Kansas City Confidential
by Phil Karlson
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Coleen Gray, John Payne, Lee Van Cleef, Neville Brand, Preston FosterDirector: Phil Karlson
Writer: John Payne
Writer: Phil Karlson
Producer: Edward Small
Writer: George Bruce
Writer: Harold Greene
Writer: Harry Essex
Writer: Rowland Brown
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); Spanish (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 99 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-08-27
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Alpha Video
Movie Reviews of Kansas City Confidential
Movie Review: A slick plot with an eclectic cast of unique characters make this film a winner!
Summary: 5 Stars
This review is for the 2002 Alpha/Gotham DVD
The movie starts with a mysterious man named Tim Foster (Preston Foster) trying to pull off the perfect robbery. We don't know much about this mastermind and neither do the three crooks, Boyd Kane (Neville Brand), Pete Harris (Jack Elam) and Tony Romano (Lee Van Cleef) who were essentially blackmailed into being his accomplices. In all phases of the recruiting, planning and execution of the robbery, Foster keeps his identity a secret by wearing a mask and so do his coerced thugs so if anyone does get caught, the others are protected from a potential stool pigeon. The robbery goes off without a hitch, but unfortunately at the expense of patsy name Joe Rolfe (John Payne). After the police finally come to the conclusion that someone setup Rolfe and the real crooks got away, Rolfe is released, and decides to track down the vermin that set him up. Meanwhile, the four robbers go their separate ways with Foster taking the loot with a plan to meet the rest of the gang in Mexico to divide up the money. Rolfe manages to tail Harris and later meets up with the remaining criminals at a Mexican resort and this sets up a suspenseful and thrilling second half of the film. One major wrinkle is also added when Foster's daughter Helen (Colleen Gray) drops in by surprise to visit her father at the resort in the midst of this complex and potentially explosive situation.
For being a public domain, low cost DVD, I was pleasantly surprised how well this story was intelligently crafted. Tim Foster not only masterminds a slick robbery, but figures out a brilliant means of settling things up with his cohorts in Mexico - of course to his own advantage. John Payne is impressive in this leading role and based on this performance, I'm surprised he didn't have a much more successful career as a leading actor. The three young accomplices, Brand, Elam and Van Cleef all did an exceptional job in their roles and of course each went on to have successful movie careers over several decades. I highly recommend this film, especially to someone who appreciates the classic era of post-WWII noir pictures.
This is an Alpha/Gotham DVD and they typically turn out poor quality presentations of older movies. The picture quality of this film is actually very good by their track record, but still far from the standards one would expect from a major studio. It's still lacks sharpness and has plenty of noticeable flaws over the course of the movie, but the picture is still very viewable.
Movie: A-
DVD Quality: C
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