Kansas City Confidential

Former song-and-dance man John Payne plays Joe Rolfe in this 1952 tough-guy heist film directed by Phil Karlson. Ex-con Rolfe is sucker-punched by a gang of bank robbers who frame him for their crime. After getting roughed up by the cops, Rolfe goes undercover to capture the real criminals and clear his name. One of the great lean-and-mean crime thrillers of its era, the story delivers a bang-up opening, deadly payoff, and shifting set of identities and alliances that keep pulling the rug from under Rolfe. The scheming rogues (Neville Brand, Lee Van Cleef, and Jack Elam) are an unholy trinity of film-noir thugs, and Rolfe's transformation from dense fall guy into snarling, ruthless hero makes this low-budget classic darkly satisfying. While not as iconic or essential as genre greats such as The Maltese Falcon or Double Indemnity, Kansas City Confidential is a superb example of noir filmmaking in the trenches and has long been a staple of second-rate public domain editions. The Blu-ray debut in this two-disc combo pack advertises itself as “transferred from original 35mm elements” and being “digitally restored in high definition,” but the image, while significantly better than most other versions on the market, sadly still lacks texture and detail—and is noticeably inferior to the superb DVD edition released by MGM in 2007, which remains the better bargain. Optional. (S. Axmaker)