Armored Car Robbery (1950) Eddie Haskell Breaks Bad

Directed by Richard Fleischer (Bodyguard, The Clay Pigeon, The Narrow Margin, The Boston Strangler). 

Written by Earl Felton and Gerald Drayson Adams, from a story suggested by Robert Angus and Robert Leeds. Cinematography was by Guy Roe. Sound Department Clem Portman and Francis M. Sarver. 

Another L.A. Smog Noir.

The film stars Charles McGraw (T-Men, The Narrow Margin, Roadblock, In Cold Blood, The Night Stalker TV Movie) as Lieutenant Jim Cordell, Adele Jergens (Edge Of Doom) as Yvonne LeDoux, William Talman (The Woman on Pier 13, The Hitch-Hiker, The City That Never Sleeps) as Dave Purvis, Douglas Fowley as Benny McBride, Steve Brodie (Desperate, Out Of the Past) as Al Mapes, Don McGuire as Detective Danny Ryan, James Flavin as Lieutenant Phillips, Don Haggerty as Detective Cuyler and Gene Evans (Ace In the Hole) as William 'Ace' Foster. 

Charles McGraw as Lieutenant Jim Cordell and John Haggerty as Detective Cuyler

William Talman as Purvis

Adele Jurgens as Yvonne LeDoux  

Douglas Fowley as Benny McBride

Steve Brodie as Al Mapes

Don McGuire as Detective Danny Ryan

Gene Evans as "Ace" Foster

"Purvey" Pervis (William Talman), meticulous, and obsessed. The sample pool of three time losers thinks this guy Pervis as a criminal "mastermind."  A regular genius. He managed somehow, to pull off the almost impossible, an armored car robbery. If you've been around long enough you'll get this reference. Think of Purvis as a grown up Eddie Haskell who breaks bad. After that sinks in, also think of this wise ass who, also thinks he's a chick magnet. This is because he's balling Yvonne "everyone" LeDoux (get it?), the stripper wife of one of his partners in crime, Benny aka  "the dope" McBride. 

Pervis is planning his next big one, Wigley Field home of the Angels. He's out at the park timing schedules and noting patterns. He's making false alarm calls into L.A.P.D., reporting various phony incidents and timing the response times for the cops to arrive. He knows the job has to go down under whatever's the average response time is. 

Purvis with his crew of Benny McBride, wheelman "Dapper" Al Mapes, and hooligan William "Ace" Foster spend days memorizing the heist. Purvis has copied a city tax map to the back of a pull down window shade to help the dimwits visualize the steps.

It should be a cinch because the L.A.P.D. squad cars du jour are 1950 Nash Statesman Super 4-door Airflyte Sedans. These look like ridiculous upside down bathtubs. Seriously. They're R. Crumb wet dreams. 

Somebody on the 1949 -50 L.A. city council must have had a car dealership with a lucrative contract with the city. The cars they are replacing are 1947 Ford Super De Luxes. The detectives are still running around in unmarked 1939 Buick Limited Touring Sedans. 

Yvonne "everyone and two at a time" LeDoux is a stripper that, thanks to the production codes hyperventilating over boobs, never gets past taking off a the bottom part of a high slit evening gown like costume, revealing, the equivalent of a one piece bathing suit with a long fringe. 

At least the film covers that Production code nonsense with a teaser line that mentions that Yvonne is just into the first minute of her routine. For those without a clue, that means that in 1950 California she would have gone down to probably a scanty bra and G-string. 

At the burlesque show, you can tell by the look on his face, that Purvey Pervis gets off on both watching Yvonne strip and the idea of dipping his noodle into Benny's honeypot behind his back. They play hide the sausage at the Motor Court Motel up in the "the valley". Yvonne and Purvey arrange the hot sheet sessions by communicating via phone booth in a convenient lunch counter near the theater between show times. This place conveniently has four booths.

Our L.A.P.D. hero is Lt. Jim Cordell (Charles McGraw) Cordell's character is the warm up for his tour de force as Det. Sgt. Walter Brown in The Narrow Margin. His partner is Detective Cuyler. 

Besides the 1950 Nash Statesman Supers we also get a tour of a modern state of the art communications central switchboard where calls are taken and details are sent by continuously moving conveyor belt into the radio room where the patrol cars are are dispatched. 

On the day of the robbery everything goes as planned until it doesn't. Our genius, the criminal mastermind Pervy, the guy who meticulously cuts all the labels out of this clothing, never figured in his plans that a patrol car may already be nearby, or enroute to another call and can get to Wrigley Field in under the time allotted. Who would have thunk it? Once that first domino falls the others start dropping too.

Cordell and Cuyler on a patrol arrive first at the scene, gunfire is exchanged. Cordell is smart enough to fire from cover but Cuyler goes O.K. Corral, standing in the open and both Cuyler and Benny eat lead. Domino number two.

Purvey and Foster carrying the money grab up Benny and the loot he's got and pull him into the 1941 Chevy Master De Luxe getaway car driven by Mapes. A hot pursuit by Cordell is terminated when Purvey puts a bullet hole through the windshield close to Cordell's head. 

He naturally ducks and swerves over a curb, blowing a front tire in the process. Purvis and gang get away while Cordell cools his heels on the pavement.

The gang drives to their planned rendezvous point under an overpass. They dump their overalls, gas masks and dress like up like oil workers. They then swap the 1941 Chevy for the 1935 Ford V8 De Luxe they previously stashed there.

The gang heads South across the forest of Signal Hill oil field derricks towards Long Beach and the hideaway shack along the waterfront. They just squeeze past a police roadblock in the process. Benny is loosing a lot of blood and wants to go to a hospital, but Purvey demands that they hole up over night.

Benny knows he ain't gonna see the sunrise without some doctoring, decides to get cute and pulls a gun on Purvey, but, standing up makes him start to feint, He drops his arm and and Purvey shoots him down and makes doubly sure sure with a second shot. 

Domino number three. Purvis tells the gang that he will deliver Benny's share of the loot to his poor widow Yvonne, wink, wink. 

Purvey has Foster and Mapes put Benny into the getaway car and drive it off a pier. The splash of the car in the water is heard by a passing patrol car. 

Another shootout.  Foster gets it and Mapes scrambles down a ladder into a motor boat and speeds off. Domino number four. Purvey with all the money scoots down an alley and away.

When the police discover a matchbook  in Benny's pocket with the phone number of the Motor Court Motel Cordell and the L.A.P.D. get a lead on Purvey. 

Noirsville

Chopper Liver

A good heist film by Fleishman that moves along at a brisk pace with the entire cast doing an excellent job against the backdrop of a smoggy L.A. 7/10 Bravo!