Review of Kansas City Confidential (1952) by Lance M — 19 Sep 2012

This is a great could-have-been, worth seeing for that as well as for the laughs where it fails. The premise is terrific (spoilers from here on): a mastermind who we later learn is an embittered dirty cop engineers a bank robbery with the ultimate goal of betraying the assembled ad hoc gang of three when they rendezvous for the split, and he will then collect the substantial reward money, knowing that the traceable stolen bank cash has no value.

Along the way, major twists, e.g., one of the ad hoc three gets gunned down for unrelated reasons, and the hero (John Payne), unfairly charged with the crime, assumes the hood's identity for the second half of the movie.

I must confess to a major problem of cognition as I watched it--or rather re-cognition: When the mastermind who set up the heist (appearing briefly in early scenes) reappears in the second half at the tawdry fishing resort for the gang's rendezvous, I didn't recognize him! Did anyone else have that problem? It's fatal and confusing to the viewer.

Ultimately, as events unfold, you realize it MUST be the same guy (and you go back afterwards, watch the opening, and confirm it). The fishing hat really threw me. In any event, worth watching for seeing how a wonderful idea and good script and great moments can be hammered by mediocre direction, pacing, timing, acting .

. .