Watch Roadblock For Free

Very best movie i ever watch

Just what I expected

Good concept, poorly executed.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Noir heavyweight Charles McGraw plays an insurance adjuster out to make a killing on a score in order to get the girl of his dreams who just happens to be a femme fatale. Tight pacing & superb acting spot this B-movie gem w/a great car chase in the LA river bed to cap things off. A keeper.

Charles McGraw (Joe Peters), Joan Dixon (Diane), Lowell Gilmore (Webb), Louis Jean Heydt (Harry Miller), Milburn Stone (Egan), Joseph Crehan Thompson), Janet Scott (Mrs MacDonald), Dave Willock (airport clerk), Dewey Robinson (Mike), Joe Forte (Brissard), Barry Brooks, Frank Marlowe (policemen), Ben Cameron, Joey Ray (hoods), Martha Mears (nightclub singer), Harry Lauter (Saunders), Jean Dean (airline hostess), Phyllis Planchard (Bobbie Webb), Steve Roberts (De Vita), Dave McMahon (police radioman), Howard Negley (police captain), Peter Brocco (crook in cemetery), Richard Irving (Partos), Clarence Straight (Talbot), John Butler (hotel clerk), Taylor Reid (Green), Harold Landon (nightclub bartender).Director: HAROLD DANIELS. Screenplay: Steve Fisher, George Bricker. Story: Richard Landau, Daniel Mainwaring. Photography: Nicholas Musuraca. Film editor: Robert Golden. Art directors: Albert S. D'Agostino, Walter E. Keller. Set decorators: Darrell Silvera and Jack Mills. Costumes designed by Michael Woulfe. Music: Paul Sawtell. Music directed by Mischa Bakaleinikoff. Song, "So Swell of You" (Mears), by Leona Davidson. Assistant director: James Casey. Sound recording: Frank Sarver, Clem Portman. RCA Sound System. Producer: Lewis J. Rachmil.Copyright 24 July 1951 by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 17 September 1951. Australian release: 4 January 1952. 73 minutes. SYNOPSIS: Hardboiled insurance investigator falls for gangster's moll. PRINCIPAL MIRACLE: The surprisingly competent job of direction handed in by little-known Harold Daniels. Particularly exciting and well staged is the climactic chase along the Los Angeles riverbed. Between 1943 and 1965, Mr, Daniels directed no less than fourteen other movies, all of little significance. In fact, the only one that fans would recognize is the 1961 TV feature based on Lee Falk's "The Phantom."COMMENT: This late entry in RKO's film noir cycle deserves to be better known. Charles McGraw of "The Narrow Margin" becomes even more interestingly abrasive on the wrong side of the law, whilst Joan Dixon makes a most convincing femme fatale. As the principal heavy, Lowell Gilmore provides a fascinating light touch which contrasts well with the usual demonic portrayals. Louis Jean Heydt proves just right for the thankless role of Mr Honest, and there are the usual top character turns from such as Peter Brocco, Janet Scott and Dewey Robinson. The story (from the pen of none other than Daniel "Out of the Past" Mainwaring) not only presents a trio of involving principals but moves at a fast clip right up to its shattering climax. Production values are solid and the movie is beautifully photographed in typically noir style.

After an ingeniously twisted opening sequence, "Roadblock" tells the story of an honest man's descent into criminality before ending with a well-staged car chase that concludes at Los Angeles' concrete riverbed. The man's downfall is caused by his obsession with a woman that he wants so badly that he can't think straight but her only interest is in the finer things in life and the money that's needed to buy them.Having successfully recovered a large sum of stolen money that had been insured by their firm, a couple of L.A. insurance investigators decide to head home separately and when one of them, Joe Peters (Charles McGraw), encounters a sexy brunette at the airport, he's immediately attracted to her. Later, he's surprised to find her sitting next to him on the plane and soon discovers that she'd posed as his wife to get her ticket at half price. When their plane has to make an emergency landing because of a storm, they have to share a hotel room for the night and it quickly becomes apparent that Diane Marley (Joan Dixon) is a gold-digger who sneers at Joe's modest salary and says that he's not in her league. When they land in L.A., Diane re-emphasises her lack of interest in Joe and they go their separate ways.Immediately after his return to work, Joe's assigned to investigate a fur-store robbery and when he's shadowing the prime suspect, local racketeer Kendall Webb (Lowell Gilmore), sees that he's accompanied by Diane who's adorned in an expensive fur stole. She's now Webb's mistress and says that she's working as a model. When Joe learns about a shipment of $1,250,000 in old bills that his company is insuring, he presents Kendall Web with a plan for robbing the train that's due to carry the cash from L.A. to San Francisco and agrees to be paid a one-third share of the loot for his part in the caper. During the Christmas holiday period, when Webb leaves Diane on her own while he goes home to visit his family and she spends time alone in a bar where the barman goes into raptures about the pleasures of family life, she has a change of heart and decides she wants to marry Joe, just as he is.Joe discovers it's too late to back out of his involvement in the robbery and after marrying Diane, is on honeymoon in a mountain cabin when the train heist goes ahead. This seems to provide him with a cast-iron alibi, but complications develop when he's assigned to work as part of the team that's brought together to investigate the crime.With its lively pace, hard-boiled dialogue and gripping story about the dangers of giving in to temptation, this highly entertaining thriller is exciting and interesting from start to finish. Despite its low-budget status, "Roadblock" also has a really good cast with Charles McGraw standing out as the tough guy who trades his integrity and so much more to win the woman he desires so powerfully.

This picture shows just how GOOD an actor Charles McGraw was. The fact that he could get away with some of George Bricker's classic clinkers is testament to his low key but earnest energy. Bricker has stunk up more scripts (SH! THE OCTOPUS, HOUSE OF HORRORS are two of his most notorious) and he doesn't disappoint with ROADBLOCK. Couple Bricker's dialogue with the clumsy direction of Harold Daniels and you have a bunch of actors who are mostly off their game (especially struggling Joan Dixon). The scenario is outstanding and could have been developed into a genuine classic noir. But it turns out pretty routine, even turning the unique idea of a chase in the LA river bed into a pretty tame action sequence. Paul Sawell revives some of his DICK TRACY music for Square Jaw McGraw. Louis Jean Heydt has a larger role than usual and he's quite good, as is Milburn Stone as a Federal Man. Lowell Gilmore is strictly third-rate George Macready. It's a woulda-coulda-shoulda but still a painless way to kill 70 minutes.