PLUNDER ROAD
US, 1957, 72 minutes, Black and white.
Gene Raymond, Jeanne Cooper, Wayne Morris, Elisha Cook Jr, Stafford Repp, Stephen Ritch.
Directed by Hubert Cornfield.
Plunder Road is quite an effective crime thriller. It makes quite an impression in the first 10 minutes or more, elaborate robbing of a train and its load of gold, shown in great detail with a truck and another vehicle with a ladder and tackle to transfer the gold. All this takes place in driving rain, little dialogue, effective action.
The rest of the film shows the five men involved, driving away, rendezvous with alternate trucks, their being stacked and disguised, and the three vehicles going at separate times and making their way the 900 miles towards California.
The film makes use of radio news, the men listening to what happens, especially when they are held up by the police. The first to have a mishap is stopped by a roadblock, his radio plays indicating that he is not simply transferring the furniture he alleges, he runs and is shot. Two others continue their journey, have quite a deal of conversation, especially Elisha Cook Jr in a more straightforward role rather than his repertoire of criminals. His companion is Wayne Morris. When they are stopped for petrol, a gun falls out and the sympathetic old man serving the petrol pleads for his life but is shot.
The leader of the group is Eddie, Gene Raymond (a matinee idol of the 1930s and early 40s, husband of Jeanette Mac Donald). He is calm while his codriver, Frankie (Stephen Ritch, who wrote the screenplay) is edgy. When they get through to Los Angeles, contact is made with Eddie’s girlfriend, Fran (Jeanne Cooper) and the plan seems almost perfect: melting the gold, recasting it as parts of the car for the getaway.
Final irony is their being on the freeway, going to put to get a boat, delayed by an accident, involved in a small accident themselves as a curious lady looking at the other pileup crashes into their rear and the police help disentangle, finding the gold. No happy ending.
1. A brief, atmospheric thriller? Taking place over night and one day?
2. The photography, in the dark and in the pouring rain? The open freeways? Los Angeles? The warehouse? The musical score?
3. The effectiveness of the opening sequences, the driving rain, the night, the truck, the ladder truck and the gear, setting up the heist, on the train, overpowering the drivers and the guards? The stealing of the money, the lifting gear? Getting away?
4. The role of the radio, the continued news reports, the increase of the information, the effect on the men listening?
5. The driving, the caution, reaching the rendezvous, transferring all the gold to the two trucks and the tanker? The plan to leave at varying intervals? Keeping to the plan?
6. The gradual revealing of the characters: Eddie, his age, the leader, keeping calm? Frankie, the driver, his continued agitation? Skeets and Commando and their chat, Skeets and prison, thinking about Rio and his son? Roly and his driving by himself?
7. The upsetting of the plan: Roly, stopped by the police, getting through, the radio contact and suspicions, pursuit, his being shot? On the news? Eddie and Frankie and the tanker, lifting up the hood, seeing what it happened? Their being held up, unscrewing the top of the tank, being let through? Their stopping, the diner, hearing the news of deaths? Skeets and Commando, making progress, stopping for petrol, the chatter with the old man and his support of them, the gun falling out, Commando shooting him? Their load, coffee, too heavy for the trucking weigh station?
8. Eddie and Frankie, getting to New York, the contact with Fran, going to the warehouse, arrival, melting the gold, for the parts of the car, setting it up? Rest, the plan, Frankie nervous, on the freeway, the accident and the hold-up, the curious woman crashing into them, the police helping and the discovery of the gold?
9. Frankie running, being shot, Fran being held, Eddie running, jumping onto the top of the truck rolling onto the freeway in front of the cars?
10. Perfect plans – not always perfect?
