On a dark and rainy night, a train carrying federal gold is robbed by a group of robbers. After distributing the gold between three trucks, the team of robbers (led by Gene Raymond's Eddie) attempt to evade the authorities.
One by one, the trucks are captured - until only one remains. Will Eddie get away with the haul?
I only found out about this movie recently.
Made in 1957, this is an efficient little thriller that documents a robbery and the fallout as the police slowly close in on the robbers.
The most fascinating and arresting sequences in the film involve process: the first being the robbery and dispersal of the gold; the various sequences of law enforcement tracking the robbers; and the final sequence, in which the remaining robbers, hiding out in a small smelting plant, convert the gold into a new bumper for their getaway car.
The film is not a character-piece per say, but more of a procedural. It follows the working parts of a robbery, and the tactics and technology that police will deploy to foil them. While the film gradually narrows in focus as the robbers are caught, the overall perspective feels omniscient and dispassionate.
In an early sequence, we get the thesis, as it were, of the film: an old gas station attendant tells one of the robbers that times have changed - technology has rendered this type of robber extinct.
Over the course of the movie, he is proved right - the first truck is caught by a radio broadcast, and the second truck is caught at a weighing station.
The movie does not really move beyond this idea, but it does give the movie a sense of time running out.
In the final 20 minutes, with the other robbers out of action, the movie to begin to feel like noir. This is hit home by the ending, in which the anti-heroes fall victim to chance. Despite the robbers' preparations, it is an unforeseen and completely banal incident that precipitates their doom.
Terse and atmospheric, Plunder Road sags slightly in the middle act (it almost feels like it would work better as a short film), but it features a solid cast and some decent set-pieces, with a great bummer of an ending.
Ossessione
Elevator to the Gallows
Odd Man Out
Decoy
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