Armored Car Robbery

A slick heist and escape film that packs a punch in its mere 67-minute runtime, Richard Fleischer’s Armored Car Robbery centers around a gang of criminals led by Dave Purvis (William Talman) who pull off the titular crime using car exhaust and gas masks in front of Wrigley Field in broad daylight. Unsurprisingly, the heist doesn’t go exactly as planned, betrayals arise, and police lieutenant Jim Cordell (the always excellent Charles McGraw) sets out to track down one of the thieves through his sleazy wife, burlesque dancer Yvonne LeDoux (Adele Jergens), who’s also sleeping with the aptly named Purvis. Fast-paced and always gripping, the film features extensive noir backdrops in the form of flashlight-navigated parking lots, eerie foghorns by the harbor, and a beautifully shadowed dockside hangout where the gang counts the loot and murders a dying man.