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Kansas City Confidential

Vacation Noir • 1h 39m

Directed by Phil Karlson • 1952 • United States Starring John Payne, Coleen Gray, Preston Foster

B-noir specialist Phil Karlson brings a gritty pulp punch to this slam-bang heist thriller with a plot that inspired Quentin Tarantino’s RESERVOIR DOGS. Memorably sleazy mugs Lee Van Cleef, Jack Elam, and Neville Brand are the trio of masked criminals—each unknown to one another—who are recruited by a mysterious mastermind to pull off an armored car robbery. The unlucky fall guy is Joe Rolfe (John Payne), an ex-con who must head south of the border to a Mexican resort in order to track down the thugs and clear his name.

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