Noir Films

[ChiO]

Scams! Intrigue! Murder!

Two detectives with the BUNCO SQUAD (Herbert I. Leeds 1950) are on a mission to put the Fear of God into carnies, numerologists, tarot card readers and spiritualists who prey on the wealthy retirees of Los Angeles. They discover that a consortium of such predators are about to make a big score by convincing a wealthy widow that her dead son wants her to amend her will to leave her estate to the consortium. And, of course, once the will is amended, her days will be numbered. How to foil this nefarious scheme? The detectives enlist the girlfriend of one of them and a retired magician to concoct a rival spiritualist set-up that will convince the widow not to leave her estate to the evil consortium. The Bad Guys (and Gal) discover that, and violence and death ensue. But, fortunately, the Cult Crooks are exposed!

What a wonderful 67 minutes! Part police procedural, part quasi-heist, director Leeds (a journeyman B-movie director) keeps things moving. And the cast of Robert Sterling, Joan Dixon, Ricardo Cortez (nee Jacob Krantz -- gotta love that), and Bernadene Hayes never allow their star-power to get in the way telling a swift story. This is second tier B-Noir at its finest.

[JackFavell]

Is Ricardo bad? I love him when he's bad.

[ChiO]

Is he bad?

Only if you consider being the slick mastermind of the caper as "bad".

[JackFavell]

YES! I bow to his evil mastermind slickness.

[CineMaven]

Ahhhhhh...why are the bad boys sooooo sexy?


RICARDO CORTEZ in "The Walking Dead."

[JackFavell]

oh baby!

[RedRiver]

Like Sam Jaffe in ASPHALT JUNGLE. What a sex pistol!

[JackFavell]

He's smart, well spoken, well dressed and has a dream in mind of the future. He can be my sugar daddy anytime!

[CineMaven]

Like Sam Jaffe in ASPHALT JUNGLE. What a sex pistol!

Red, you know nothing about sexy bad boys...so you can sit out this portion of the conversation.

He's smart, well spoken, well dressed and has a dream in mind of the future. He can be my sugar daddy anytime!

Mmmmm! So listen, does that mean you are giving up Jack LaRue and I can have him? Or are you taking both Jack and Ricardo? Oh...and Joey C as well? Wait a minute...are you talking about Sam Jaffe too? (If you are...I hope you can dance).

[JackFavell]

I tell you what, You can have Jack and Ricardo, if I can borrow them every now and then. But Joey is mine all mine!

And yes, I was talking about Sam Jaffe. Did I mention he's a doctor? And he plays a mean bugle.

[CineMaven]

You WERE?!!!

GULP!

I'll owe an apology to Red River.

So you want to play hard ball, ey?! You want to share these guys...

THE BUGLER and THE SEX PISTOL:



THE BATHROBE LOVER and THE JEWISH LATIN LOVER:



But you want to keep HIM ALL FOR YOURSELF???!!!

THE MALTESE FALCON


Alright! Alright!!! << ( SIGH!! )) >> You win!! Luckily you're a friend.

Red River...I apologize for telling you to butt out. What do I know. You obviously know what women want:

[JackFavell]

You know why I like him? He's KIND.

[knitwit45]

no, he's NUTS!

[CineMaven]

Okay okay...I understand. To each his own.

Lets agree to...agree:



He's kind of nuts.

[knitwit45]