Kansas City Confidential (1952 American film noir)

Kansas City Confidential is a 1952 American film noir and crime film directed by Phil Karlson starring John Payne and Coleen Gray. The film was released in the United Kingdom as The Secret Four. Karlson and Payne teamed a year later for 99 River Street, another film noir, followed by Hell's Island, a film noir in color.

Plot
The ruthless Mr. Big is timing the arrival of an armored car picking up money from a bank and a flower delivery truck. He plans to rob the armored car with three men: Peter Harris (a gambler wanted for murder); Boyd Kane (a cop killer); and Tony Romano (a womanizing get-away driver). When interviewing them, he wears a mask so they cannot identify him. They were selected because each has a reason for fleeing the US.

The plan includes using a duplicate flower delivery truck. The robbery and pursuit go as planned, with each crook wearing a mask so none can identify each other. The gang arrives in the look-alike floral truck as Rolfe, unaware, drives away. The gang subdues the armored car guards, grabs the money and flees. Mr. Big gives each gang member a torn King playing card. He tells them to hang on to the cards and that, in case something goes wrong, and Mr. Big cannot make it, the cards will serve to identify them to whoever he sends. The other members await the payment in Mexico.

Cast
John Payne as Joe Rolfe
Coleen Gray as Helen Foster
Preston Foster as Tim Foster
Neville Brand as Boyd Kane
Lee Van Cleef as Tony Romano
Jack Elam as Pete Harris
Dona Drake as Teresa
Mario Siletti as Tomaso
Howard Negley as Andrews
Carleton Young as Martin
Don Orlando as Diaz
Ted Ryan as Morelli

Background
Kansas City Confidential was the only film made by Edward Small's short-lived Associated Players and Producers, a company formed by Small, Sol Lesser and Sam Briskin. It was the first of a 13-movie deal Small signed with United Artists in 1952, with ten to be made in the first year. John Payne said he owned 25% of the film.

The movie originally was called Kansas City 117, the title based on a police code. Small bought the title Kansas City Confidential from John Gait and Lee Montgomery. It was the first contemporary crime drama Small made after a series of swashbucklers.

Filming started June 4, 1952, and was partly shot on Santa Catalina Island, California, which stood in for a Mexican village resort.

The story begins in Kansas City, but most of the film actually takes place at a fictitious fishing resort, Borados, in Mexico. Kansas City Confidential was director Karlson's second crime film; he also directed Scandal Sheet, also released in 1952, which proved to be a modest commercial success. Karlson was "a gifted filmmaker who had recently graduated from the Poverty Row studio Monogram"; the film starred John Payne, a "popular singer of the 1940s who some say was working his way down from Technicolor musicals at 20th Century Fox" but after his Fox contract expired produced several of his own films.

Reception
The film was popular enough to usher in a series of "confidential" films from Edward Small: New York Confidential, Chicago Confidential, and Hong Kong Confidential.

Critical response
Variety wrote "With exception of the denouement, director Phil Karlson reins his cast in a grim atmosphere that develops momentum through succeeding reels. Payne delivers an impressive portrayal of an unrelenting outsider who cracks the ring. Time magazine said the film "combines a 'perfect crime' plot with some fair-to-middling moviemaking ... Obviously, the 'confidential' of the title does not refer to the picture's plot, which is a very model of transparency." Bosley Crowther of The New York Times was not a fan, writing that Kansas City Confidential "appears designed—not too adroitly—just to stimulate the curious and the cruel. The screen play by George Bruce and Harry Essex is an illogical fable of crime, the direction by Phil Karlson is routine and the leading role is bluntly acted by John Payne. Neville Brand, Jack Elam and Preston Foster do not shine in other roles, except as drab exponents of the violence that suffuses and corrupts this measly film.