Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

Console best movie i've ever seen.

Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Paularoc This is a fast paced crime thriller involving a well synchronized heist of $500,000 from a train. Insurance investigator Charlie Norman (Stevens) and railroad detective Joe Armstrong (Calder) are called in to investigate the crime. The gang of thieves seem to have thought of everything and covered their tracks well. But then things start to unravel and the gang's leader kills one of gang members who is on the verge of telling all to the police. Armstrong is a dogged detective who pays attention to the smallest detail and whose motto is "There's no such thing as a perfect crime." That's certainly so in this case. Stevens does an okay job as Charlie Norman but he doesn't have a particularly striking screen presence and often delivers his lines too flatly. Even so, this movie has a couple of great twists and maintains interest throughout

Robert J. Maxwell Mark Stevens, who also directed, is Charlie Norman, an insurance investigator. He seems to be a casual guy, chummy with his boss, married to a dull but loyal woman, leading a customary suburban life. We see him called in a case involving the robbery of half a million dollars from a train. The photography is flat, the dialog routine.About a third of the way through, he's in the kitchen with his wife, and during a perfectly uninteresting conversational exchange, he slams the table and vomits a torrent of complaints. Charlie may not be what he seems.And in fact he's NOT what he seems. He's the brains behind half dozen mob members who pulled off the train robbery. He's no longer in love with his wife but with the beautiful Felicia Farr, who is married to one of the gang members. He plans to run off to Mexico City with Farr, except that the plan -- the timetable -- is upset by the fact that he's been assigned by the insurance company to his own case by his friendly boss, King Calder.Things go awry. The center does not hold. The plan unravels bit by bit, as it always does in these crime movies, and Charlie winds up killing another gang member, then a slime ball in Tijuana. He gets what's coming to him, and as he's dying in his boss's arms, like Fred MacMurray in "Double Indemnity," he gets to utter a last line -- "I guess this wasn't in the timetable either." As a director, Steven is okay. The most memorable thing about the film is the switch from flat, high-key lighting in the first third, to the murky shadows and blinking neons of the rest. It's professional, no more than that.None of the performances stand out much. Stevens has done better elsewhere ("Street With No Name," "Jack Slade"). He doesn't challenge himself here. Nobody else has too much to do. King Calder is an ordinary but reliable actor. Wesley Addy is a doctor gone bad, and he seems to fit the role with his distingué demeanor and appearance -- and those wide and unprincipled lips bespeaking weakness. At about this time, Addy also played a murderous thug in another movie -- the name of which I forget -- and he was totally unsuited for the role. Wesley Addy is a bad doctor, not a thug. Check him out as the bad doctor in "The Verdict." The structure is pretty formulaic. Gang members are at odds with one another after a caper. And the depth of character of, say, "The Asphalt Jungle" is simply absent.Don't expect much and you might enjoy it more.

dougdoepke Gang executes intricate train robbery, putting two insurance investigators on their trail, with a major twist.At about the time Kubrick was making a reputation with his heist film The Killing (1956), Mark Stevens put together this little gem. Unlike Kubrick's classic, this caper film doesn't rise to semi-artistic heights, but it is tight, tough, and well-acted, with some nice touches. For example, there're the surly baggage handler and the brusque airplane mechanic, both colorful bits that could have easily remained routine. Aben Kandel's script is carefully plotted, dribbling out pieces of information that keep us glued to developments-- plus that great opening hook with its careful staging. But what I especially like is his and Stevens' attention to jilted wife Ruth (Stewart). It would have been so easy to shove this plain-faced woman aside as Stevens cavorts with the lovely Linda (Farr). Instead they play up her heartbreak as this drably devoted wife watches the collapse of everything she holds dear. In my book, it's a sensitive dimension that helps lift this 80- minutes beyond the simply well-crafted.In addition to Stewart's fine performance is King Calder's (Armstong). His humorless, Bassett hound face is perfect for the dogged investigator who knows the importance of visualizing and goes where the evidence takes him, regardless. Look too for Jack Klugman (Frankie) in one of his earliest film roles. Judging from Stevens' list of credits (IMDB), he's one of those contract players trying his best after the break up of the old studio system and the decline of the B-movie. Whatever his later misfortunes (Gunsight Ridge {1957}; Gun Fever {1958})-- he and Kandel team up to score solidly with this overlooked little caper gem.

goblinhairedguy This is a neat, no-frills thriller about an intricately planned train heist, the turbulent insurance investigator assigned to the case, and his hard-nosed boss whose motto is "There's no such thing as a perfect crime." Filmed in the flat, greyish TV style of the 50s with occasional expressionist touches, it is rife with plot twists and intriguing characters, and features a supporting cast of familiar faces (Alan Reed, Jack Klugman, etc). It should appeal to those who prefer story over stylishness. Tough-guy Stevens starred in several top-notch noirs of the 40s, and directed a couple of good second-feature thrillers in the 50s, including Cry Vengeance.