Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

PodBill Just what I expected

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

blanche-2 Charles McGraw and Joan Dixon face a "Roadblock" in this 1951 film also starring Milburn Stone of "Gunsmoke" fame and Lowell Gilmore. McGraw is Joe Peters, an insurance detective who meets a beautiful, sexy woman, Diane, while traveling home by airplane after a case. The whole airplane thing was interesting in itself - spouses could fly half-price, I guess (as the Dixon character claims she and Joe are married so she can do so - she didn't have to show ID either). And though it still happens, it's less common to board from outdoors today.Joe falls hard for Diane, but she isn't interested - he's not in her league. She wants someone who will spend big money on her. One night, Joe sees her in a club where he's on an investigation, and she's with the biggest mobster in town, Kendall Webb (Gilmore). Eventually, Joe's and Diane's passion get the better of them. Webb warns Joe that Diane's enamored state of being in love with a poor man is just temporary - once the bloom is off, she'll go for the money again. Joe decides to go into partnership with Webb and steal $1.4 million that's scheduled to be on a train.McGraw, who had a big career in television until a few years before his death in 1980, is a solid noir actor - tough and good-looking. The character of Diane, however, is the one to watch. Dixon, helped by the script, gives her many layers and leaves you wondering (though you do know the answer) - was she a big chiseler or did she really care?"Roadblock" is good and interesting if implausible - Joe gets himself in deeper and deeper. It's hard to believe he would turn that dramatically that quickly. It's a minor point in a way because it's still an atmospheric noir.

Ray Faiola This picture shows just how GOOD an actor Charles McGraw was. The fact that he could get away with some of George Bricker's classic clinkers is testament to his low key but earnest energy. Bricker has stunk up more scripts (SH! THE OCTOPUS, HOUSE OF HORRORS are two of his most notorious) and he doesn't disappoint with ROADBLOCK. Couple Bricker's dialogue with the clumsy direction of Harold Daniels and you have a bunch of actors who are mostly off their game (especially struggling Joan Dixon). The scenario is outstanding and could have been developed into a genuine classic noir. But it turns out pretty routine, even turning the unique idea of a chase in the LA river bed into a pretty tame action sequence. Paul Sawell revives some of his DICK TRACY music for Square Jaw McGraw. Louis Jean Heydt has a larger role than usual and he's quite good, as is Milburn Stone as a Federal Man. Lowell Gilmore is strictly third-rate George Macready. It's a woulda-coulda-shoulda but still a painless way to kill 70 minutes.

Fleapit Billed as the story of an insurance investigator who goes crooked to please his femme fatale but there the similarity with "Double Indemnity" ends. No twists or turns, no subtleties, this story is told as it is. A plain straightforward account that becomes almost predictable as the plot slowly unwinds from one situation to the next inevitable one. Nevertheless it's good yarn and well worth seeing. Better than your average B film. The outdoor footage gives a good impression of LA circa 1950. Ends with a thrilling police car chase on the LA river(?) and the villain ? ....... we'll you'll have to see it yourself.

Mark Askew This is a typical film noir of the period and , in my opinion, this is no bad thing. It follows all the typical patterns of a hundred other B-movies of a similar type of it's day. Shadowy photography, good man laid low by the femme fatale, a few seedy gangsters thrown in, all the ingredients are there. If you're not a big fan of noir then you might switch off after 30 minutes exclaiming that "I've seen it all before", and you'd be right. Personally I love the genre and thought this was a competently made movie with good performances by the leading actors. McGraw is perfect as the law-abiding detective seduced into lawlessness by the siren of the piece (Dixon).If you like film noir check ROADBLOCK out. If you don't then maybe this movie's not for you.