KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL (1952)

[Update 09/27/2021: Need to rewatch and redo this review completely. Just deleted all the screenshots. Going to just restart this whole thing from scratch..as I find time, so expect this disclaimer to disappear around 2037.]

Revenge fueled noir about a police chief forced into an early retirement who nearly gets away with the perfect crime: tricking three wanted men into robbing an armored truck and then "accidentally" spotting them and turning them in for the $300,000 reward. Pretty slick plan and he would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for florist delivery driver John Payne. You see florist delivery driver John Payne is the unsuspecting fall guy in the operation (the crooks use a double of his truck) and immediately after the robbery he's arrested then beaten and tortured for days by the police in an effort to get an confession. It's not until the vehicle double is found that he's released, but by now he's been fired from his job and his reputation drug through the poo-poo in the newspapers. The only thing left for him to do is catch (or kill) the robbers himself...especially since they're sitting on a million clams.

Some of the tough guy scenes are a little dated and cheesy, but the pace is nice, good story, awesome hard-boiled slang and a strong cast: John Payne, Neville Brand, Lee Van Cleef, Jack Elam, Preston Foster and Coleen Gray. There's also a number uncredited appearances by lesser known actors like Carleton Young, James Conaty, Charles Cane, Lee Phelps (who starred in over 600 movies!!!), William Haade, Howard Negly and Roger Moore...no not that Roger Moore, the other one from the "Three Stooges" shorts and a ton of movies.

Definitely worth a purchase if you’re a noir fan.

WITHOUT WARNING (1980)

[Update 03/02/2021: Need to redo this review completely. Fix the screenshots also.]

I'm not sure where, but somewhere along the way I got it into my handsome brain that this was an action-packed alien invasion extravaganza, but I was obviously incorrect because this movie is boring as a bitch!

A tall alien (who gets maybe two minutes of screen time) is lurking around out in the woods hunting humans. His only weapon is a kind of parasite/frisbee that he throws at people. It latches on and bites you to death or something. That sounds exciting, but it's not because the vast majority of the movie is people wandering around talking and talking and talking.

The cast is impressive (Martin Landau, Neville Brand, Jack Palance, Ralph Meeker and David Caruso), but you've got to give them something to do. I'd be more interested in seeing what went on behind the scenes...I can just see Jack Palance snarling grizzledly while arm-wrestling Neville Brand as Landau laughed maniacally in the corner. It would have been awesome!!!

Zero nudity, almost zero action, really short shorts on David Caruso, lots of scenes shot in the dark, completely random PSYCHO reference. Skip it. The only reason to watch this movie is the scene where Jack Palance charges the alien while yelling "ALLLLLIIIIEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNN!!!!".

Could David Caruso's shorts be any shorter?!

RIOT IN CELL BLOCK 11 (1954)

[Update 10/31/2021: Need to redo this review completely. Fix the screenshots also.]

Just a year after STALAG 17, Neville Brand finds himself back in prison. This time he's in a large state prison and he's had enough of the overcrowding, bad food and the abusive guards so he leads a riot and ends up capturing nine guards. He and his fellow convicts threaten to kill the guards unless some of their demands are met. Lots of tense situations and violence follows.

For 1954 this movie was pretty hard-hitting and violent and even had one direct reference to male-on-male prison rape! Director Don Siegel also helmed PRIVATE HELL 36, ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ and DIRTY HARRY.

D.O.A. (1950)

Frank Bigelow (Edmond O'Brien) is just a regular Joe, a mild-mannered accountant who steps out to San Francisco for a few days of fun to get away from his smothering girlfriend. She never gives the guy a break! Once in SF things gets a little campy with the strange wolfish whistling sound every time a foxy dame walks by and the completely whacked out jive club scene, but then things take a serious turn when somebody slips some "luminous" poison in Bigelow's drink.

The next morning he feels sick and goes to the hospital. When they tell him he's been poisoned and is gonna die in a few days he freaks out and before you can say “I glued my balls to my butthole and now I can’t fart.” Big Frank goes running down the street like a madman. Once he calms down he gets pissed and goes out in search of his killer.

Not quite as hard-boiled as you would hope but still an awesome movie from beginning to end without a minute wasted.  Highly recommended.

Notice the names: Ernest Laszlo (Cinematographer), Marty Moss (Assistant Director) and Russell Rouse (Writer).