(Some Spoilers) On location in L.A crime drama involving a gang of hoods planing a bank robbery that's to put them on easy street for the rest of their lives.
Right from the start the two head men of the bank robbery team Al Barkis, Edward Binn, and Pete Monty, Lee Van Cleef, make the big mistake of gunning down a cop-Officer Kellogg-who caught them in the process of hot wiring a car just hours the robbery was to take place. Wih Officer Kellogg later dying from his wounds you would expect both Barkis & Monty to cancel their plans in them facing a trip to the San Quentin gas chambers if caught! Instead they plan to go on with the bank robbery but keep their fellow bank robbers in the dark in their responsibly in Offcer Kellogg's murder!
Unknown to both Barkis & Monty there was indeed an eye witness to the Kellogg killing the meek and secretive, in him having an affair behind his battle ax wife's back, undertaker Jack Hartkampf, Porter Hall. At the time of the Kellogg shooting Hartkampf was spending the evening at his girlfriend Vicki Webb, Joan Vosh, apartment. It was Hartkampf that LAPD Captain Barnie "Bulldog" Barnaby, Edward G. Robinson, keyed in on in breaking the case in the Kellogg killing in getting him to identify his killers. What Capt. Barnaby didn't at the time realize is that the Kellogg shooting was just to tip of the iceberg to what was to happen later in the film.
Somewhat over-plotted with a lot of side stories that made the main plot, the cop killing and bank robbery, of the film a bit hard to follow but the top rate acting, especially by Eddie Robinson, and on location filming made "Vice Squad" more then worth watching. There's also Paulette Goddard as the second billed model escort agency owner Mona Ross who also happens to be an old flame of Capt. Barnaby. Goddard was on the screen for such a short period of time that you wondered why she was credited at all! With most of the cast members, not being credited, having more screen time then she did.
There's' also the movie title "Vice Squad" which had nothing really to do with the film since vice was almost nonexistence, with Capt. Barnaby being in the homicide division of the LAPD, in the entire movie. The only vice I could spot in the film was that of the greasy looking gigolo Count Al Fredo Glovannie Mortova, John Verros, who was actually a con man from Cleveland. It's the "Count" who tried to marry, for her money, widow Mrs Lawson under false, in him being a European blue-blood, pretense's.
***SPOILERS*** With Capt. Barnaby getting the jump on Barkis' plan to rob the bank from chickened out, in him scared of being charged with Kellogg's murder, bank robber Marty Kusalich, Adam Williams, the stage was set for a police ambush at the bank robbery site. The plan worked to perfecting with only one slight hitch; Bank teller Miss Easton, Christie White, ending up being kidnapped by Barkis & Monty the only survivors of the blotched bank robbery team. That set things up for Capt. Barnaby and his men to track down the two escaped bank robbers who were only caught with the help of their escaped kidnapped victim the almost legally blind, after accidentally breaking her glasses, Miss Easton.
Right from the start the two head men of the bank robbery team Al Barkis, Edward Binn, and Pete Monty, Lee Van Cleef, make the big mistake of gunning down a cop-Officer Kellogg-who caught them in the process of hot wiring a car just hours the robbery was to take place. Wih Officer Kellogg later dying from his wounds you would expect both Barkis & Monty to cancel their plans in them facing a trip to the San Quentin gas chambers if caught! Instead they plan to go on with the bank robbery but keep their fellow bank robbers in the dark in their responsibly in Offcer Kellogg's murder!
Unknown to both Barkis & Monty there was indeed an eye witness to the Kellogg killing the meek and secretive, in him having an affair behind his battle ax wife's back, undertaker Jack Hartkampf, Porter Hall. At the time of the Kellogg shooting Hartkampf was spending the evening at his girlfriend Vicki Webb, Joan Vosh, apartment. It was Hartkampf that LAPD Captain Barnie "Bulldog" Barnaby, Edward G. Robinson, keyed in on in breaking the case in the Kellogg killing in getting him to identify his killers. What Capt. Barnaby didn't at the time realize is that the Kellogg shooting was just to tip of the iceberg to what was to happen later in the film.
Somewhat over-plotted with a lot of side stories that made the main plot, the cop killing and bank robbery, of the film a bit hard to follow but the top rate acting, especially by Eddie Robinson, and on location filming made "Vice Squad" more then worth watching. There's also Paulette Goddard as the second billed model escort agency owner Mona Ross who also happens to be an old flame of Capt. Barnaby. Goddard was on the screen for such a short period of time that you wondered why she was credited at all! With most of the cast members, not being credited, having more screen time then she did.
There's' also the movie title "Vice Squad" which had nothing really to do with the film since vice was almost nonexistence, with Capt. Barnaby being in the homicide division of the LAPD, in the entire movie. The only vice I could spot in the film was that of the greasy looking gigolo Count Al Fredo Glovannie Mortova, John Verros, who was actually a con man from Cleveland. It's the "Count" who tried to marry, for her money, widow Mrs Lawson under false, in him being a European blue-blood, pretense's.
***SPOILERS*** With Capt. Barnaby getting the jump on Barkis' plan to rob the bank from chickened out, in him scared of being charged with Kellogg's murder, bank robber Marty Kusalich, Adam Williams, the stage was set for a police ambush at the bank robbery site. The plan worked to perfecting with only one slight hitch; Bank teller Miss Easton, Christie White, ending up being kidnapped by Barkis & Monty the only survivors of the blotched bank robbery team. That set things up for Capt. Barnaby and his men to track down the two escaped bank robbers who were only caught with the help of their escaped kidnapped victim the almost legally blind, after accidentally breaking her glasses, Miss Easton.