Roadblock

This is a slight little B movie that's entertaining nevertheless. Insurance investigator Joe Peters (Charles McGraw) meets hot number Diane (Joan Dixon) and decides he's going to have to do something desperate to keep her in the lifestyle she wants to become accustomed to.

Milburn Stone (Gunsmoke's Doc) has a small role as a detective.

Charles McGraw and Joan Dixon face a "Roadblock" in this 1951 film also starring Milburn Stone of "Gunsmoke" fame and Lowell Gilmore.

McGraw is Joe Peters, an insurance detective who meets a beautiful, sexy woman, Diane, while traveling home by airplane after a case. The whole airplane thing was interesting in itself - spouses could fly half-price, I guess (as the Dixon character claims she and Joe are married so she can do so - she didn't have to show ID either). And though it still happens, it's less common to board from outdoors today.

Joe falls hard for Diane, but she isn't interested - he's not in her league. She wants someone who will spend big money on her.

One night, Joe sees her in a club where he's on an investigation, and she's with the biggest mobster in town, Kendall Webb (Gilmore). Eventually, Joe's and Diane's passion get the better of them.

Webb warns Joe that Diane's enamored state of being in love with a poor man is just temporary - once the bloom is off, she'll go for the money again. Joe decides to go into partnership with Webb and steal $1.4 million that's scheduled to be on a train.

McGraw, who had a big career in television until a few years before his death in 1980, is a solid noir actor - tough and good-looking. The character of Diane, however, is the one to watch. Dixon, helped by the script, gives her many layers and leaves you wondering (though you do know the answer) - was she a big chiseler or did she really care?

"Roadblock" is good and interesting if implausible - Joe gets himself in deeper and deeper. It's hard to believe he would turn that dramatically that quickly. It's a minor point in a way because it's still an atmospheric noir.

"Detour" is far more famous. And it's probably better. But this strange little movie moves as inexorably to a terrible end as "Detour" does.

Charles McGraw was an excellent actor. He is fine here as "Honest Joe" Peters. He encounters Diane, a woman he never ought to have encountered, on a plane ride. He is a straight-arrow insurance investigator. She is looking for a rich man. She knows he isn't rich and she is not really painted as a villain.

Joan Dixon plays Diane in a deadpan manner. She is pretty and has a soft, rather high voice. Maybe she was someone's idea of an Elizabeth Taylor lookalike. There are similarities.

Everything is understated. Yet it's a tough movie. And it's powerful, and sad.

This is a typical film noir of the period and , in my opinion, this is no bad thing. It follows all the typical patterns of a hundred other B-movies of a similar type of it's day. Shadowy photography, good man laid low by the femme fatale, a few seedy gangsters thrown in, all the ingredients are there. If you're not a big fan of noir then you might switch off after 30 minutes exclaiming that "I've seen it all before", and you'd be right. Personally I love the genre and thought this was a competently made movie with good performances by the leading actors. McGraw is perfect as the law-abiding detective seduced into lawlessness by the siren of the piece (Dixon).

If you like film noir check ROADBLOCK out. If you don't then maybe this movie's not for you.

In my book, all true film-noir films are good in one way or another. There's just something about a post war film-noir thriller and "Roadblock" as as good as any of them. I guess this qualifies as a B-picture, but I refuse to see it that way. What I liked about it was how the femme fatal crosses over from being a gold digging ice princess to actually choosing love over money. She is played by non other than Joan Dixon who went on to appear in only about four other films. Too bad, I thought she was really lovely. Then there's the great Charles McGraw. He's just made for the film-noir genre and just about my favorite noir actor. Here he literally plays good cop/bad cop. I actually caught myself feeling disappointed that he was a good guy who went wrong. For me, it had a great feel. The cinematography was done by Nicholas Musuraca who had one Oscar nod to his credit. A top camera guy is always as big in a noir as any of the on-screen actors. At under 75 minutes it certainly doesn't wear out it's welcome. If you love film noir, then add this one to your list!

BTW, I had recorded "Roadblaock"on DVD and just watched it yet again. Over two years later, my original review still stands. I watch it every time it's on TCM and I love it more and more. Along with Jack Carson, Charles McGraw is one of my very favorite "second tier" actors and "Roadblock" will always be a film that I'l urge others to seek out.

Oh, one last thing, "We Don't Have Your Size!"