ARMORED CAR ROBBERY (1950)

With only a runtime of 67 minutes ARMORED CAR ROBBERY doesn't mess around.  The opening scene shows the main bad guy (William Talman) casing the location for a armored car robbery: Los Angeles' Wrigley Field (later demolished in 1969).  Wrigley Field is at the end of the armored cars route and based on the phony robbery calls he's put in, they'll have 3 minutes to grab all the loot they can before the cops show up.  Unfortunately, on the day of the robbery, a passing police car (with Lt. Charles McGraw and partner in it) spoil their fun.  During the shoot-out, McGraw's partner is killed.  Now he's pissed and will stop at nothing to track down the bastards who killed his buddy.  Add onto that, one of the bad guys is banging the other bad guys burlesque dancer wife and you got yourself an exciting film!

No non-sense pace, strong direction by Richard Fleischer, nice camerawork, good acting all around by a talented cast, great script that doesn't pull any punches, awesome Los Angeles location scenery, lots of cool old cars.  Honestly, ARMORED CAR ROBBERY is just an excellent little film.  Yeah, it's dated, but I think fans of film noir and older heist films will have a blast watching it.  It would make a entertaining double-feature with Kubrick's similar THE KILLING.  Recommended.

Crew reflected in passing car.

THE CRUCIFIED LOVERS (1954)

Set in 1700's Japan. Osan is the wife of a wealthy businessman. Her "weak-willed" brother desperately needs some money within three days or he's going to be thrown in prison. Osan knows that her ruthless husband will never give her the money so instead she asks his trusted employee Mohei to steal it for her. Mohei agrees, but when he's caught things quickly go from bad to worse when Osan and Mohei are falsely accused of being lovers, which is punishable by public crucifixion!!! To complicate matters, the husband's business rivals want the story of the lovers to be true (or at least believed to be true) so that he'll be exiled.

I enjoyed THE CRUCIFIED LOVERS...the direction by Kenji Mizoguchi was good and the cinematography by Kazuo (RASHOMON, YOJIMBO) Miyagawa was very nice...but the story was too slow and the ending disappointing. I really wanted there to be a bigger sense of desperation in the two lovers on the run.  Also, it seemed to me, that neither Mohei or Osan really tried to escape.  Everything they did was self-defeating and they seemed resigned to their fate right from the moment they took off.  The best part of the film was the first 20 minutes when it was showing the hectic running of the business and the secret household dramas, then the lovers go on the run and the story runs out of steam.  Still, it's worth a watch for fans of classic Japanese Cinema.