payne as an ex-con who, in the attempt to clear himself from a frame-up, finds himself embroiled in another frame-up. The story has passing similarities to Reservoir Dogs.