Five men discover that it’s easier to commit the perfect crime than it is to get away with it! Hubert Cornfield depicts his characters in motion like obligate ram ventilators, drawing their very essence from the ether of movement. When the characters pause, they begin to suffocate in a thick atmosphere of anxiety and tensions. Legendary DP Ernest Haller lights this rain-soaked noir in low-key, highlighting the rain like piercing arrows completing their arcs, and frames the hardened anxious men in close-up and two-shots, which propels the story as we get emotionally closer to this quintet.
The opening moments depict the highway's racing white lines as strident music underscores the credits, setting a fast and furious tone. We soon witness two trucks speeding through a rainstorm, with five men heading towards an unknown fate. There is no introduction to these characters as we come into a story that is nearing completion, and we wonder why two of these men sit in the back of a box truck with an unknown substance suspended by springs and pulleys. It obvious this must be nitroglycerin, and they are about to heist some unspoken cargo. They rob a train of ten million dollars in US Mint gold bars, and everything goes perfectly according to plan. But this isn’t the story. The tale is in the getaway and their plan to cross the country in separate trucks full of gold bullion while the entire nation is looking for them!
Eddie (Gene Raymond) is the hard yet soft spoken leader, a man pulling his first and last robbery. The other gang members include Skeets (Elisha Cook Jr.), Munson (Wayne Morris), Roly (Stafford Repp), and Frankie (Steven Ritch). Eddie’s gal Fran (Jeanne Cooper) ain’t no femme fatale as she an active member who appears in the third act. The film allows minimal exposition of each character, their hopes, fears, and dreams of the big payoff, and the casting is perfect as each seems to be compassionate and humane, even if they have felony rap sheets. When a murder of an innocent witness happens, it’s gut wrenching and done without sadistic pleasure. As they split into three groups to meet in LA, only one group makes it. At least Elisha Cook survives this film!
Once Eddie and Frankie are in LA, Fran helps them smelt their third of the gold into car parts (hubcaps, bumpers, and such) and then install these parts onto a luxury Cadillac! What a great fucking plan! Sure to get past any checkpoint. But what is their ultimate scheme? Even if they board the boat to Lisbon, how do they convert solid gold to cash without drawing attention? Ultimately, they need not worry long term because the LA Freeway traffic is bumper to bumper.
Final Grade: (B+)
