Kansas City Confidential (1952)
The movie opens with an introductory crawl, claiming the following story is even more shocking than any recorded tale in the history of Kansas City law enforcement. It doesn't provide any exposition, just hypes the film to an audience that already bought their tickets.
Fade to a shot of Kansas City's Union Station. Union Station was the site of the notorious Kansas City Massacre of 1933, in which five local and federal officers and the prisoner they were transporting were shot dead. A group of armed conspirators ambushed the lawmen in a botched attempt to free the prisoner. It was in the aftermath of this shootout, the FBI transformed itself into a full-fledged law-enforcement agency with complete powers of arrest and firepower to match their foes. The now-mythic story of the war between gangsters and G-Men across Midwest America in the 30's was born here.
Also important to note is the "wide open" reputation Kansas City had, making it a well-suited location for a crime flick. Kansas City was infamous for it's machine politics, jazz venues that disregarded liquor and hours laws, and organized crime factions who warred well into the 1970's.
Karlson uses some nice narrative devices to lead us into the story. First we see Tim Foster (Preston Foster) watching the bank across the street and taking notes on a map of the daily comings and goings. Though were not explicitly told the purpose of his surveillance, we can easily speculate his motives. Next, we're introduced to the gang Foster assembles for his plot. We figure out which archetypes they provide as they meet Foster for the first time.
First is Pete Harris (Jack Elam)—Elam steals every scene he's in, and the last half of the movie suffers from his absence. Harris is a jumpy, twitchy, type, holed-up in a flophouse hotel after killing his boss to avoid retribution for a gambling debt. He paws like a rodent through his cigarette butts and practices his craps toss on the bed, while hiding from both the cops and his former crew. Suddenly the phone starts to ring. Elam makes a great little blink-and-you'll-miss-it grab for his gun.
Karlson draws out the tension by letting the phone ring while the camera is close in on Harris' sweaty face. Elam's one askew eye seems to be constantly trying to look over his shoulder, like Peter Lorre in M. He eventually answers the phone and agrees to meet with Foster, a man who knows about his past. At Foster's hotel, Harris comes face-to-face with this man:
Understandably taken aback, Harris pulls out his revolver and puts up his tough-guy facade. Foster quickly deflates and disarms Harris, revealing him for the feckless sort he really is.
In another device common to the heist film, we learn the details of the plot as the leader (Foster) explains it to the hired-gun (Harris). Harris accepts the gig, and in a demonstrative little aside, tries to convince Foster, the man who just thoroughly emasculated him, that he can be relied upon.
The next two thugs are recruited and characterized in a more perfunctory manner, skirt-chaser Tony Romano (Lee Van Cleef)
and unflappable tough guy Boyd Kane (Neville Brand).
The heist goes down successfully and the crew makes their getaway in a fake flower delivery truck that matches a real one being driven by the patsy, and our finally-introduced protagonist, Joe Rolfe (John Payne). Of course it's Rolfe who the police nab (after some comically unwise gunfire and reckless driving) while the crooks sneak their car into the back of a tractor trailer and slip away.
It's during the getaway, we learn the purpose of masks, Foster wants no man in his crew to be able to identify any of the others, preventing one man from burning another to nab his share, or snitching to cops if he gets caught. He further explains he's going to hold onto the cash until the heat is off. He'll then summon them to collect their share. Foster tears three king playing cards in half. To ensure each man who comes to collect is who he says he is, his half card will have to match the half Foster keeps.
Meanwhile, ex-con (for an unspecified crime involving a gambling debt) gone straight Rolfe gets worked over by the police, and fired from his job. After days of beatings fail to produce a confession, the cops discover the abandoned getaway car and clear Rolfe.
Out of a job, branded as a thief, and with nothing to lose, Joe takes the task of clearing his name into his own hands. The first name he digs up of course, is the weak link of the crew, Pete Harris. Following the underworld rumors, Rolfe heads to Tijuana where he finds Harris, gambling his cash away in smoke-filled underground casino.
Rolfe gets under Harris' skin by betting against his throws. Harris jumps Rolfe in an alley and again, with a gun in his hand, feels safe putting up a thug pretense.
Rolfe talks his way out of it, but covertly follows Harris to his hotel room. Again, the hapless Harris gets disarmed, first of his gun, then of a knife.
Humbled, Harris spills everything he knows about the scheme, including the plane ticket for Barados, Mexico Foster just wired to him. Rolfe tells Harris he's coming along to Barados to collect his own share. At the airport, the police get the drop on Harris while he stands at a cigarette machine. Snakebit until the end, he instinctively grasps for the gun Rolfe already lifted from him (the same move he made when the phone rang back in Kansas City), and is shot dead by the police.
Done in by his vices: gambling, smoking, and the seduction of the gun.
Taking advantage of the circumstances, Joe Rolfe takes the name Pete Harris, and heads to Borados to get his cut. Tony Romano and Boyd Kane have already arrived in Borados, and mingle not very inconspicuously among the tourists. Romano spends his time flirting with the locals, Boyd spends his time glaring and chewing gum. Boyd learns of Romano's identity by asking the proprietor of the inn, "Who is that Vaselino?" Foster shows up too, looking much more laid back in his casual resort wear.
