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A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Three trucks filled with extremely heavy bricks of solid gold, stolen from a fast moving train in the most clever way, becomes the caper of the century in this fraught with tension action drama where veteran actors Gene Raymond, Wayne Morris, Elisha Cook Jr. and several others make an attempt to transport it without being caught. As soon as the train theft is discovered, police across the nation are notified, and every highway is being scoped for the culprits. This becomes riveting simply to watch the five men in various states of paranoia in three different trucks driving down these highways of potential destruction, their lone thoughts driving each of them crazy in different ways. Cook is the most thoughtful of the five, planning to take his son down to Rio to start a new life, practically certain of his success, and even getting the viewer to sort of feel sorry for them. Raymond has a girl (Jeanne Cooper) waiting for him at the end of the line for the final stretch, but for a few of them, their road isn't paved with gold; It is paved with doom.Yes, the Jeanne Cooper I mention above is the same Jeanne Cooper who schemed and loved and clicked her well manicured nails together for four decades as the wealthy and powerful Katharine Chancellor on "The Young and the Restless". She only pops up for the last twenty minutes of the film, but makes the most of her scenes, especially as she reveals how she wishes that her lover had not stooped to theft to make their dreams come true. But the fact that she obviously abandons a job to help him shows her as complicit, and she even goes as far as to help push the gold up large loading slides, showing that she's made of stronger stuff than most women, yet not as quite as evil as the great film noir femme fatales. If you want to see Ms. Cooper really in action on the big screen, check her out in the prison drama "House of Women" where she goes up against "Another World's" Constance Ford with a great cat fight.While this film is tense and riveting at times, it also often becomes an absurd look as to why crime doesn't pay and the desperate measures criminals take to get away with their latest caper yet are constantly paranoid of what the end will bring. It is like they know that they will be caught. Only fools run in the face of arrest, and often that spells a meeting with the grim reaper. Raymond, Cooper and his young partner (Steven Ritch) go through so much in the last few reels that watching them makes you see how absurd it all is, that no heist is easy, and that when it all comes out in the open, they are not going to go down without some gunfire. In general, this is a pretty good caper action/thriller that is obvious as to how it will end, but what makes it unique is how each of the criminals reveals some of their back story to indicate what brought them to such desperation, and how their own inner psyche manipulates their individual destinies.

"Plunder Road" is about a train heist of $10 million in gold bullion. In a well planned robbery, led by Eddie Harris (Gene Raymond) along with Frankie Chardo (Steven Rich), Munson (Wayne Morris), Skeets (Elisha Cook Jr.) and Roly Adams (Stafford Repp), the gang pulls off "the biggest robbery in U.S. history" in the teeming rain, using a large van and a small crane truck to obtain and transport the loot.The gang hides the trucks used in the robbery and loads the gold onto three separate trucks carrying furniture, coffee and a chemical liquid. They plan to go to Los Angeles leaving at staggered times. Roly is the first to leave followed by Munson and Skeets and finally Eddie and Frankie.Roly is stopped by the police and is shot trying to escape. Munson and Skeets stop for gas where Muson murders the gas station attendant who recognized them as part of the heist team. They are later arrested at a truck weigh scales station when the excess weight of their vehicle is discovered.Eddie and Frankie make it through various roadblocks to L.A. where Eddie's girl friend Fran Werner (Jeanne Cooper) is waiting. They melt down the gold and...............................................There's a couple of holes in the story (written by Rich) likely due to budget considerations. For example there is no information provided as to how Eddie Harris knew about the shipment or how he formed his gang and planned the robbery in the intricate detail necessary. The explosive they are carrying is not identified but is assumed to be nitro-glycerin. Also, since the shipment was obviously headed to or from Fort Knox, where was the military presence?Gene Raymond had been a major star in the 30s appearing opposite many of the leading ladies of the day. He was married to Jeannette MacDonald for 28 years and had appeared in a limited number of films since then. Wayne Morris was a highly decorated WWII hero whose career had declined. He made a comeback in 1957 with his role in "Paths of Glory" but died in 1959 before he could get his career going again. Stafford Repp is best remembered for his role as the Police Chief in the "Batman" TV series. Elisha Cook appeared in dozens of similar roles as the tough little guy such as his Wilmer in "The Maltese Falcon"

Strong B-Film Noir directed by Hubert Cornfield. Steven Rich's story and screenplay stars Gene Raymond as Eddie Harris, a professional thief leading a group of amateurs in a well thought out plan of robbing a train bound for the San Fransico mint. About $10 million in gold bullion is split into three trucks and begin a treacherous trek to Los Angeles. Each piece of the successful heist is traveling along separate routes; but two are intercepted. Eddie manages to reach the destination, but he must outmaneuver the outrageous L.A. traffic to escape capture.A 72 minute action, crime flick with a good share of tension. Other players: Jeanne Cooper, Elisha Cook Jr., Wayne Morris, Stafford Repp, Naura Hayden and the writer, Rich.

That 10-minute opening is a real grabber. I'm still wondering whether the driving rain was real or not. If so, it must have made filming difficult as heck. The problem with an opening like this is once you've hit the highlight how do you fill the remainder, which could easily pale in comparison. Still, it's no problem for this little gem. The remaining time amounts to a real nail-biter in getting away with the gold now that the gang has stolen it. Driving big rigs cross-country is cat-and-mouse with the cops the whole way, as details of the plan unfold, and we get acquainted with the gang members. Raymond's effective as the disciplined mastermind. I think I counted one smile from him the whole time. Then there's the familiar mug of professional loser Cook Jr. who gets a regular guy role for once. And, of course, there's the underrated Wayne Morris as the dependable Commando, just two years away from an untimely passing.My one gripe is with the tip-offs to the cops. They're flimsy and contrived, especially the police radio in Roly's (Repp) case. Too bad, because the rest of a tight script manages a surprisingly high degree of believability, thanks to screenwriter Steven Ritch who doubles here as race car guy Frankie.I expect director Cornfield was hoping for a break-through film on the order of the previous year's The Killing (1956), which thrust Stanley Kubrick into the front rank. He doesn't get it, but he does get one heckuva good little heist film, and so do we. And, oh yes, I could have told the gang to stay off the LA freeways at rush hour.