Kansas City Confidential

Kansas City Confidential is a 1952 film noir crime film directed by Phil Karlson and starring John Payne. Karlson and Payne teamed up a year later for another noir, titled 99 River Street, followed by a 1955 color film, Hell's Island. In Kansas City Confidential, perennial movie bad guys Lee Van Cleef, Neville Brand and Jack Elam play thugs and criminal associates. Although the title would suggest that the story takes place in Kansas City, most o... more

Kansas City Confidential is a 1952 film noir crime film directed by Phil Karlson and starring John Payne. Karlson and Payne teamed up a year later for another noir, titled 99 River Street, followed by a 1955 color film, Hell's Island. In Kansas City Confidential, perennial movie bad guys Lee Van Cleef, Neville Brand and Jack Elam play thugs and criminal associates. Although the title would suggest that the story takes place in Kansas City, most of the film actually takes place at a fictitious fishing resort in Mexico. The tag line for the film was, "Exploding like a gun in your face!" 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. This movie's plot was the inspiration for Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs. Four robbers hold up an armored truck getting away with over a million dollars in cash. Joe Rolfe (John Payne), a down-on-his-luck flower delivery truck driver is... less