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Tuesday, September 18, 2018

ROADBLOCK 1951 (WARNER ARCHIVE)

Excellent film noir from RKO.

Charles McGraw stars as Joe Peters, an honest insurance investigator who does his job well and is always on top of things. One day after a case is solved he is heading back to Los Angeles when he meets a woman named Diane (Joan Dixon).

He falls for her in a bad way, but she just tells him he doesn't have money enough for a woman like her. Joe is a little put off by that, but he still has the hots for her and continues to pursue her.

After he sees her with a top gangster named Kendall Webb (Lowell Gilmore), Peters decides to go to Webb with a plan to steal millions in a daring postal train heist. He wants 1/3 of the take so he can have enough money to make Diane happy.

However, Diane has had a change of heart since she knows Joe loves her for who she is and not anything else. They eventually get married, but Joe is in too deep with Webb on the heist and has to go thru with it. The robbery goes off as planned, but Joe and his partner Harry Miller (Louis Jean Heydt) are assigned to the case.

Things fall apart quickly and before you know it Joe is a wanted man for murder. The film's climax takes place in the Los Angeles river, which many viewers will recognize from the film made by Warner Brothers 3 years later called "Them". It's one of the first times this little thing called a river was shown to movie audiences.

The ending is typical of film noir...everyone who was associated with the robbery or with Joe has their lives altered or destroyed, especially Diane. McGraw plays his character perfectly, as he always does in every movie I have ever seen him in.

If you're a noir fan and haven't seen this yet, you should. RECOMMENDED!!

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