PLUNDER ROAD. 20th Century Fox, 1957. Gene Raymond, Jeanne Cooper, Wayne Morris, Elisha Cook Jr. Director: Hubert Cornfield.

   This one is lean and mean and doesn’t take its sweet time in plunging the viewer into the action. The opening sequence, set on a dark rainy night, involves five masked men as they steal a shipment of US Mint gold from a train. This scene, as well as its immediate follow up, in which the bandits load their getaway trucks with the loot, is largely silent with very little dialogue to accompany it. It works well enough. Indeed, that much can be said for the entirety of Plunder Road. For what it is, namely a short, punchy crime film, it works well enough.

   Gene Raymond helms the cast as Eddie Harris, the ringleader of the outfit, whose cool demeanor helps him pull off an impossible heist. His cohorts are portrayed by Wayne Morris, Steven Ritch, Stafford Repp, and the always enjoyable-to-watch Elisha Cook whose character dreams of absconding to Rio with his young son.

   There’s not that much tension between the main characters, which is somewhat unusual and may contribute to a sense of the movie not quite clicking. As readers of this blog well know, more often than not films of this sort will have the criminals turning on each other. That’s not what happens here. It’s more bad luck or their own guilt that gives them away.

   What else to say? I particularly appreciated the on location shooting, be it the California highways or, in the last fifteen minutes of the film, gritty Los Angeles. Speaking of the last fifteen minutes, a new character is introduced quite close to the end of the movie. Jeanne Cooper portrays Fran, Eddie’s   girl. There’s an argument to be had that she should have been introduced earlier. Then again, this is a 72 minute film without much padding.