Classic movie site with rare images, original ads, and behind-the-scenes photos, with informative and insightful commentary. We like to have fun with movies!
Archive and Links
grbrpix@aol.com
Search Index Here




Thursday, February 12, 2015

A Best Noir in Smallest Package

Armored Car Robbery Joins a Crowded 1950 Bill

Charles McGraw Cracks an Armored Car Robbery (1950)

Oh, what a honey of a noir! To think masterworks like this were taken so utterly for granted. RKO made it for just $203K, but still Armored Car got robbed to loss of $40,000 (only $195K in domestic rentals and $100K foreign). Weren't there critics and trade to tell everyone how nifty these 67 minutes were? Cop shows would surface on TV, making it tougher for modest features to graze. Now pics like this are revered, and rightly, Warner Instant streaming Armored Car Robbery lately in HD. Nice when a title gives you the pic's whole score, robbing fuse lit in an opener reel and chase being on from there. Charles McGraw is happily not among miscreants, him the seasoned dick beset with an immature partner. McGraw is my idea of star presence, gravel spit with every line. Heavies are the customary loser lot but for William Talman, who cuts tags out of wardrobe to avoid "loose ends." Who wrote such marvelous stuff? Credits say Earl Fenton had a hand, applied as well to RKO classics His Kind Of Woman, The Narrow Margin, more. Did this man (who died in 1972) realize how good he was? If not, the Academy should have told him. Directing was Richard Fleischer, Armored Car Robbery a calling card when he was mentioned for afterward jobs. Did Disney catch the Armored Car before offering Fleischer 20,000 Leagues in 1953? Unsure how many times I've watched this, an always joy, and evergreen forever.

11 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

One of my absolute favorites . Great script,cast and direction. McGraw and Talman perfect, on opposite sides of the law.
Can watch it again and again.
Sorry to hear it made a loss.

1:49 PM  
Blogger Michael said...

Same here! The two names I'll set the DVR for no matter what the film is are Warren William and Charles McGraw-- nearly always good, and at worst you're out less than 75 minutes!

McGraw played Rick Blaine in a Casablanca TV series in the mid 50s. I wonder if any of it survives; impossible to cast anyone else in that part, but he's one of the few I'd want to see do it.

10:00 PM  
Blogger Kurt Burgess said...

I'll take about anything from the early Fleischer days, but this one is near the top.

10:15 PM  
Blogger Neely OHara said...

Thanks John for the great recommendation. Was previously unaware of ACR, but streamed it tonight and found it a nifty little thriller.

Kept wondering if Jergens was the poor man's Virginia Mayo, or if Mayo was the poor man's Adele Jergens. Any thoughts?

And when I began to stream, I found that for some reason the Warner Archive closed captions were turned on, and during the RKO fanfare the caption read: "Grandiose music."

Cracked me up!

11:38 PM  
Blogger Dave K said...

Michael, the debut episode of the 1955 series popped up on at least one of the CASABLANCA DVD box sets (I think it was the one from 7 or 8 years ago with white die cut box).

As to ARMORED CAR ROBBERY, a real goodie! And, yeah, mention that title and the first thing I think of is Talman cutting out those labels!

9:07 AM  
Blogger Kevin K. said...

Great movie, fast and nasty.

5:32 PM  
Blogger aldi said...

I absolutely love this film! McGraw is always great and Talman too. The latter was wonderful as the psychotic hitchhiker in Ida Lupino's 1953 noir. There's a great anecdote about that on IMDB.

In an interview Talman recalled an incident that happened shortly after the release of The Hitch-Hiker (1953), in which he gave a chilling portrayal of escaped murderer and serial killer Emmett Meyers. He was driving his convertible in Los Angeles with the top down, and he stopped at a red light. Another driver in a convertible who was stopped next to him stared at him for a few seconds, then said, "You're the hitchhiker, right?" Talman nodded, indicating that he was. The other driver got out of his car, went over to Talman's car and slapped him across the face, then got back in his car and drove off. In recalling the story, Talman said, "You know, I never won an Academy Award but I guess that was about as close as I ever will come to one."

6:37 AM  
Blogger Mike Cline said...

Love ARMORED CAR ROBBERY. Showed it to my film group in 2013, and it was received BIG TIME. I'd rather watch ACR over 20,000 LEAGUES ANY time.

This and THE NARROW MARGIN are my two favorite McGraws.

11:22 AM  
Blogger Laura said...

