The Walking Target

Ron Foster, Joan Evans, and Merry Anders star in "The Walking Target" a B film from 1960.

Foster is Nick Harbin who, after five years in prison for robbery, is released. However, the money was never recovered. Most people assume that Harbin knows where it is and will eventually go for it. The police plan on watching his every step.

To me this was a faux pas. This was an interstate crime of robbing payroll, meaning that the federal statute of limitations was five years. If they really wanted the money, they should have let him serve three or four years.

But I digress. Nick is extremely jumpy with his girlfriend Susan (Anders) and a friend of hers, a businessman. What he doesn't realize - but figures it out soon enough - is that Susan didn't bother waiting for him; she's in cahoots with her new beau to get the money.

During the robbery, a close friend of Nick's (Norm Alden) was killed running from the cops. Nick is determined to find his widow, Gail (Joan Evans) and give her half of the money. He locates her finally in her home town of Gold City, Arizona. He's followed.

Pretty decent crime drama.

Ron Foster is "Nick", fresh out of jail for robbery, and the loot has never been found. That's pretty much the opening line, said by the prison warden, as he releases Nick back to the world. and hot on his trail is Detective Brodney (Harp McGuire). and the mob. and the people he thinks are his friends. And Joan Evans is "Gail"... who may or may not be an innocent bystander. Evans gets top billing in the cast list, so she must be pretty important to the plot. Written by Stephen Kandel. He wrote almost exclusively for television, and this. and a couple films earlier in his career. Directed by Edward Cahn, for United Artists, towards the end of his career... only worked a couple more years after this. The "fist fights" are just terrible. so fake. The story itself is pretty good, the acting is pretty good. Picture and sound quality are great. entertaining enough.

The programmer's neither good nor bad, just a familiar storyline given undistinguished treatment. Nick and two buddies rob an armored car, but the buddies are killed in the robbery. Now Nick's out of prison, intent on retrieving the loot he's hidden. Trouble is both a mobster and the cops are watching. Meanwhile, he's got a sexy blonde girlfriend (Anders) who's double-crossing him with his so-called friend Dave (Christopher). Sound familiar. Yeah, old film fans have probably seen its variation a hundred times.

For a budget production, the effort's competently done. Foster in the lead does his best, but doesn't convey much presence. The cast is distinguished by noir villain Berry Kroeger as the mobster, and Joan Evans as good girl Gail. In fact, Evans had a very promising studio career in the early 50's that unfortunately didn't endure. Looks like this was her last feature-length appearance. I wish there were something outstanding, good or bad, to comment on, but there isn't, unless it's movie vet Fawcett (Packy) who's about as ravaged-looking an old duffer I've seen. All in all, the 70-minutes remains a watchable, but highly unremarkable crime drama that's probably forgotten 5-minutes later.

Hard case Ron Foster serves his time. Five years ago,he and two accomplices stole $260,000; they died, he went to prison. They never found the money. Now he's getting out, and everyone wants to play him for the money: ex-girlfriend Merry Anders and her new guy, a 'businessman' who figures he won't have to pay taxes on it, Detective Harp McGuire, who wants to get the money and put Foster back in prison. All Foster wants is the money, and ex-girlfriend Joan Evans, who married his buddy who wound up dead in the robbery.

It's a good set-up, and the performances are good, if a trifle hackneyed; also I thought the character changes that make this a story and not just an anecdote pile up very quickly at the end. Perpetual B director Edward Cahn does his usual competent but uninspired job, and it moves at a pretty good pace.

There are moments of a real noir here, but the happy ending spoils it. The acting and the action are good, and the story is good as well, with great suspense and no possibility for anyone to have a guess at how it all will end. The best part of the film is actually the music, which keeps following the action very closely from behind without getting too dominant. The photo is also convincingly in noir style, black and white in shades and dark atmosphere, and of course there are the usual fisticuffs and settlements crowning the troublesome affair. As usual, it would have been easier for the hoodlums to let the hero get away with the girl without causing any trouble, but then again that's what hoodlums are for.