Richard Fleischer was a master of the low-budget, B crime film, who later went on to make rather bloated but well-crafted A films (Mandingo, 1975, was a particular favorite of critic Robin Wood for its rather lurid take on race relations). Armored Car Robbery was influenced by Robert Siodmak's Criss Cross (1949) and in turn influenced Kubrick's The Killing (1956). Armored Car Robbery is a lean and precise heist film that is bleak enough to be called a film noir, depending on one's definition. Sleazy William Talman is known among criminals for his ability to plan jobs and brings in accomplices Gene Evans, Steve Brodie and Douglas Fowley to rob an armored car as it picks up receipts at L.A.'s Wrigley Field, where a farm team of the Chicago Cubs plays. Cop Charles McGraw is near-by and answers the distress call from the stadium, where his partner is killed as McGraw wounds Fowley in the escape attempt.
Talman kills Fowley, ostensibly because of Fowley's injury but actually Talman has made plans to go to Mexico with Mrs. Fowley, a burlesque queen played by Adele Jergens as a sexy femme fatale. Gene Evans is killed by the cops and Steve Brodie escapes but is caught at the burlesque theatre as he tries to hunt down his share of the money from the robbery. McGraw finds Fowley's body and goes to his apartment, where he finds Talman's phone number (Talman had told him not to write it down), a bit of luck that leads McGraw to the airport, where Talman is killed by a plane as he runs onto the tarmac, his money blowing in the wind.
Armored Car Robbery certainly had many elements of the film noir but is marred by some laughing at the end, as well as the lack of fatalism and disillusionment. Cinematographer Guy Roe, who shot Railroaded for Anthony Mann in 1947, does a superb job with the Los Angeles locations, the tilted camera angles and the moody night scenes in back alleys and dark streets. Fleischer's effectively minimalist script was written with Earl Felton, a regular collaborator.
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