This is such a fantastic movie! Glad to see you spotlight it. :)

Best wishes,
Laura

11:03 PM  
Blogger Jim Harwood said...

Excellent film. Interesting that it "borrows" Paul Sawtell's score from RAW DEAL for the opening credits.

12:20 AM  
Blogger rnigma said...

Of course, Talman is best remembered for playing Perry Mason's courtroom adversary Hamilton Burger. I recall seeing an old Republic B-flick, "The Man is Armed," wherein Talman played a crook pursued by Dane Clark (who played Lt. Tragg in the short-lived "New Perry Mason" in 1973).

1:17 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

grbrpix@aol.com
  • December 2005
  • January 2006
  • February 2006
  • March 2006
  • April 2006
  • May 2006
  • June 2006
  • July 2006
  • August 2006
  • September 2006
  • October 2006
  • November 2006
  • December 2006
  • January 2007
  • February 2007
  • March 2007
  • April 2007
  • May 2007
  • June 2007
  • July 2007
  • August 2007
  • September 2007
  • October 2007
  • November 2007
  • December 2007
  • January 2008
  • February 2008
  • March 2008
  • April 2008
  • May 2008
  • June 2008
  • July 2008
  • August 2008
  • September 2008
  • October 2008
  • November 2008
  • December 2008
  • January 2009
  • February 2009
  • March 2009
  • April 2009
  • May 2009
  • June 2009
  • July 2009
  • August 2009
  • September 2009
  • October 2009
  • November 2009
  • December 2009
  • January 2010
  • February 2010
  • March 2010
  • April 2010
  • May 2010
  • June 2010
  • July 2010
  • August 2010
  • September 2010
  • October 2010
  • November 2010
  • December 2010
  • January 2011
  • February 2011
  • March 2011
  • April 2011
  • May 2011
  • June 2011
  • July 2011
  • August 2011
  • September 2011
  • October 2011
  • November 2011
  • December 2011
  • January 2012
  • February 2012
  • March 2012
  • April 2012
  • May 2012
  • June 2012
  • July 2012
  • August 2012
  • September 2012
  • October 2012
  • November 2012
  • December 2012
  • January 2013
  • February 2013
  • March 2013
  • April 2013
  • May 2013
  • June 2013
  • July 2013
  • August 2013
  • September 2013
  • October 2013
  • November 2013
  • December 2013
  • January 2014
  • February 2014
  • March 2014
  • April 2014
  • May 2014
  • June 2014
  • July 2014
  • August 2014
  • September 2014
  • October 2014
  • November 2014
  • December 2014
  • January 2015
  • February 2015
  • March 2015
  • April 2015
  • May 2015
  • June 2015
  • July 2015
  • August 2015
  • September 2015
  • October 2015
  • November 2015
  • December 2015
  • January 2016
  • February 2016
  • March 2016
  • April 2016
  • May 2016
  • June 2016
  • July 2016
  • August 2016
  • September 2016
  • October 2016
  • November 2016
  • December 2016
  • January 2017
  • February 2017
  • March 2017
  • April 2017
  • May 2017
  • June 2017
  • July 2017
  • August 2017
  • September 2017
  • October 2017
  • November 2017
  • December 2017
  • January 2018
  • February 2018
  • March 2018
  • April 2018
  • May 2018
  • June 2018
  • July 2018
  • August 2018
  • September 2018
  • October 2018
  • November 2018
  • December 2018
  • January 2019
  • February 2019
  • March 2019
  • April 2019
  • May 2019
  • June 2019
  • July 2019
  • August 2019
  • September 2019
  • October 2019
  • November 2019
  • December 2019
  • January 2020
  • February 2020
  • March 2020
  • April 2020
  • May 2020
  • June 2020
  • July 2020
  • August 2020
  • September 2020
  • October 2020
  • November 2020
  • December 2020
  • January 2021
  • February 2021
  • March 2021
  • April 2021
  • May 2021
  • June 2021
  • July 2021
  • August 2021
  • September 2021
  • October 2021
  • November 2021
  • December 2021
  • January 2022
  • February 2022
  • March 2022
  • April 2022
  • May 2022
  • June 2022
  • July 2022
  • August 2022
  • September 2022
  • October 2022
  • November 2022
  • December 2022
  • January 2023
  • February 2023
  • March 2023
  • April 2023
  • May 2023
  • June 2023
  • July 2023
  • August 2023
  • September 2023
  • October 2023
  • November 2023
  • December 2023
  • January 2024
  • February 2024
  • March 2024