I love to watch movies and television shows about armored car robberies. Armored car robbery stories constitute a sub-genre of the heist film. Armored cars are like bank vaults on wheels. Furthermore, they are virtually indestructible. Basically, armored car plots fall into two categories. First, the robbers are outsiders who waylay the vehicle. Second, the gang has somebody inside the armored car company who helps them out. As the Highway Patrol honcho Broderick Crawford rattles off his dialogue with anxious urgency as Detective Chief Dan Mathews when word comes through about the robbery. In this episode, three outsiders hold up an armored car. They spend two months establishing their presence at a supermarket where an armored car makes pick-ups. They lull the armored car personnel into accepting them as okay people in the area where they pick-up money. The thieves use their credibility to catch the guards off-guard. They force the driver and his sidekick to vamos from the vehicle. The guard in the back is barricaded inside his compartment. Armored Car Guard Bill Franklin (Jack Mann of "Man on Fire") notifies the Highway Patrol, but his efforts are blunted when the robbers snap off his radio antenna. Meanwhile, the organizer of the robbery visits the Franklin's wife and hoodwinks her into coming to the hospital with him to see her husband. He has told Mrs. Franklin that her husband was injured in a car crash. Franklin surrenders the loot when the robbers use his wife as a bargaining chip. Franklin gets through to the Highway Patrol and Matthews erects a roadblock. The authorities trap the thieves with Mrs. Franklin. They threaten to kill Mrs. Franklin, and Mathews warns them that they'll fry in the chair if they pull the trigger of the woman. The thieves relent and surrender. This wasn't bad for a 22 minute melodrama. It wasn't as cut-and-tried as a "Dragnet" episode and it featured some foreshadowing. None of the characters other than the regulars could hope to make more than a fleeting impression. Nevertheless, some suspense is created with the abduction of Franklin's wife. Of course, the obvious message of any "Highway Patrol" television episode is "crime doesn't pay." Crawford reminds us after the show concludes to give blood to the Red Cross and not leave it on the highway. Pretty slick!
3 Reviews
White-Knuckle Climax
dougdoepke3 January 2019
The climax is white-knuckle suspense, especially since Mathews uses a morally questionable tactic to try to free the hostage. Also, there's a good set-up with the robbers' expert planning that goes into hijacking the armored car. But a problem remains after the hijacking. Their problem is that an armed guard is secured in the back of armored car. Sure, robbers can hijack the car, but how will they get the guard with the money out of the back. That's where the suspense comes in. And shouldn't forget the Patrol who's soon on their trail. On the whole the half-hour's adequately acted though the neighbor, Crider, is a little much. Then too, I wish Crawford would occasionally pause before machine-gunning his orders. That way we could figure he thinks before he speaks. Anyway, catch Ruta Lee as the wife, a familiar pretty face from that era. On the whole, the episode's unusual for its daring and suspenseful climax.
Action, Action and Ruta Lee
biorngm5 December 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Excellent action filled episode with some great guest actors helping provide the drama. Kudos to a 22 year old Ruta Lee and to long-time character actor Rick Vallin.
A carefully planned armored car robbery initially goes off without a hitch, two robbers with a captive guard in the rear of the armored unit whose wife is abducted for insurance reasons, he gives up the money from the hole of the truck and she goes free. Well, not exactly.
She is kept as a hostage to insure an escape from the HP. Well, not really.
You touch her and you are all going down with gas chamber results. Dan uses his verbal skills of persuasion to get the robbers, one by one, to surrender, while he has another officer point his long barreled revolver at the bad guys.
The guard on the inside was ingenious to rig an internal antenna, communicate with the HP after his was disabled, and lead the to the final showdown.
This is how these situations are supposed to go down, less than a half-hour of TV drama, with all the excitement one could ask.
A carefully planned armored car robbery initially goes off without a hitch, two robbers with a captive guard in the rear of the armored unit whose wife is abducted for insurance reasons, he gives up the money from the hole of the truck and she goes free. Well, not exactly.
She is kept as a hostage to insure an escape from the HP. Well, not really.
You touch her and you are all going down with gas chamber results. Dan uses his verbal skills of persuasion to get the robbers, one by one, to surrender, while he has another officer point his long barreled revolver at the bad guys.
The guard on the inside was ingenious to rig an internal antenna, communicate with the HP after his was disabled, and lead the to the final showdown.
This is how these situations are supposed to go down, less than a half-hour of TV drama, with all the excitement one could ask.
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