Roadblock (1951)

 

As I've mentioned before (HERE & HERE), if it's an RKO film from the 1950s and drops Charles McGraw into a Film Noir setting, then its gonna be good.

Roadblock (1951) pulls off an unusual twist to the Femme Fatale formula. McGraw is an insurance investigator named Joe Peters. While wrapping up a case in the opening scenes, we find out up front that he's smart and capable. But when he meets Diane (Joan Dixon), his moral downfall begins. 

Diane wants money and isn't (at first) interested in a guy who makes an average middle-class salary. The typical Femme Fatale route here would be for her to vamp him into using his insurance connections (with inside knowledge to large cash shipments) to get enough money to keep her happy.

But she really falls for him and soon decides she's okay with less money as long as her man loves her. But Peters has jumped the gun. On his own initiative, he's sold information about a cash shipment to a known gangster. By the time he learns he doesn't have to do this, it's too late. Once he's in, he can't get out. Besides, how does he know Diane won't begin to miss her lavish lifestyle before long?

So a mail robbery that nets over a million dollars goes off. Peters, ironically, ends up investigating the crime along with his partner (Harry Miller) and a federal agent (Milburn Stone--a few years away from hanging out his medical shingle in Dodge City on Gunsmoke). 

The trouble is that there isn't a lot Peters can do to inhibit the investigation. Both his partner and the fed know what they're doing. One of the robbers is caught. Though this guy doesn't know about Peters' involvment, he's a link that could eventually lead to Peters. 

Desperate measures are needed to cover his tracks more thoroughly. But Peters' partner might already be suspicious.

A weak link in the movie is the lack of real chemistry between McGraw and Joan Dixon--there's no reason to believe they fall in love other than because the story requires them to do so. But the twist of McGraw going bad to get the girl when he doesn't need to adds some dark irony to the solidly told tale. And a final car chase along the semi-dry Los Angeles river bed is pretty nifty. Roadblock doesn't equal McGraw's Narrow Margin in quality, but it's still a film worth watching.