In Barados, we learn of Foster's backstory. The heist wasn't a mere cash-grab, his scheme is much more complex. It turns out Foster is an ex-cop who was booted from the force for politcal reasons. He orchestrated the Kansas City robbery for the purpose of ratting Harris, Romano, and Kane to the police. Foster can bring in the thieves who pulled off the Kansas City job, they can never ID him, and he'll collect the reward.
Rolfe arrives, masquerading as Harris. Also arriving in Barados is Foster's daughter, Helen. Complicating Foster's plan, Helen has taken an interest in a man she just met, "Pete Harris." Foster does a great slow burn at the news.
After a poker game, Rolfe "accidentally" reveals the half-king he lifted from Harris. Romano and Kane, take the bait and Rolfe figures them for the rest of the gang. Foster, the only one who has seen the real Harris puzzles over who this new "Harris" is.
Let's review a construction Karlson uses. First, Foster watches Rolfe from a window to his left. This calls the back the initial shots we saw of Foster in Kansas City, casing the bank from his hotel window. He hears his daughter call to Rolfe, and the camera tracks with Foster to a window to his right.
Rolfe gets jumped by Kane and Romano. It turns out Kane and Harris did time together, so he immediately saw through Rolfe's scheme. Helen unexpectedly drops in and spoils the violence.
Meanwhile, Foster baits his trap to catch the three of them, mailing out the half-kings to each with a letter to meet him at the pier tomorrow to divvy up the loot.
With one night to go, the gang turns on each other again. Romano and Kane try to jump Rolfe, but he gets the best of them. He fills them in, that the cops killed the real Pete Harris, and since he took the fall for the robbery, he deserves Pete's share.
Helen figures that Rolfe is in trouble, but he pushes her away, not wanting her involved in the increasingly dangerous scheme. Her father, knowing he's not who he claims, also wants her to stay away him.
The next morning arrives and Romano, Kane and Rolfe briefly scuffle again. Romano grabs Kane's gun, but before he can use it, Foster drives up. Still clueless to Foster's true role, the three accept a ride to the pier from him. Romano keeps a gun trained on Rolfe.
The reflection should be reversed, but still a nice shot.
Out of the indoor soundstage and shooting on the pier, the picture loses its dark contrast.
With Kane, Romano, and Rolfe making their way to the boat, Foster signals for the police. Rolfe tries to run, but gets cornered in the cabin. Lee Van Cleef is at his weaselly-best here. He shoots Kane to cut him out of the take and then turns the gun on Rolfe.
Foster arrives and gets the drop on Romano. Rolfe figures out the scheme to play the three crooks as patsies and Foster and Romano shoot each other in the ensuing scuffle. The police arrive and before he dies, Foster absolves Rolfe of any guilt. An epilogue wraps up the ends: Joe is cleared of any suspicion, Helen forgives her father, and four dead bodies later, Joe and Helen have found love.
Final Thoughts:
I'd be remiss if I didn't begin with Jack Elam. He would go onto use his walleyed mug for comic relief in future roles, but it undoubtedly works in the shadowy alleys and smoky gambling dens of noir crime films too. He plays the role of the hapless low-man on the totem pole, but Pete Harris also serves as a dark complement to Joe Rolfe. Rolfe was a decorated was hero, Harris was probably 4F. Both Rolfe and Harris got involved in gambling debts, Rolfe does time for his, Harris tries to shoot his way out of his. Every trait that composes the handsome, brave, virtuous Rolfe has a dark analogue in the gangly, spineless, reprehensible Harris.
The two main characters—the protagonist Rolfe, and the flawed
protagonist—Foster spend the entire film flipping between their multiple
identities. Harris is also one of the many characters in this film who are constantly presenting a false identity. Elam does a remarkable job portraying two different Pete Harris's: The armed, and the unarmed. The former easily puts up a front of false bravado, barking orders, the latter is a shuddering, sputtering mess. You almost feel a bit of pathos for the poor guy—then he tries to stab you in the back. With a gun in his hand, Pete Harris looks straight ahead, fixing both eyes in a menacing glower. After his gun gets knocked away, and he eats a couple slaps, the facade drops and his left eye starts to drift. And about those slaps—is Harris slapped because he's considered not man enough to take the closed-fist punches Rolfe, Foster, Kane, and the police throw at each other throughout the film? Are Foster and Rolfe emasculating Harris by choosing to subdue him with a blow that crime films generally reserve for women?
Finally, Karlson makes liberal use of another noir standard, the man haunted by his past. Foster's bank-robbing plot was motivated by greed, but also his desire to prove he's still a worthy cop whose termination was unwarranted. Rolfe's criminal past is dragged up by cops trying to discredit his alibi. Harris is probably the most haunted, literally hiding from his past. We'll see Karlson use the man-with-a-past device again in Scandal Sheet, and The Brothers Rico.
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