Kansas City Confidential (1952)
Channel: Сinema BAI
Date: 2022-09-12

Kansas City Confidential       1952
The ruthless Mr. Big is timing the arrival of an armored car picking up money from a bank and a flower delivery truck. He plans to rob the armored car with three men: Peter Harris (a gambler wanted for murder); Boyd Kane (a cop killer); and Tony Romano (a womanizing get-away driver). When interviewing them, he wears a mask so they cannot identify him. They were selected because each has a reason for fleeing the US.

The plan includes using a duplicate flower delivery truck. The robbery and pursuit go as planned, with each crook wearing a mask so none can identify each other. The gang arrives in the look-alike floral truck as Rolfe, unaware, drives away. The gang subdues the armored car guards, grabs the money and flees. Mr. Big gives each gang member a torn King playing card. He tells them to hang on to the cards and that, in case something goes wrong and Mr. Big cannot make it, the cards will serve to identify them to whoever he sends. The other members await the payment in Mexico.

The police arrest Rolfe and try to beat a confession out of him while he maintains his innocence. He gets released when his alibi checks out and the real robbery vehicle is found. Rolfe loses his job and decides to find the criminals and clear his name. He finds out Harris fled the city. Correctly believing he must be one of the robbers, Rolfe pursues him to Tijuana.

Rolfe finds and beats Harris into revealing the gang's meeting place. At the airport the police recognize Harris and kill him. Rolfe realizes he can impersonate Harris. In Harris’s luggage, he finds the mask and torn playing card.

In Borados, Rolfe meets Kane and Romano. Unknown to Rolfe, Mr. Big is there, too. He is Tim Foster, a one-time high-ranking Kansas City police officer who was forced to retire when his name was linked to a scandal. His conversation with the insurance investigator of the Kansas City robbery, Scott, who Foster had summoned to Barados, reveals his plan: Foster never intended for the three goons to split the money and get away. He will spring a trap on them, pretend he solved the robbery, get the 25% reward for having done so, and possibly reclaim his job with the Kansas City police.