Armored Car Robbery

ARMORED CAR ROBBERY is one of the taught, exciting, low-budget thrillers that action specialist Richard Fleischer made early in his career. As it opens, the police, led by Lt. Cordell (Charles McGraw), are called out on a robbery-homicide to a local sports stadium. It proves to be a false alarm, but not just a prank. Career criminal Dave Purvis (William Talman) made the call to discover the police response time, since he's planning an armored car heist. With the help of his friend Benny (Douglas Fowley), Purvis recruits Al Mapes (Steve Brodie) and Ace Foster (the uncredited Gene Evans). Unfortunately for them, as they are pulling off the meticulously planned robbery, Lt. Cordell is cruising the area and arrives much quicker than expected.From the most basic of materials, Fleischer and his writers, Earl Fenton and Gerald Drayson Adams, have constructed a tightly plotted, always absorbing movie. Shot on location in and around 1950 Los Angeles, this gritty thriller features a dramatically staged robbery and distinctive performances by Talman, Brodie, Evans, and Fowley as the robbers, Adele Jergens as Fowley's two-timing wife, McGraw as the determined police lieutenant, and Don McGuire as his resourceful young partner. (Verleiher-Text)