This gripping tale of an elaborate nighttime scheme to heist ten million in gold from a special government train opens with effective title credits as the highway centerline weaves back and forth across the screen. The first fifteen minutes will have you glued, what with the driving rain, the pounding score, and the character’s voice-over inner doubts about their meticulous plan's success. The seventy-two-minute film is concise with little wasted footage. Transportation buffs will enjoy the realism of location shooting. The only flaw is the ending.
Directed by Hubert Cornfield with a screenplay by Steven Ritch (above left) from his and Jack Charney's story, this crime gem was produced by Regal Films and distributed by 20th Century Fox. Gene Raymond (above) is the mastermind. He has never pulled off anything like this before. But Raymond is the only one with a college degree, making him the most highly qualified "heister" among the gang. The other four men are from mixed backgrounds with Wayne Morris and Elisha Cook Jr. as the only seasoned criminals (below). The crooks divert the approaching freight train to a siding with the train detonating an explosive cap set on the rail. The engineer knows this is a signal of something amiss ahead. The train operators are gassed or knocked out. The tediously clever long-distance detonation by tuning the truck's radio spectacularly blows the boxcar carrying the gold open.
Their story then unfolds over nine hundred miles with Raymond not confident everyone will make it. The gold is divided among three trucks, each going different routes, leaving at precise intervals, as devised by the college graduate. The guys patiently wait for their departure time just as the viewer has to patiently wait for what comes next. An effective director’s device or not, it works. The single driver, then the duo, eventually gets apprehended in simple low-key fashion compared to the film’s complex opening. It realistically captures how mundane the capture of these infallible men can be. A brief, coded phone call to Raymond’s girlfriend, Jeanne Cooper, tells her to expect them in Los Angeles. She has the fake delivery papers and passports for their south-of-the-border trek.
Raymond, Cooper, and Ritch, in a time-consuming implausible feat, melt down their remaining gold bars into bumpers and wheel covers to fancy up their air-suspended Cadillac. Apparently no concern about the tires blowing out. They are feeling pretty smug. After a strong beginning and middle section, the ending is certainly the film's weak point. And a bit laughable. Making a getaway on a Los Angeles freeway at rush hour was not as well planned as the train robbery. Then a simple bumper bender brings over the police who notice a most unusual Cadillac accessory...solid gold bumpers. The three, in typical fashion of the era, run for it. From the overpass, Raymond decides to jump onto an oncoming truck trailer on the highway below. Something he also has not done before. His parkour skills are not well polished, it sets up one of those “whoa” moments. Desperation, thy name in Raymond.
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